1523: Corner Donkey

[BrotherWayne]

Originally Posted by fluxquanta

Fuck it, I'm buying a straight razor and a whet stone.

Don't laugh, I really considered that. But it's too much work. Also I can only imagine how fast a woman would run out of my house if she saw a straight razor hanging in my bathroom.

One other bonus: the whole thing (razor and blades) is recyclable when you use safety razors. Plop the razors in a soda can and drop the whole thing in recycling when it's full*.

* I don't know if you can put it in with the regular cans...

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by Bermie Ninja

As for "the Blacks", it's the American Blacks (sorry African-Americans) that keep changing the label, the rest of the world is still ok with Black.

To be fair, I doubt that American blacks chose the original terms Negro or nigger for themselves. It took some time for a term to evolve for them as they culturally navigated their way through a civil rights movement and beyond. And at the end of the day, who fucking cares? Language evolves and changes. Roll with the punches or get left behind.

[fluxquanta]

Originally Posted by BrotherWayne

Don't laugh, I really considered that. But it's too much work. Also I can only imagine how fast a woman would run out of my house if she saw a straight razor hanging in my bathroom.

One other bonus: the whole thing (razor and blades) is recyclable when you use safety razors. Plop the razors in a soda can and drop the whole thing in recycling when it's full*.

* I don't know if you can put it in with the regular cans...

I seriously considered it too. But straight razors are pretty hard to find and the good ones are pretty expensive. Plus, it's a lot of work, as you said, maintaining it.

[Bermie Ninja]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

To be fair, I doubt that American blacks chose the original terms Negro or nigger for themselves. It took some time for a term to evolve for them as they culturally navigated their way through a civil rights movement and beyond. And at the end of the day, who fucking cares? Language evolves and changes. Roll with the punches or get left behind.

I'm not really sure what your point is, I was discussing the use of the labels African American and Black. These are labels that are used interchangeably TODAY. No one is debating the decision to not use Nigger or Negro, I'm not sure how you got confused about that.

[fluxquanta]

Originally Posted by Bermie Ninja

I'm not really sure what your point is, I was discussing the use of the labels African American and Black. These are labels that are used interchangeably TODAY. No one is debating the decision to not use Nigger or Negro, I'm not sure how you got confused about that.

What about colored? That's still okay, right?

[Bermie Ninja]

Originally Posted by fluxquanta

What about colored? That's still okay, right?

Yup! Absolutely! You should use it as much as possible with the help. Let me know how that works out.

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by Bermie Ninja

I'm not really sure what your point is, I was discussing the use of the labels African American and Black. These are labels that are used interchangeably TODAY. No one is debating the decision to not use Nigger or Negro, I'm not sure how you got confused about that.

It's because when you say "keep changing the label," it implies that you're talking about the long history of terms. So now I'm even more surprised that just the two modern terms is just too much bother for you to keep track of. Black tends to be used colloquially. African American has pretty much been relegated to the academic side of conversations. But I guess my main point is, yeah, groups get to decide how they want people to refer to them and they even get to change their minds about it. And sometimes they can't all agree as a group. That's just language for you.

[Bermie Ninja]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

It's because when you say "keep changing the label," it implies that you're talking about the long history of terms. So now I'm even more surprised that just the two modern terms is just too much bother for you to keep track of. Black tends to be used colloquially. African American has pretty much been relegated to the academic side of conversations.

BTW Trey was the one I was responding to because during the Podcast he implied that LGBT people were "getting like the Blacks" with all the labels. It's not too much bother for me to discuss every term used to describe Black Americans, I guess I just assumed that most people understood what they were. I focused on the two that are still being used and the confusion it causes because they are used interchangeably. The confusion is especially difficult when people are trying to do the PC thing outside the U.S.A. where the use of the word Black is used academically and colloquially.
I realize that language is changing and evolving and I'm not passing judgement on what labels Black Americans choose, I'm just stating that it can be confusing.

[Blitzgal]

It's cool. I guess I just don't see it as being all that different than any social interaction -- we're always making split second decisions about what is and isn't appropriate to say in a certain circumstance. We speak differently around our bosses and strangers than we do our friends and family, etc. When in doubt, I say African American, but I've never once had anyone challenge me on my choice, not even in my liberal arts college where the vegans were so militant they flipped out if someone sat at their table with meat on their tray in the cafeteria. I think African American has mostly given way to black as a term of choice in America as well. Yes, I'm a language nerd.

[Jessica332]

You know what's wrong about all these labels? What do we call this person or that? The labels are wrong. Why the fuck do we care who you are dating or what the fuck color you are and because of who you are dating or the color of your skin what you want to be called. I don't get over it. You are a person to me and that is it. The only thing I do care about with any of this is everyone has the same rights. I work in a daycare and we have a lot of same sex parents. The one thing that bothers me is they don't have the same rights as the opposite sex parents. At the daycare we view them the same but there are laws that keep them from being recognized as both being parents.