Rather more about training in the social subleties of the English:
The headmistress at a top boarding school has “unreservedly apologised” for using the word “negro” in an assembly as a wave of protests by black pupils against “white privilege” sweeps across schools at the end of Black History Month.
Samantha Price, 46, headmistress at Benenden, the Kent girls’ boarding school where Princess Anne was a pupil, was explaining to pupils the origins of the month in 1926. At the time it was, according to Wikipedia, called “Negro History Week” in America, she said.
Some of the senior girls protested about her use of the word, fearing that other pupils would think they were also entitled to use a word some find as offensive as the n-word.
So, I suppose the standards are being upheld there then.
And boy are these birds going to get a shock when they read Huck Finn.
can’t beat a good stoning even if she did say Jehova.
“And boy are these birds going to get a shock when they read Huck Finn”
They won’t read it.
Some of the senior girls protested about her use of the word, fearing that other pupils would think they were also entitled to use a word some find as offensive as the n-word.
Some of the senior girls should have been told to shut the fuck up.
You can’t call someone Pakistani because Paki is offensive. What?
At least she wasn’t niggardly with her apology.
Anyway, why is there an entire month devoted to the history of people who never invented anything except (indirectly) the bike lock? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
30 years ago it was a dammed good school with a strong sense of and pride in its history. I can understand the state sector going tits up but how the hell has it happened so quickly in places like Benenden?
MC October 25, 2020 at 9:46 am – “Some of the senior girls should have been told to shut the fuck up.”
Any school that does not take the opportunity to tell these girls to shut the fuck up is ripping their parents off. Even if the school is free. This should have been a Learning Moment.
Around my neck of the woods, the term retarded went out of fashion a long time ago. The Yoof are encouraged to call them “Special Needs” children I believe. So now they call each other “F*cking Specials”.
The problem is that they are still retarded and no one wants to be retarded no matter what label you put on it.
In the same way, Black people may or may not be judged by the colour of their skin but they definitely will be judged by the content of their character. Which means no matter what nice tern you put on it, no one wants to be Black.
Negro started out as a polite euphemism to replaced Coloured People. Which turn was a polite euphemism. Stokely Carmichael objected and insisted on Black. Which was a less polite euphemism. Jessie Jackson objected and wanted African American.
But in the end, we are where we are. All that has changed is that the media wants to convince us that being African American is a good thing. Maybe that will work. I suggest we leap forward to a new and better euphemism. I suggest we copy the Sikhs and call every Black man a Lion and every Black woman a Princess. We will still be where we are today.
And no one will want their child to grow up to be a Lion.
“And boy are these birds going to get a shock when they read Huck Finn”
They won’t read it.
Not the unexpurgated version anyway. Fairly soon, if it hasn’t started already, there’s going to be a new industry publishing classics with all the “offensive” bits rewritten. The best bit is they’ll be able to rewrite the rewrites as what’s termed offensive changes.
Perhaps we will return to a society where some jobs are for life.
“Anyway, why is there an entire month devoted to the history of people”
History is written. There are no sub-Saharan written languages. ‘Black history’ is a lie.
There are blacks in British and American history.
Wasn’t there a book written where the job of the main character was exactly that?
and rich people pay to have their daughters educated at this place? …more money than sense.
“the term retarded went out of fashion a long time ago”: was it ever a common part of British English? When I was nipper the poor buggers were called mental defectives.
You can’t call someone Pakistani because Paki is offensive.</b?
Pointed this out before. For years the official car of the Pakistani High Commissioner rode around with the number plate PAK1. And if it's good enough for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan it's good enough for me.
“offensive” bits rewritten. – even a word for it: bowdlerised. .
And boy are these birds going to get a shock when they read Huck Finn.
Or the 2012 film “Red Tails”, in which the black characters join in saying “negro” when asked their preference.
Short clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmB9p4EA1gQ
Is Conrad still being published?
@ Tim
1984.
It was intended as a dreadful warning (written as a satire) but the woke use it as a training manual
Wasn’t there a book written where the job of the main character was exactly that?
Yep, senior moment there. I’d like to think it was the first and only one of the day, but that’s not the way to bet.
Chris Miller
For how much longer? Wikipedia:
‘In 1975 the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe published an essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness'”, which provoked controversy by calling Conrad a “thoroughgoing racist”. Achebe’s view was that Heart of Darkness cannot be considered a great work of art because it is “a novel which celebrates… dehumanisation, which depersonalises a portion of the human race.”…Achebe also cited Conrad’s description of an encounter with an African: “A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days.” Achebe’s essay, a landmark in postcolonial discourse, provoked debate, and the questions it raised have been addressed in most subsequent literary criticism of Conrad.
‘Achebe’s critics argue that he fails to distinguish Marlow’s view from Conrad’s, which results in very clumsy interpretations of the novella. In their view, Conrad portrays Africans sympathetically and their plight tragically, and refers sarcastically to, and condemns outright, the supposedly noble aims of European colonists…’
Hope none of them are learning Spanish
“there’s going to be a new industry publishing classics with all the “offensive” bits rewritten. ”
Already exists.. You don’t think that Grimm’s stories read to children are the real deal? Or, for that matter, the bible? Disney’s even worse that that..
The industry has existed since the 19thC, when the old biddies worried about “propriety” took over.
No. There wasn’t. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop saying there was. *Comrade*.
blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal
A familiar description to anyone who’s lived in the Sarf or East London ‘hood…
When did the word ‘Negro’ become illegal? And why wasn’t I informed?
‘Black’ is okay. Spanish for black isn’t. Go figure.
‘Black’ is okay. Spanish for black isn’t. Go figure.
And don’t dare talk about the Chinese pause word (our equivalent of “umm”)
Gamecock October 25, 2020 at 9:09 pm – “‘Black’ is okay. Spanish for black isn’t. Go figure.”
Wasn’t there a footballer who got in trouble because he muttered something about an opponent in his native Spanish which included the Spanish word for “Black”?
Although when the Spanish coach tried to motivate one of his players by calling him “negro de mierda”, I think we can safely say there was some racism involved. He denied it.
Theophrastus October 25, 2020 at 5:26 pm – “Achebe’s view was that Heart of Darkness cannot be considered a great work of art because it is “a novel which celebrates… dehumanisation, which depersonalises a portion of the human race.”…”
So a novel has to be leftist agitprop to be great? I am happy to assume Conrad was a racist. I don’t much like Brussels Sprouts and Dostoyevsky was not big on Leftists.
We all have our little foibles. I don’t see why that detracts from Conrad’s books. Most of which I cannot stand. Bloody Poles. Coming to Britain, taking all our jobs.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nigger-Narcissus-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141441704/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=joseph+conrad&qid=1603673853&s=books&sr=1-5
In my day the specials were Joeys – named after the unfortunate Joey Deacon, of Blue Peter infamy.
It’s been reported that the parents of the girls are siding with the headmistress. If they are, why aren’t they teaching their own children the important things about life leaving the school to just do the real education.
So negro became coloured became black became African American became BAME. Now even BAME is considered by some to be offensive. What’s next? Negro?
“Colored people” rejected; “people of color” accepted.
It’s a big silly game.
I must admit, I do get a little tense when I see Tim write “Snigger” as a headline for some of his posts.
Always good to scroll past that a bit when in America.