I don't have a mission statement for my blog. If I did, it would be "Get as many eyeballs to read this so I can become rich and famous". My auxiliary mission statement would be "Inform my readers and maybe crack some booger jokes".
Well, today, my dear readers, I going to inform you of something so vile, something so terrible, something so awful, that if you made the mistake of uttering these four vile, terrible, and awful words/phrases you would be canceled.
Before I go any further, I must tell you what being canceled means.
Being canceled means, according to our betters at The New York Times, "withdrawing from someone whose expression — whether political, artistic or otherwise — was once welcome or at least tolerated, but no longer is."
The most recent example of this is when the CEO of a Mexican bean company said nice things about President Trump. The main vehicle for canceling is, of course, Twitter. Twitter got a hold of this awful deed and soon a boycott was announced of a bean company. This CEO had to go on TV and remind consumers that he said nice things about President Obama, too.
The point being "the cancel culture" is getting out of hand, so much so that Harper's magazine printed a letter signed by many, many smart people (none of whom I would say voted for Trump) stating people should engage in a free exchange of ideas and tolerate other views.
To nobody's surprise, this was controversial on Twitter.
Okay, I've delayed this long enough. The following are four words/phrases you should not utter:
- Peanut gallery
- Eenie meenie miney moe
- Gyp
- No can do
Says who? Says "The Angry Grammarian" of The Philadephia Inquirer. To be fair, here is a link to the article: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/racist-phrases-origins-language-20200610.html
The article starts off with an editor's note, sort of like when on TV when they want to warn you about something graphic in nature. The editor said, " Please be aware offensive terms are repeated here solely for the purpose of identifying and unpacking them honestly. These terms may upset some readers."
I must admit I was sort of disappointed in the four words/phrases. I was a teenager when George Carlin used to do his routine "Seven Words You Can't Say On Television". Now those were some words. If Mr. Carlin was alive today, his bit would be titled "Seven Words You Have To Say On A Showtime or HBO program"
I thought "Peanut Gallery" came from "The Howdy Doody Show". They had kids sitting on bleachers as an audience and adults used to refer to kids as "peanuts" back then. Nope, it has a nefarious origin so out you go "Peanut Gallery" and don't let the door hit you in the back.
"Eenie meenie miney moe" comes from a Kipling poem and Kipling uses a bad word about catching someone by the toe and if he hollers let him go. Society has changed Kipling's phrase to something nicer but that doesn't matter. Down the memory hole, you go, Eenie meenie miney moe!
I had heard "Gyp" was a pejorative last year, so at least I was a step ahead of The Angry Grammarian on this one. I was made aware of a social situation of a group of young adults in which a guy said he felt "gypped" by a product he bought. This caused a young lady to go into full Millenial Lecture Mode explaining how offended she was that he would use such a slur.
The Angry Grammarian says, "America has an ignoble history of taking ethnic, religious, or racial identifiers and repurposing them as negative actions and attributes. The fact that gyp — which refers to bilking, flimflamming, or bamboozling—is short for gypsy should tell you all you need to know about its offensiveness."
Up until last year, I was totally unaware that gyp is short for gypsy. I know that is no excuse and I fling myself at the mercy of the cancel culture not to cancel me. From now on, I will say "bilking, flimflamming, or bamboozling". You should too if you don't want to have to move to a van down by the river to live.
The last phrase, "No Can Do" supposedly makes fun of Asians but I can't go for that. Personally, I think The Angry Grammarian just has something against Hall and Oates.
Is there any hope for us? The Angry Grammarian says "Can these words and phrases ever shed their racist origins? Language changes constantly, and we should account for the possibility". Wow, what an admission.
He continues, "But before we let any of them out of word purgatory, we need to scrutinize why they mean what they mean, and if we’re truly comfortable with everything those definitions imply."
My advice: quit talking. It gets you into a lot of trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment