So, for those of you who are living in a cave, South Park did an episode about "The F Word." Which I originally thought would be them finally getting to say
fuck on the show, but apparently not. The kids refer to a bunch of obnoxious Harley riders as fags. The whole town goes through a process of redefining
faggot to mean annoying bikers. Aside from being a pretty funny show, it makes a pretty good point.
And then the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has to open their big fat mouths and be a bunch of faggots.
I mean, seriously. Can you go represent someone else? If there's any better way to prove that some gay people are still perfectly capable of being obnoxious, stereotyped, whiny nuisances, GLAAD will find it. Instead of having a sense of humor, and actually capitalizing on an opportunity to take a so-called slur down a peg, they put it right back up on a pedestal as "a hateful slur that is often part of the harassment, bullying and violence that gay people, and gay youth in particular, experience on a daily basis in this country."
South Park's episode a couple seasons back, "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson," did pretty much the same thing with the word
nigger, but not quite as eloquently. However, there was hope in that the word was matched to the category "People who annoy you." I don't know where I heard it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't think of these two sayings myself:
"There are gay people, and there are faggots."
"There are black people, and there are niggers."
It's a noble attempt by some members of our generation (and I don't know who, specifically, or how widespread this movement is) to separate the slur to only apply to the segment of the minority in question that, continually, sets the negative stereotype. The people who annoy you. The flaming, leather strap wearing, makeup wearing, assless chaps wearing, limp wristed person who can't stop saying "Bitch, please." The heroin junkie who buys a couple 40's with his last welfare dollar and says "Why you ain’t, Where you is," and so on (the last part borrowed from Bill Cosby's rant). Although the former example is a stretch, they're both things that you technically could see from the straight white man just as easily - and it would be just as obnoxious. And in that case I could see myself calling the straight white person a faggot or nigger because in this day and age, "damn fool" doesn't really mean anything anymore. I think it would be a remarkable step forward for each group to embrace this philosophy (and damn if the blacks, at least, haven't done so - how many times have you seen one black person say to another, "
what's up, nigga?"). When the word no longer offends, it's no longer a weapon.
Of course it is very difficult to talk about words that offend when I don't really have any words that offend me. There's a few things people could say to actually offend me and words like "faggot" or "queer" or "honky" or "cracker" aren't on the list. They have no effect on me at all. Either I have a thick skin or I lack some sort of context. I suppose being gay or black in the 50's or the 20's was a lot harder than it is today, but in 2009 there's not nearly the social divide we saw back then. We have a half-black, half-white president for crying out loud (and I voted for him... after Ron Paul lost). Even gay people are mixed into society - I just learned about B.D. Wong from Law & Order (who apparently they made gay on the show too). Things are pretty good and, honestly, you can judge hate by people's actions a lot better than whether they use or don't use one word. A lot of the people who run this country (*cough* the Republicans *cough*) use perfectly polite language with subtle undertones that suggest some downright scary hostility - like when Trent Lott said, "Yeah, [homosexuality is a sin]. In America right now there's an element that want to make that alternative lifestyle acceptable. You still love that person and you should not try to mistreat them or treat them as outcasts. You should try to show them a way to deal with that problem, just like alcohol ..." (Trent Lott was rumored to have resigned to avoid being outed by his male prostitute.)
With all that in mind, can all you minorities come up with something for white people that actually stings a bit? I think
sheeple is remarkably apt. Whites are stereotypically nothing if not disgustingly alike and lacking in contribution to society or independent thought. And sheep are nothing if not pigmentationally white... I may be on to something.
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