Black Holes and Raging Idiots
This video is so painfully funny I don't know whether it's actually funny, or just downright painful. Like- "Science and Vocabulary Police" painful.
If you're somewhere where you're unable to watch the video, here's what happens in it:
There's this meeting going on in Dallas someplace where you've got a bunch of guys sitting around a table talking about parking tickets coming in and then not being processed correctly and just... disappearing. One of the guys says the place they're going is like "a black hole" because of the way they all come in and then disappear like things do when they get sucked into a black hole.
All of a sudden two black members of the conversation start getting on that guy, some local white guy, saying that "black hole" is a racist term and demanding an apology and asking how he can say something so insulting at a table "with so much diversity represented" and blah blah blah. (Sorry, but where I come from, if you're going to say something racist then you're a jerk, no matter what all different groups are within earshot of your racist ass.)
The local news guy reporting the story talks with one of the two offended guys outside to ask him about his thoughts on the issue. The offended guy compares the white guy's use of "black hole" to his own hypothetical use of the phrase "Jew you down" and goes on to say they're equally inappropriate.
From Wikipedia: "A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. The term "Black Hole" comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole's interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself."
From Urban Dictionary: "jew you up: To totally f*** someone else up." and "Jew'd: also spelled "jewed", this slang term for being cheated or outdone in trade came from the stereotype of the Jewish people as shrewd bargainers and pennypinchers. Not recommended to use this term in front of a member of the religion, as they may be quite offended."
See how they're the same? A scientific term and an ethnic slur: Totally the same thing. Yup. Totally.
I was reading a blog the other day about a similar "town hall meeting" type situation where there was a group of folks discussing budgetary concerns and one of the people said he was tired of his opponent's "niggardly behavior" towards spending more money on area schools.
The opponent became outraged at this blatant use of what he thought was a racist epithet, especially in a public situation like this.
From Wikipedia: ""Niggardly" is an adjective meaning "stingy" or "miserly", related to the Norwegian verb nigle. It is cognate with "niggling", meaning "petty" or "unimportant", as in "the niggling details"."
For goodness' sake, folks. Read a book.
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My dad is talking in very technical terms with his foreman, entirely in Spanish, in the other room. Sometimes I forget he can do that.
He just asked me how to say "shrink" in Spanish. *shrugs* I 'unno. The best I can come up with online is "encoger." Carlos buys that.
If you're somewhere where you're unable to watch the video, here's what happens in it:
There's this meeting going on in Dallas someplace where you've got a bunch of guys sitting around a table talking about parking tickets coming in and then not being processed correctly and just... disappearing. One of the guys says the place they're going is like "a black hole" because of the way they all come in and then disappear like things do when they get sucked into a black hole.
All of a sudden two black members of the conversation start getting on that guy, some local white guy, saying that "black hole" is a racist term and demanding an apology and asking how he can say something so insulting at a table "with so much diversity represented" and blah blah blah. (Sorry, but where I come from, if you're going to say something racist then you're a jerk, no matter what all different groups are within earshot of your racist ass.)
The local news guy reporting the story talks with one of the two offended guys outside to ask him about his thoughts on the issue. The offended guy compares the white guy's use of "black hole" to his own hypothetical use of the phrase "Jew you down" and goes on to say they're equally inappropriate.
From Wikipedia: "A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. The term "Black Hole" comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole's interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself."
From Urban Dictionary: "jew you up: To totally f*** someone else up." and "Jew'd: also spelled "jewed", this slang term for being cheated or outdone in trade came from the stereotype of the Jewish people as shrewd bargainers and pennypinchers. Not recommended to use this term in front of a member of the religion, as they may be quite offended."
See how they're the same? A scientific term and an ethnic slur: Totally the same thing. Yup. Totally.
I was reading a blog the other day about a similar "town hall meeting" type situation where there was a group of folks discussing budgetary concerns and one of the people said he was tired of his opponent's "niggardly behavior" towards spending more money on area schools.
The opponent became outraged at this blatant use of what he thought was a racist epithet, especially in a public situation like this.
From Wikipedia: ""Niggardly" is an adjective meaning "stingy" or "miserly", related to the Norwegian verb nigle. It is cognate with "niggling", meaning "petty" or "unimportant", as in "the niggling details"."
For goodness' sake, folks. Read a book.
************************************************************
My dad is talking in very technical terms with his foreman, entirely in Spanish, in the other room. Sometimes I forget he can do that.
He just asked me how to say "shrink" in Spanish. *shrugs* I 'unno. The best I can come up with online is "encoger." Carlos buys that.