Sometimes... you surprise me.
[as seen on my myspace blog]
I just wanted to post some stuff a friend of mine (Nick) said to a bunch of us in an e-mail today. For every 100 times someone utters something ridiculously depressing (for me), 1 person will come around and unexpectedly prove that humanity is not lost-- reviving my hope in the world. Thanks, Nick. It is so refreshing, I cannot even tell you how much.
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So here's something I would like some opinions on. Over a polite poker game Saturday night we were discussing the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the Manager of the Chicago White Sox (a baseball team), called a sports reporter a fag because Ozzie didn't like what the guy wrote about the White Sox. Ozzie's exact quote was: "What a piece of shit he is, a fucking fag."
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Mariotti#Ozzie_Guillen)
Ozzie Guillen has been forced to take sensitivity classes by Major League Baseball as punishment, but the table-talk disagreement came when we were considering how bad a word fag is.
My opinion is that fag is as awful a word, when used in a derogatory context, as the word nigger. My opinion was not supported by the group. It might not be 100% as awful because of the lesser extent to which prejudice against homosexuals has been overtly formalized in society, but it's close enough to be in the same category of words.
In fact, to prove I'm open to considering a non-awfully offensive interpretation of the word, I've been trying to come up with a word or group of words to take the #2 slot on a list of the most offensive words behind nigger and in front of fag, but I can't think of any. There's the full spectrum of identifying racial slurs: spic, jew, chink, guinea, WOP, spud-sucking fuckers who ought to be sent back hoooooome, but I see those words as being as awful as calling someone a faggot. I find insulting a person's sexual preference no less disgusting than insulting their racial characteristics.
I just wanted to post some stuff a friend of mine (Nick) said to a bunch of us in an e-mail today. For every 100 times someone utters something ridiculously depressing (for me), 1 person will come around and unexpectedly prove that humanity is not lost-- reviving my hope in the world. Thanks, Nick. It is so refreshing, I cannot even tell you how much.
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So here's something I would like some opinions on. Over a polite poker game Saturday night we were discussing the fact that Ozzie Guillen, the Manager of the Chicago White Sox (a baseball team), called a sports reporter a fag because Ozzie didn't like what the guy wrote about the White Sox. Ozzie's exact quote was: "What a piece of shit he is, a fucking fag."
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Mariotti#Ozzie_Guillen)
Ozzie Guillen has been forced to take sensitivity classes by Major League Baseball as punishment, but the table-talk disagreement came when we were considering how bad a word fag is.
My opinion is that fag is as awful a word, when used in a derogatory context, as the word nigger. My opinion was not supported by the group. It might not be 100% as awful because of the lesser extent to which prejudice against homosexuals has been overtly formalized in society, but it's close enough to be in the same category of words.
In fact, to prove I'm open to considering a non-awfully offensive interpretation of the word, I've been trying to come up with a word or group of words to take the #2 slot on a list of the most offensive words behind nigger and in front of fag, but I can't think of any. There's the full spectrum of identifying racial slurs: spic, jew, chink, guinea, WOP, spud-sucking fuckers who ought to be sent back hoooooome, but I see those words as being as awful as calling someone a faggot. I find insulting a person's sexual preference no less disgusting than insulting their racial characteristics.