(Untitled)

[benchilada]

John McCain hates gooks.

Comments

[primavera]

Um, yeah.

[evil_egg]

Well, they speak very highly of him.

[ar901]

*sigh

[mei_yanohi]

I don't think you can blow off the power of language that easily, especially when it comes to someone who is trying to be the leader of our country being so blasé about the highly offensive terms he's using.

[tim_x]

Words are just words, and any power they have we give to them as a society.

They are both the most benign an most powerful tools we have as a species. I don't think you can ever underestimate the power of words.

That said, we as Americans are awfully touchy about "curse" words and vulgar slang.

*shrug*

That's what you get when you live in a country "founded" by Puritans.

[mei_yanohi]

I don't think racial slurs are in the same category as 'curse' words or other vulgar slang, though. Slurs against peoples have an oppressive power attached to them that not all members of the oppressed group have the critical awareness to disregard, and I don't think those members should be blamed for that. I also don't believe it should always fall on the oppressed to disregard or dis-empower the oppressors, but that the oppressors should develop their own critical awareness and stop their own use of such slurs.

I don't think McCain is using the term 'gooks' because he's thinking "Fuck this Puritanical system that gives too much power to simple words," which is the way minority groups use reclaimed terms (it's the way I, as a queer, use the word 'dyke' to describe myself). I think he's using it because he's thinking "Fuck those goddamn gooks." And that's bullshit.

[mei_yanohi]

Fuck! I'm linking my f-list to this (even though they're pretty much all liberals anyway)

[voideng]

I might be a bit irritable if I was tortured for 5 and a half years. I am not gonig to vote for him, but I am going to give him a pass on this one.

[mei_yanohi]

The difference is that the KKK is not a race of people. We can assume that KKK members are all guilty of racism. We cannot assume that all Vietnamese people are guilty of torturing McCain.