if it's not right in front of you, it's easy to overlook

[silveraspen]

I called out sick to work today, and now some unspecified number of hours later it occurs to me that I could use this time to check in on a few things that I've been "meaning to" do and haven't had on the actual charted-time version of a calendar that currently structures my life

Comments

[gao]

I definitely think daily_deviant is in the wrong here, but this whole event makes me think a lot about how people think and process things, especially with regard to language, in this case. (Thanks to Viv, for getting me on this kick at Millicon!)

I was just thinking about this situation, which is a frustrating one, and what I was thinking was, why is it so hard for them to accept that words mean things? And because it's me this was a temporary derailment into descriptivist and prescriptivist linguistics

[silveraspen]

Long it may be, but it's welcome discourse -- no need to apologize!

And that's a very interesting point, that it's the message behind the word that matters and not the term itself.

Of course, it makes me want to take certain people and shake them by the proverbial shirt-collar to point out that the word chosen carries a message of its own.

[tigerlilyaj]

Am disgusted. My eyes rolled out of my head when DD tried to cite Wiki as a bona fide source, but then I read the Wiki entry and it does not support their claims at all and was much better. Why do you think 46% of people who call themselves "Hispanic" also called themselves "white" on the US Census? Because the average Anglo American sees them that way? Absolutely not. Because they can trace 100% of their ancestors to Europe? Ha! They *wish* to be seen that way because of the Portuguese and Spanish caste systems the Wiki entry mentioned, where "miscengenation" has plenty of negative connotations to it, no matter what the DD mods might claim. "White" is best, and having anything else there, wholly or as part of oneself, is to be Lower

[silveraspen]

ITA. It is not neutral, it is the furthest thing from, and to claim it so is infuriating and reprehensible.

Reading over the list news, I find that the mods in question have now issued a retraction and admission of error. This is a start, at least.

[tigerlilyaj]

Eh, unless they put something new up since this afternoon, it was a defensive, "we stand by our earlier 'defamation' claim, or at least we aren't really apologizing to witchqueen" retraction of the term. Yes, better than nothing, and I was glad to see the people who cheered the move, but hardly displaying a true understanding of the term's real weight.
And then there was the lovely responder who claimed "black people" like to wave the "race card" on non-issues like this just for attention and to get their way.

[silveraspen]

Looks like not only are you right, but it's worse than that.

I really hate seeing the stupid side of fandom. Or anything, really.

[nepheliad]

Your posts on issues like these always impress me.

I think that's all I've got to add, since I've never been in Potter fandom but I have many dear friends who are, and who are affected by this.

And I'm pointing them at you, too, because you sum it up very, very well in your last paragraph-and-line.

[silveraspen]

Thank you! And if you want to read more good, articulate commentary on matters like this, I direct you to people like witchqueen, coffeeandink, and oyceter.

Feel free to link, point, and distribute; I welcome discussion, always.

[vureoelt]

... I think I may have heard that term used once previously, if at all. It sounds vaguely familiar, at least.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't think humanity will ever truly escape that pattern of thinking without a cataclysmic shift in thought process. The best we can hope is that it is universally recognized as wrong and encourage people to do better.

Props for doing just that.

[silveraspen]

Many apologies for this response being so belated!

You're not alone in being unfamiliar with the term, it turns out, from what I was seeing as I read.

I don't know if humanity's default outlook will change in our lifetime; I expect that it won't, because there are thousands of years of history weighted on the other side. Still, as you said, recognizing it as wrong and striving for better is a worthy goal; if we do not aim for the stars, we will never reach even the sky.

[vureoelt]

No worries. I know how it goes.

I suppose the general unfamiliarity is promising in a way...