Apparently there is always SOMEONE/Some group who will be offended by any common term

[Read-Only]

This is purely stupid in my opinion. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...roversy-than-meets-the-eye?lite&lite=obinsite

I carried my lunch to work in a brown bag for many of my earlier working years. My skin is rather dark though I'm neither Black nor Latino. Just an ordinary 'white' guy with naturally dark skin - PLUS you should really see me after I've been outside for several days in a row.

This entire "Political Correctness" thing has simply been carried to irrational levels - and there's apparently no end in sight! I've no doubt that practically ANY word or phrase will be found offensive by someone somewhere.

 

[Saturnine Pariah]

Funny how in America this idiotic nonsense gets massive media attention and yet the product names Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are beloved despite the fact that the two brand names are based upon slave titles that we overlook every day. :shrug:

 

[sideshowbob]

Well, it's a bag and it's brown. Apparently the term has been reverse-engineered to call people with brown skin "brown bags". But banning the term for that reason makes a much sense as banning the word "towel" because "towel head" is used perjoratively. (Let's call if a "drying device" instead.)

Not that discretion should never be used. If a man is holding a paper-bag lunch and has his brown-skinned wife on his arm, you probably shouldn't say, "Hey, you with the brown bag."

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

For some people, the phrase 'brown bag' calls up ugly associations with use of the expression 'brown bag' to determine if people's skin color was light enough to allow admission to an event, a home, etc.

This discriminatory practice at "brown bag parties" thrown by Afro-Americans died out in the 1950s. There are two explanations for the phenomenon, and there's probably truth in both of them. During the era of slavery, slaves had been taught racism, as the lighter-skinned among them were given jobs in the mansion such as caring for the children and helping the lady dress, while the darker ones worked in the fields. Even after Emancipation, lighter-skinned Afro-Americans often got better jobs than the "darkies."

So on the one hand, it was rational of people to want their own children to be lighter-skinned and get the better jobs, so they'd try to choose lighter-skinned partners. And on the other hand, they had observed the darker-skinned Afro-Americans having the menial jobs while the lighter-skinned ones had better education and better jobs, so they'd rather date somebody whom they didn't regard as a social inferior.

In the Civil Rights era, these divisions broke down. Afro-Americans (as well as Mexican- and other hyphenated-Americans) were given advantages by the government in both education and employment, and the government didn't care how "black" they were.

I'd like to hear the opinion of some Afro-Americans regarding the phrase "brown bag." It has been used to mean a lunch you packed at home and brought with you to school or work, for at least fifty years. Meanwhile, both the concept and the practice of the brown bag party faded into obscurity. Only an ultra-liberal would remember them. And I wonder if these guys are even old enough--they probably read about it! We now have people from all over the world in our country, and many of them are just as dark or darker than the average Afro-American.

Raise your hands, anyone who has ever heard President Obama referred to as "high yellow"? That was the color you had to be, in order to be admitted to a brown bag party. Only seriously old folks like me remember that shit!

 

[sideshowbob]

A friend of mine used to have an old gramophone - the kind that played cylinders, not disks. One of the records he had was My Pretty Quadroon.

 

[Rav]

Raise your hands, anyone who has ever heard President Obama referred to as "high yellow"? That was the color you had to be, in order to be admitted to a brown bag party. Only seriously old folks like me remember that shit!

I've definitely heard of him described as "not really black" in the media, although I can't remember exactly where, but I think it related to the precise details of his heritage rather than the specific tone of his skin anyway.

 

[Read-Only]

This discriminatory practice at "brown bag parties" thrown by Afro-Americans died out in the 1950s. There are two explanations for the phenomenon, and there's probably truth in both of them. During the era of slavery, slaves had been taught racism, as the lighter-skinned among them were given jobs in the mansion such as caring for the children and helping the lady dress, while the darker ones worked in the fields. Even after Emancipation, lighter-skinned Afro-Americans often got better jobs than the "darkies."

So on the one hand, it was rational of people to want their own children to be lighter-skinned and get the better jobs, so they'd try to choose lighter-skinned partners. And on the other hand, they had observed the darker-skinned Afro-Americans having the menial jobs while the lighter-skinned ones had better education and better jobs, so they'd rather date somebody whom they didn't regard as a social inferior.

In the Civil Rights era, these divisions broke down. Afro-Americans (as well as Mexican- and other hyphenated-Americans) were given advantages by the government in both education and employment, and the government didn't care how "black" they were.

I'd like to hear the opinion of some Afro-Americans regarding the phrase "brown bag." It has been used to mean a lunch you packed at home and brought with you to school or work, for at least fifty years. Meanwhile, both the concept and the practice of the brown bag party faded into obscurity. Only an ultra-liberal would remember them. And I wonder if these guys are even old enough--they probably read about it! We now have people from all over the world in our country, and many of them are just as dark or darker than the average Afro-American.

Raise your hands, anyone who has ever heard President Obama referred to as "high yellow"? That was the color you had to be, in order to be admitted to a brown bag party. Only seriously old folks like me remember that shit!

Yes, I remember the label "high yellow." (After all, you, Fraggle, are just a few months younger than me.)

In regard to you your first two paragraphs, I witnessed something somewhat related in Alabama in the late 1960s. My wife and her mother had gone into a store to buy something and I was waiting at the curb in my car. A Black woman in her early 30s approached; she had bleached and dyed her hair a rather bright orangish-red. An elderly Black man standing in front of the store watched (intently) her walking in his direction. When she passed, he simply slowly shook his head in obvious disapproval. I must say that I agreed with him about how ridiculous and out-of-place she looked. But I also must add that, for better or worse, she certainly got herself noticed.

Getting back to my reason for starting this thread... I still maintain that the world, or at least the part of it where I live (USA) has gone absolutely NUTS with all this PC business! I detest it because it forces me to think twice before asking a Black customer sales rep in Home Depot where I can find a hoe. Stupid things like that. It's absurd.

 

[Billy T]

I was a leader in the effort to open restaurants in Baltimore. One guy in our main group had the blackest skin I have ever seen. He would sometimes refer to himself as a "Pure Breed" and other blacks a "half breeds," but no one took offense - we had a common cause.

 

[arauca]

Yes, I remember the label "high yellow." (After all, you, Fraggle, are just a few months younger than me.)

In regard to you your first two paragraphs, I witnessed something somewhat related in Alabama in the late 1960s. My wife and her mother had gone into a store to buy something and I was waiting at the curb in my car. A Black woman in her early 30s approached; she had bleached and dyed her hair a rather bright orangish-red. An elderly Black man standing in front of the store watched (intently) her walking in his direction. When she passed, he simply slowly shook his head in obvious disapproval. I must say that I agreed with him about how ridiculous and out-of-place she looked. But I also must add that, for better or worse, she certainly got herself noticed.

Getting back to my reason for starting this thread... I still maintain that the world, or at least the part of it where I live (USA) has gone absolutely NUTS with all this PC business! I detest it because it forces me to think twice before asking a Black customer sales rep in Home Depot where I can find a hoe. Stupid things like that. It's absurd.

Rmember Carmichle . black activist in the 1960 or Mohamed Elija they were trying to uplift the black pride , but it did not go far. Now they have a black president , this should give them more pride of themselves .

 

[Tiassa]

It's Seattle, After All

re: Seattle Office for Civil Rights​

I would only point out that in Seattle, one major arm of the city government—i.e., Seattle Police Department—is in such a contentious argument with the United States government that the various other departments that have to deal with the mess they're making are beside themselves. There was an anecdote floating around last year about the mayor and city attorney nearly coming to blows.

Thus:

(1) This is the Seattle city government you're talking about.

(2) Things are unusually bizarre in Seattle city government right now.​

Everything has a context. Around here, using this as a springboard to complaining about political correctness would just get you rolled eyes from everyone else at the bar.