Oh, for the love of .... (NY and the Nigger)

[Tiassa]

Source: GuardianUnlimited
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2023817,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1
Title: "New York city council bans use of the N-word", by Ed Pilkington
Date: March 1, 2007​

I used a British source for two reasons: I heard it first on BBC's international broadcast, and, frankly, it's good to have some foreign perspective on this:

New York banned the word nigger yesterday in a symbolic crackdown on the widespread use of the term in hip-hop songs, in films, and on the city's streets.

The city council voted unanimously 49-0 in favour of a motion to encourage New Yorkers to stop using the word and to learn its racist provenance. The resolution carries no sanctions and is designed to lead by example rather than through penalties; it is the latest move in an argument raging across the US over the common use of the word, especially in the black community, where it has morphed into a slang word similar to "mate" ....

.... Though the moratorium is purely symbolic, it has raised the hackles of champions of the first amendment, who oppose any attempt to involve government in regulating speech.

Robert Richards, of the Pennsylvania Centre for the First Amendment, said it "seemed a waste of government resources to pass resolutions that have no impact. It's just a feel-good move for the New York city council."

Finding something offensive was not enough to overcome the first amendment right to free speech, Mr Richards said, pointing to the supreme court's decision to uphold the right to burn the American flag, and its ruling that a man resisting military conscription had the right to wear a jacket in court saying "fuck the draft". (GuardianUnlimited) ​

Okay, look ... I officially move that we pass a motion banning the use of the word "transition" as a verb. It offends my eyes, ears, and sensibilities, since it nullifies several perfectly good, diverse words: transform, transmute, transfer, transmogrify, transport, transcend ... any one of them can be replaced by "transition". I mean, the upshot is that you'll know the pop-culture harmonic convergence when you hear someone say, "And then, I don't know, man, it was like I went somewhere ... I transitioned to another plane."

All in favor? No penalties, no penalties. See, it doesn't mean you're sanctioned for using "transition" as a verb. It just means you're a bad person. You're breaking the law. See? Which, of course, becomes a reason for denying your First Amendment rights. This could be the first time since Jim Crow that it's been a crime to be a nigger-lover.

Now that New York has set the trend, 'tis time to transition ourselves into the new age .... I mean, whoops. See? Fuck me.

Oh, wait: All in favor of banning the phrase, "Fuck me"?

 

[Prince_James]

As a New Yorker, I do declare:

Nigger, nigger, nigger.

And a big nigger to that, good sir.

 

[Baron Max]

Oh, my god! Humans just keep gettin' stranger and stranger, don't they?

What is it? Something in the water? Something they eat?

Baron Max

 

[swivel]

This will just make the word more popular.

And the West Coast rappers have officially won.

 

[Roman]

Nigger what?

 

[nicholas1M7]

The province of rebellion is initiated by authority figures who deludedly express or attempt excessive force on a law that is clearly impossible to uphold. This triggers psychological rebellion and thus tension amongst the masses as a reaction to feeling suppressed by the self-appointed fools of authority who think they have control over basic human impulses. An unplanned approach to dystopian thought control.

 

[Oxygen]

Violation of the First Amendment. They tried this in a smaller town, somewhere in Texas or thereabouts. A black guy at the city council meeting expressed his outrage at the proposed banning of the word, telling the council not to presume to get offended on his behalf when he wasn't offended by the word at all. He had been calling himself a nigger for years and was disgusted that they were trying to stop his freedom to call himself that. The council rescinded the motion immediately.