Language "outrage" in the US

[JaDanketies]

If JaDanketies softly coos the n-word into his sleeping child's ear in the woods where there's no black people around to hear it, is it racist?

No. It's racist if your motivation of using the word is to disparage or offend black people. We already know context is meaningless to you and that you get mad if anyone suggests it is meaningful. I suppose you think me screaming it at some black kid who walks past my house is just as bad as me singing along to a song.

[Bazooka]

"The way we heard it in class was indicative of a much more hurtful word with tremendous implications for the Black community," wrote the students, who identified themselves as Black M.B.A. Candidates c/o 2022. "There are over 10,000 characters in the Chinese written language and to use this phrase, a clear synonym with this derogatory N-Word term, is hurtful and unacceptable to our USC Marshall community. The negligence and disregard displayed by our professor was very clear in today's class."

The students said some of them had voiced their concern to Patton during his lecture, but that he'd used the word in following class sections anyway. They also said they'd reached out to fellow Chinese students, who "confirmed that the pronunciation of this word is much different than what Professor Patton described in class. The word is most commonly used with a pause in between both syllables."

Less than a week into their graduate school journey, the students added, "were made to feel less than ... We are burdened to fight with our existence in society, in the workplace, and in America. We should not be made to fight for our sense of peace and mental well-being at Marshall."

Several days later, Garrett, dean of the business school, sent students an email saying that Patton was being replaced as instructor of the course, effective immediately.

"It is simply unacceptable for faculty to use words in class that can marginalize, hurt and harm the psychological safety of our students," Garrett wrote. Patton "repeated several times a Chinese word that sounds very similar to a vile racial slur in English. Understandably, this caused great pain and upset among students, and for that I am deeply sorry."

If anyone sees some lost spines thrashing around, the owners have been identified.

[Better Midlands]

Why is everyone avoiding the elephant in the room that speaking a foreign language is cultural appropriation of the highest order?

[Bazooka]

Why us everyone avoiding the elephant in the room that speaking a foreign language is cultural appropriation of the highest order?

Good point, and I'm surprised they released this video only, and not the one where he taught the class wearing a China man's hat.

[Zetetic]

yeah but it's less fun than having a good old whine about 'cancel culture'

In fairness, it seems to be a lot of fun.

[Dusty Substance]

MANDARIN IS CANCELLED

That's a pity, the first season was the best Star Wars thing for years.

[Shit Good Nose]

That's a pity, the first season was the best Star Wars thing for years.

It's also one of my favourite fruits.  Oh well, have to change to cuntfruit now.

[bgmnts]

Watched this twice this afternoon, it's so fucking outrageous. The teacher saying "Can you lend a n**** a pencil?" made me burst out laughing from pure shock. I can't believe that guy actually exists.

Surely "can you lend an n-word a pencil?"

[thenoise]

No. It's racist if your motivation of using the word is to disparage or offend black people. We already know context is meaningless to you and that you get mad if anyone suggests it is meaningful. I suppose you think me screaming it at some black kid who walks past my house is just as bad as me singing along to a song.

If you are using it to patronise women and excuse being a wife beating cunt on dubious cultural grounds, best to ask some random black politician 'permission' first.

"Can I call my Japanese wife a n*#@$ please?"

[The Mollusk]

No. It's racist if your motivation of using the word is to disparage or offend black people. We already know context is meaningless to you and that you get mad if anyone suggests it is meaningful. I suppose you think me screaming it at some black kid who walks past my house is just as bad as me singing along to a song.

Very odd thing to say. I'm glad to occupy a space where I'm not alone in thinking your opinions are truly bizarre and short-sighted.

Context is very meaningful to me. The context of whether a white person or a black person says the word. It's really quite simple, and your inability to grasp that is baffling.

[Johnny Yesno]

Isn't a teacher's job is to teach people?  Isn't that the primary goal?  Does that mean simply repeating the subject without thought to the students?  Is a teacher keeping their job, irrespective of how much thought they put into teaching (by considering how what they say and do will affect their students) the ultimate concern?

How would you give this example of a filler word in a lecture? I don't thing prefacing it with a warning is the panacea you think it is. Given that the words are completely unrelated, drawing attention to the similarity in sound is arguably worse, and if he was doing it in bad faith, then he'd simply use the warning to further his agenda.

There are similarities with the pronunciation of Uranus here. Do you risk the mirth of the students at the back or do you go for the alternative pronunciation? Will those students titter anyway because they've noticed your very obvious strategy?

[JaDanketies]

Very odd thing to say. I'm glad to occupy a space where I'm not alone in thinking your opinions are truly bizarre and short-sighted.

Context is very meaningful to me. The context of whether a white person or a black person says the word. It's really quite simple, and your inability to grasp that is baffling.

That's not what I meant by context. Whether or not it's a white person saying it. Candace Owens saying it to describe black people Vs Noam Chomsky discussing it lingistically. You'd think it was more acceptable for white supremacist black woman Candace Owens to use it to her audience of white Nazis than Chomsky using it in front of staid academics. Candace Owens can use it to describe black people she doesn't like, for the purpose of advocating white supremacy, and it's not my place to criticise her use of the word cos she is black and I am not. And you call me myopic

[solidified gruel merchant]

"What would life be without...."
"IMMIGRATION"
"....it's complicated!"

[Inspector Norse]

Isn't the word for sale in Swedish "Slut". Saw that plastered on the shop windows in Stockholm and thought I was quids in

"Slut"[nb]pronounced "slute"[/nb] is "end", while "sale" is "rea" - might have been "slutrea", ie "final sale" that you saw.

Or they were just brothels advertising in English

[Bernice]

If anyone sees some lost spines thrashing around, the owners have been identified.

I find it troubling that a group of students on a communication course don't know their synonyms from their homophones. Cancel their prof for that alone.

[Johnny Yesno]

I find it troubling that a group of students on a communication course don't know their synonyms from their homophones. Cancel their prof for that alone.

Ha, that's a good point.

[Crisps?]

He could presumably choose an example from multiple languages, but settled on the one that sounds exactly like n**ger. And after being called out over it, years after someone suggested it to him, he tries to deny he even noticed the similarity with n**ger. He knew exactly what he was doing.

[Johnny Yesno]

He could presumably choose an example from multiple languages, but settled on the one that sounds exactly like n**ger.

Maybe he did but we're only getting to see the offending one.

[Bazooka]

He could presumably choose an example from multiple languages, but settled on the one that sounds exactly like n**ger. And after being called out over it, years after someone suggested it to him, he tries to deny he even noticed the similarity with n**ger. He knew exactly what he was doing.

It doesn't sound exactly the same , and he's using it as he should be allowed because it's a perfect example to illustrate the type of language form he is talking about. It's a Mandarin word, some are choosing to be offended knowing full fucking well it's spoken by nearly a billion people.

[Better Midlands]

it's spoken by nearly a billion people.

Then they need to stop!

[Bazooka]

Then they need to stop!

Oh it's not just the Chinese, the Korean peninsula is always spouting 내가 (naega) too.

[Shit Good Nose]

Female star of Ad Astra leaves room quietly.

[Crisps?]

It doesn't sound exactly the same

I wonder what people are getting upset about then. Even you admit that "you would have to be ridiculously naive to think he didn't know what 那个 nèige sounds like n*****". And yet he's pretending exactly that.

and he's using it as he should be allowed

I think that depends on why he's using it.

It's a Mandarin word, some are choosing to be offended knowing full fucking well it's spoken by nearly a billion people.

How many people speak Mandardin is irrelevant; the word still sounds like "n**ger", unlike examples he could have used from other languages. And his excuse for using it isn't that it's the perfect example, it's that he didn't notice what is impossible to not notice.

[JaDanketies]

You could argue that it is a particularly memorable example of a filler word and that makes it a better one to use in a lesson

[Bazooka]

But the dumbfounding aspect, and really the cherry on top of all this ludicrous nonsense, is that the students are aware it's a word that exists in another language, nothing has been made up, they are choosing to be offended by acknowledging it exists yet deciding it has the same impact as n****** not because it has the same definition under some secret Chinese guise, but because it sounds similar., they are going to melt when they learn colours in Latin class.

[Noodle Lizard]

Watched this twice this afternoon, it's so fucking outrageous. The teacher saying "Can you lend a n**** a pencil?" made me burst out laughing from pure shock. I can't believe that guy actually exists.

It's the primary school diagrams he's drawn to illustrate his point that get me. "Two completely different words!" Doesn't help that he looks like (and has similar mannerisms to) Stephen Root in Office Space. It's astonishing it was shown on the news, local or otherwise, but I'm very glad it was.

[Buelligan]

And there was that thing with the Dambusters.  The Dambusters for chrissakes, that dog died to help Churchill kill Hitler and now we can't even have a laugh with some mates down the pub.  Fucking criminal. 

[thenoise]

If you found out an English word was a racist slur in Chinese, would you stop saying it?

[Buelligan]

Yes, of course.  And certainly, under all circumstances, utterly avoid it when speaking to people that spoke that language.  Why would utility or even fun, be a reason to repeat something like that?

[Bazooka]

If you found out an English word was a racist slur in Chinese, would you stop saying it?

屄Bī   which sounds like Be or Bee, is cunt in Mandarin.