The Guardian - The Waterways tale of everyday pikeys.

[carlt]

48 minutes ago, matty40s said:

.. calling people a Joey after the guy on Blue Peter with Cerebral Palsy - a spastic at the time....

 

I was amazed when I heard my 12 year old's mate call him a "Joey" and when I asked him what he thought it meant he said that it just meant "idiot". 

 

One of the sad things about the Joey Deakin story was that it was supposed to be a campaign to educate kids about disability and reduce prejudice but it had the reverse effect and gave the kids an insult that endures 40 odd years on. 

[mrsmelly]

58 minutes ago, NB Caelmiri said:

Come on. How very disingenuous of you.

 

You know full well that it is the intention behind the use of a word that is offensive and not the word itself.

 

I agree, which is why simply using a particular word should never be classed as wrong or " Un PC " Only last week my old mum who is the most inoffensive person in the world whilst watching telly said to my missus, is that girl coloured?, her eyesight isnt what it used to be. My  missus said yes she is but you shouldnt say that any more its now " mixed race " my  mums eyes widened and she innocently said ohh. Now the bollox of all this is in 1920s when mum was at school and the 30s when she was working full time she would have said coloured as thats what they said. I have a foto of mum aged about ten with her best mate from school, a black girl which were very rare in those days, she was my mums best mate and it was nowt to do with her skin colour. Today we have an industry and I reckon a degree and possibly a masters available in being   " outraged " at the use of non PC words of the year.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

4 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I agree, which is why simply using a particular word should never be classed as wrong or " Un PC " Only last week my old mum who is the most inoffensive person in the world whilst watching telly said to my missus, is that girl coloured?, her eyesight isnt what it used to be. My  missus said yes she is but you shouldnt say that any more its now " mixed race " my  mums eyes widened and she innocently said ohh. Now the bollox of all this is in 1920s when mum was at school and the 30s when she was working full time she would have said coloured as thats what they said. I have a foto of mum aged about ten with her best mate from school, a black girl which were very rare in those days, she was my mums best mate and it was nowt to do with her skin colour. Today we have an industry and I reckon a degree and possibly a masters available in being   " outraged " at the use of non PC words of the year.

We once had an input from an Asian girl on racism, and she said that she wouldn't have had any issue with your Mum's comment, what she objected to were those who knew all about racism and instead of using the wrong words, used the code recognised by other racists, Trump is a master of the genre. The word is only part of the problem, however if it becomes acceptable to use such terms as n*gger, n*gn*g, or y*d (for jews) in the 'interests of 'free speech' the true racists will use them all the time and with the full intent to be abusive and will have effectively 'won'.

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

We once had an input from an Asian girl on racism, and she said that she wouldn't have had any issue with your Mum's comment, what she objected to were those who knew all about racism and instead of using the wrong words, used the code recognised by other racists, Trump is a master of the genre. The word is only part of the problem, however if it becomes acceptable to use such terms as n*gger, n*gn*g, or y*d (for jews) in the 'interests of 'free speech' the true racists will use them all the time and with the full intent to be abusive and will have effectively 'won'.

 

Are we not taking things to the extreme when the picture of 617 Squadron (The Dam Busters) had to have the name of the Squadron mascot (Guy Gibson's dog) painted out.

 

The Petwood Hotel was "Home to the Dambusters" and still has many souvenirs to the squadron.

 

The pub just down the road (The Blue Bell)  has many, many, artifacts related to the Dambuster, including the 'pennies' stuck in the cracks in the beams that were supposed to be collected when the crew returned - many didn't.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I agree, which is why simply using a particular word should never be classed as wrong or " Un PC " Only last week my old mum who is the most inoffensive person in the world whilst watching telly said to my missus, is that girl coloured?, her eyesight isnt what it used to be. My  missus said yes she is but you shouldnt say that any more its now " mixed race " my  mums eyes widened and she innocently said ohh. Now the bollox of all this is in 1920s when mum was at school and the 30s when she was working full time she would have said coloured as thats what they said. I have a foto of mum aged about ten with her best mate from school, a black girl which were very rare in those days, she was my mums best mate and it was nowt to do with her skin colour. Today we have an industry and I reckon a degree and possibly a masters available in being   " outraged " at the use of non PC words of the year.

As I say, it's the intention which has the power and that is where the problem lies. Your mum (or indeed my mum) calling a black/mixed race person "coloured" probably/definitely have no offensive intentions whatsoever, they simply don't keep up to date on the preferred terminology and to be honest, I don't either as someone in their mid 40s.  On the other hand, deeming criticism of the use of these words as "PC gone mad" doesn't really help either. I can understand the argument because it does feel like the line of what is right/wrong/PC/not PC does shift almost on a weekly basis, but I do think it doesn't take a great deal of effort to be a bit sympathic and to not be intentionally offensive, knowing that certain terminology or references will cause offense.  It's not as if we're individually being followed around by the PC police checking on every word we say. I think just a modicum of respect is all that is being asked for. 

[Wanderer Vagabond]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Are we not taking things to the extreme when the picture of 617 Squadron (The Dam Busters) had to have the name of the Squadron mascot (Guy Gibson's dog) painted out.

 

The Petwood Hotel was "Home to the Dambusters" and still has many souvenirs to the squadron.

 

The pub just down the road (The Blue Bell)  has many, many, artifacts related to the Dambuster, including the 'pennies' stuck in the cracks in the beams that were supposed to be collected when the crew returned - many didn't.

Why does a picture need the dog's name on it? It was just a black dog, no problem in depicting a black dog in the picture as far as I can see. Surely all of the other aircrew in the picture were far more important than a dog's name, did they manage to squeeze the full names of all 133 aircrew into the picture?

[Mike Todd]

36 minutes ago, carlt said:

 

I was amazed when I heard my 12 year old's mate call him a "Joey" and when I asked him what he thought it meant he said that it just meant "idiot". 

 

One of the sad things about the Joey Deakin story was that it was supposed to be a campaign to educate kids about disability and reduce prejudice but it had the reverse effect and gave the kids an insult that endures 40 odd years on. 

And there was me thinking that a Joey was a boat from Brum . . . 

[Athy]

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

 

Athy, on the other hand....

Do feel free to finish your sentence.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

Jim Naughtie beat her to it by several years when Jeremy was the “Hulture Secretary”

The view from Viz: