Discussion for article #236545
Another bike gang clash yesterday afternoon in Austin. Oh, the humanity!
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It shouldn’t be, but it is.
It’s the first word many people use to describe when a Black person is involved. I rarely if ever see it used to describe a person of another color. I saw it with Trayvon who was murdered, but not with George in his many subsequent arrests. Even with the latest incident, the guy that used gun to shoot out Zim’s window - no one described him as a thug. It’s subtle - maybe it’s not purposeful - but it isdefinitely there. Lemon may be denying it because he and his network are among the worst offenders in their coverage when it has to do with something regarding racial issues.
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I agree with Mr. Lemon. “Thug” is used in too many ways to be pinned down as a code word for ni**er.
Clearly it’s used too often in connection with african americans by some on the right… but it isn’t the new n-word.
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Happens all the time outside the Starbucks up here in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills. Sometimes the rumble between the “Spandexes” and the “Baggies” is started over their vying for coffee tables, sometimes, an inadvertent latte splashed onto a rival gang-member, or an argument over Proustian syntax. They generally show up at 10:00 am on a Saturday after a ride, which is when those of us who wish to avoid trouble retire to the “Einstein’s Bagels” a few doors down.
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repeatedly said the word “dick” while covering the Academy Awards.
Totally understandable…
I avoid Einstein’s. Last time I was there, a fight broke out between the “with a schmear” and “no schmear” crowds.
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Why is this asshole still employed?
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At some point, new uses of a word mean that the old uses cannot continue, e.g. “gay.” The same is true of symbols, e.g. swastika.
I don’t think everyone that uses the word thug is using it as the new n-word.
But I think there are definitely some white folks that think, not all thugs are black, but all blacks are thugs.
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It’s contextual. For instance, the word “boy” means something very different if used for a male child than towards a black man. If I call the cops who strangled Eric Garner a bunch of criminal thugs, I am not being racist. They are brutal violent malicious criminals.
But when rightwingers called Richard Sherman a “thug” it was obviously racist. Hitting hard and showing bravado is part of the game. And you can be sure they wouldn’t label an outspoken white athlete like that.
So I would argue people should call out discriminatory or racist usage of any word but not try to ban words entirely.
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Trying to throw common sense into the argument are we??? Indeed, calling Sherman a “thug” was racist, but that in no way makes black people immune from being thugs when it applies. Calling someone whose name ends in a vowel a thug is bigoted, but that does not make all Italians immune from being thugs either. To call thug a racist term is really reaching into lala land, and in fact is counterproductive to the whole racial harmony thing. Saying whites can be called thugs, but blacks can’t, makes no sense. And just because a few jerks misuse the word, you certainly don’t use that as a gauge to redefine the English language.
Calling Sherman a punk could also be racist, but that does not mean you redefine punk. Sherman is cocky and brash for sure, but not a punk or thug. And if I call him cocky and brash, will some now say that was racist? And if I say the same thing about John McEnroe, does that mean I am anti-white?
The word “ni**er” is racist. There is NO substitute for that word.
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Yes, and those people are a-holes that should be ignored. Instead we are giving them attention. Makes no sense.