Things that made you speechless...

[_Joe_]

...So I ran into a store yesterday to pick up dog food, and I overheard this family in the isle I'm in say the following..

"It's about time they renamed it to African American Friday"


I was just...on the verge of laughing at them.... really....

[mindfinding]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
Bloody hilarious!

[FalconAngel]

...So I ran into a store yesterday to pick up dog food, and I overheard this family in the isle I'm in say the following..

"It's about time they renamed it to African American Friday"


I was just...on the verge of laughing at them.... really....

There are times, Joe, that you are compelled to point and laugh.

If you were looking for that opportune moment.......that was it.:bigrin:

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Ok....I'm lost....
Cat

[allbimyself]

Ok....I'm lost....
Cat
The day after Thanksgiving is known by retailers as "Black Friday" because it is historically the break even day for the year (meaning that at some point that day their sales for the year pass their expenses for the year). They move from "red ink" to "black ink" in their balance.

Not to be confused with the Black Friday that was the day of the stock market crash in 1929.

Obviously, the individuals overheard by Joe thought that "Black Friday" had something to do with black people (African-Americans).

Which reminds me of a friend I once had...

When I took over hiring/training for a restaurant back in the late 80s, the store didn't have any black employees. For months I only received applications from white people. I surmised that this was due to some point in the past that the store had a bigot doing the hiring and word had spread not to bother applying there if you were black.

One day I did receive an application from a black man (he had just moved to town to attend school and evidently hadn't gotten the word). I interviewed and hired him. At one point during his first week there he asked me why there weren't any other black employees and I told him because none applied. He quickly spread the word and that situation resolved itself.

The point to how this relates is this guy HATED the term African-American. In protest, he replaced the word "black" with the term "African-American" wherever he could. He worked mornings and did a lot of prep work. Everything was labeled with his "African-American magic marker" and black olives would be labeled "African-American olives," etc. etc. you get the idea.

[elian]

This was recorded in 1992..

"This is an incredible video of a Canadian girl who spoke to the
United Nations and left them completely silent and speechless for five
minutes. Her name is Severn Suziki, and her speech was given at a U.N.
assembly in Brazil when she was twelve years old. She had raised all
the money to travel to the delegation, five thousand miles from her
home, herself." - ( http://weightofsilence.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/the-girl-who-silenced... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sb6RmRMbBY&NR=1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sb6RmRMbBY&NR=1)

[Hephaestion]

I am intrigued by the adoption of the word black to mean negro.

Aspect No1
Negro is a morphotype whereas black is a well defined colour. Most Negro(e)s are not black in colour. Indeed there are some negroes (morphotype remember) who carry natural blonde hair and blue eyes and are very light skinned and even freckled, traits which are more usually associated with Caucasian morphotype (this does not mean 'white' people exclusively but embraces them - whatever 'white' means).

Aspect No2
Black is often used to lump dark skinned Asians and Negros together. This confuses many people who are used to the concept of black meaning Negro. This also irritates Asians (not Orientals) who do not consider themselves correctly placed. In the concept of things they are more properly seen as dark skinned Caucasians.

In English (non USA) to call someone a bastard is an acceptable piece of every day disdain of almost insignificant gravity. There is an episode of the comedy Blackadder where affectionate comrades are described by the befeficiary as 'soft bastards' i.e. a term of endearment. A reminder that Negros would appear to be comfortable with the term black. However, in the UK a couple of years ago, one negro took another negro to court and won a case of racism because the other negro had called him a 'black bastard'.

[Rudy75]

Ok, you reminded me.

How did "Oriental" become a derogatory term?

I always thought an "Oriental" was an Asian from China, Japan, and other similar places.

"Asian" seems to be commonly used to describe almost anyone from the middle east to the Pacific Rim.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

lol Sorry Ya'll. I had a Senior Duh moment..:}
Cat

[FalconAngel]

Ok, you reminded me.

How did "Oriental" become a derogatory term?

I always thought an "Oriental" was an Asian from China, Japan, and other similar places.

"Asian" seems to be commonly used to describe almost anyone from the middle east to the Pacific Rim.

Oriental was originally the Latin "orientis", meaning East. It is also where we get the words Orient and it's derivatives.

The term Oriental came to be used for people from the Far East because of that one Latin word.

Of course, with all cultures, they have their own words for themselves. Columbus called the Native Americans "indians" because he thought that he was in the East Indies. They call themselves the "one people" or the "first people" and a few variations of that.

As far as calling Orientals Asians, that is likely derived from their traditional name for their region of the Globe. And it is probably an anglo mispronunciation of the original word.
If I am incorrect on this, please feel free to correct me.

[Realist]

My dad, who was born and raised in Texas, said the normally disdained adjective, "son of a bitch" was a term of endearment, there.

However, he pronounced it; "sombitch".

Used in a sentence, it might have been used this way: "Look at the huge fish that lucky sombitch caught!"

My mother admonished him for calling his dog a sombitch.

He replied, "What is he, if he's not a sombitch?"

[darkeyes]

1st time me wen 2 meet Kate's luffly an much missed mum an dad..me wos in conservatory playin wiv Shiv wen me heard Kate's mum say 2 'er "I like her. She seems a pleasant and charming girl.":eek: Gobsmacked....

How 2 havya rep ruined in 1 easy lesson...

[mannysg]

One day I did receive an application from a black man (he had just moved to town to attend school and evidently hadn't gotten the word). I interviewed and hired him. At one point during his first week there he asked me why there weren't any other black employees and I told him because none applied. He quickly spread the word and that situation resolved itself.

The point to how this relates is this guy HATED the term African-American. In protest, he replaced the word "black" with the term "African-American" wherever he could. He worked mornings and did a lot of prep work. Everything was labeled with his "African-American magic marker" and black olives would be labeled "African-American olives," etc. etc. you get the idea.

He's my kind of man!. I can't stand any "hyphen" labels. You're either African or American, Asian or American, Mexican or American, etc. Maybe in protest I should start calling myself "European-American". My wife has some "Native-American" along with "European-American" ancestors. Maybe she should say she is a "Native-European-American". :)

[zman64]

that seems to be a big part of the problem..nobody can just simply be "american" anymore, you have to be from somewhere else and have a hyphen to have any sense of self worth...i had a great conversation the other day at a comic book store of all places regarding how difficult it would be in the u.s if all signs, directions, labels, etc were required to use proper english (even americanized proper english)...the example set was the store was having a 50% off all comics in the store sale...so i asked the man "Does that mean 50% off the price of the books? or do i only get 50% of the book itself?...surprisingly, he laughed and understood exsactly what i meant. I told him of a GOODWILL store that i service that once put a sign on the door that read "ALL BIKES $5.00"....While there, I held out a five dollar bill to the manager and asked her if could come back later with a truck to pick up the bikes. she said "you need a truck for only one bike?"..i said "no, i want all the bikes..." she said "no, the bikes are 5 dollars each"..i said "your sign says all bikes, 5 dollars..heres my five dollars...i want all the bikes".....she decided to escort me out of the store by swatting me on the rear end with the broom...her customers were wide-eyed at that..i was surprised in didnt make the news...lol

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

lol There was a chick in my college who was one of those snooty, well to do types who was always carrying on about how her people came over on the Mayflower and that she wasnt of "Mixed Races" like those of us from the reservation. Well, I got tired of her BS one day took an old Will Rogers addage and changed it around a bit, and spouted off "Your people came over one the Mayflower, whoopee. Mine met 'em at the dock, and should've charged ya'll admission, and an idiocy fee.."
Somehow she was not amused...lol.
Cat:cool:

[_Joe_]

Well, reported 3 deaths for Black Friday ><

[Realist]

Cat, I knew a soldier in the Army who was an Indian from out your way. I'm not sure if this is correct...it's been a long since he told me this, but I believe he was a Menomanee Indian. (Not sure of the spelling) He said that there weren't many of them left. Are you aware of that tribe and if so do you know anything about them? He was a great fellow...smart, artistic and dedicated. Your post brought his memory back.

[darkeyes]

The day wen me wos 10 an a rite lil chatterbox an me mum an dad had enough ... me dad plastered me gob wiv duct tape... ole bugga still guffaws even now wen 'e membas it... an worse the pain wen me sista held me down an me bro ripped it offa me face an tore out huge lumps a me hair...:eek:

Wos only a short term solution..still chatter away 90 2 dozen even 2 day...:bigrin:

[guycurious]

Things that made you speechless.....

The first time I saw my wife's face buried in another woman's vagina.....

The first time I mounted a man while he was laying on his back.....