Posts by Jake Pollock
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3410: You might be interested in this image, courtesy of a member of an anti-Paul Henry Facebook group.
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The word "deadly" also needs to be excised from the media's vocabulary.
At the same time as this happens, maybe someone could let the good people at the Herald know that Mexico is not a Central American country. Not particularly important in the scheme of things, I guess, but as this story begins to get consumed with the fear of the Third World, it would be nice to at least start on the right foot.
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To follow up on my own post, if we, just for lawhs, reverted to the nineteenth century names for the islands, would Wellington have to relinquish its claim to the title 'Middle Earth'?
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Historical question: in books from some time ago the islands are called "North Island" and "South Island"---capitals and no determiners.
As late as 1874, Anthony Trollope was still using 'the Northern Island' and 'the Southern Island,' but 'the Southern Island' was Stewart Island. What is today the South Island was called 'The Middle Island' for much of the nineteenth century.
By the 1880s, George Rusden was using 'the North Island and 'the South Island' consistently, although Aureretanga features an instance of 'the Northern Island on page 74. As you can see, he equivocates on 'the Middle Island'/'South Island' question.
I haven't looked in the 1898 edition, but by the time William Pember Reeves' Long White Cloud (Ao-Tea-Roa) came out in the 1899 edition, 'the North Island' was completely standard.
Man, I wish I had google books when I wrote my MA thesis.
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Jeremy, you jobbernol goosecap, my point was that growing up in a culture steeped in this particular form of racial politics is different from hearing it through the stereo and seeing it on the TV screen, as much as we might (and should) celebrate black culture in all its awesomeness.
What I'm saying is that the word 'nigger' has so much power in the US precisely because of the context in which it is spoken. I agree with you, the word is taboo. It has a great deal of power, and, as you say, the power is not in the word itself, but in all of those historical and current problems that we agree exist in the United States. We can know about them overseas, but that's not the same thing as living it as a day to day, real experience, as Americans do. We might, as outsiders, appreciate the cultural products, and understand the context in which that art is produced, and in which that racism occurs, but that's not the same thing as growing up in it, and being shaped by it.
But it's that context that makes it taboo. When you use this word in New Zealand, you're not really reclaiming a taboo word, because it's only a taboo word in an abstract sense, it's the taboo word of a foreign culture. The context is different.
Honestly, I have no interest in censoring you, or anyone.
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If you think race in America is only about popular culture, and not about structural discrimination, police brutality, endemic unemployment, gun violence, astronomically disproportionate imprisonment levels and an endless poverty trap for a large percentage of the population, and a host of sociological problems that stem from and exacerbate these issues, then you need to rethink things.
Oh, speaking of New Zealand's anxieties, wtf Emmerson?
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Has anyone seen FAILoil's new tattoo? it goes so well with the chins.
But it's real blood, Steve. Real. Blood.
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I'm thinking that you guys may not have witnessed one middle-class North Shore white boy greet another with the words "Yo, my nigga" ...
I am a middle-class North Shore white boy, and I most certainly have witnessed such a thing.
I'm not interested in banning words. I was merely pointing out that using the word in polite company in the United States will land you in impolite company in fairly short order. It's something that, for some reason, Americans are sensitive about. Eyes cloud over, blood runs cold, voices get raised. It taps directly into deep-seated anxieties, and although I only understand it in an abstract way, I know enough to know that there are very few contexts in which its use is acceptable, and that it is better exercise caution.
I would also point out that it's not our word, as New Zealanders, to reclaim. To New Zealanders its an abstract historical problem, an artefact of a foreign (though dominant) culture, and not part of a lived, day to day reality. We have enough of our own historical anxieties to deal with without weighing in on other peoples.
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Rob: Does reading any book aloud constitute 'polite conversation', or is it 'reading a book aloud'?
Craig: Obviously.
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I'm still unsure whether that's an acceptable term to use in a music store let alone polite conversation.
Rule of thumb on that one is that, unless you are a descendant of African slaves talking to another descendant of African slaves, you should never, ever, use that word in polite conversation, unless you happen to be talking about W.E.B Dubois' 'Double Consciousness', and even then I'd be careful.