so who is....

[Biscuit]

Well if that's the case it doesn't matter if they're a racist or a cop if they're waving a fist in my face they'll be eating dirt I don't mess around with that bull

I try to dodge fights and ignorant people but if they press the wrongs buttons they'll be eating the kerb.

N.Ireland FTW.

Donegal FTW

[Fear Of The Duck]

Looks like you found the online dictionary
Only joking.
I have actually asked a number of people who use the word "gay" in an "insulting manner" what it meant and they had no idea apart from it meaning homosexual and most people would (should) know what it really means.

yup. thare's way too many ppl that use words without having a clue what they mean. regarding "gay" ppl - well, they seem to be happy, don't they?
(and if i wanted to use word "gay" in an "insulting manner" i'd use a different word, cos it makes a difference. it's like there are muppets and muppets, if ya know what i mean. btw: gay ppl use the word gay themselves, so what's wrong with it?).

as for stereotypes: some of them are based on facts, just them facts are generalized. a friend of mine works in a shop and every so often he has to deal with nigerians using bogey credit card. it's not all nigerians, just like 20% of them, but it's hard to come across an irish person with bogey card.

[Spacey]

... btw: gay ppl use the word gay themselves, so what's wrong with it?)...

I think the answer to your question is that gay and lesbian people have claimed the word as their own. Similar to the "N word" for negro persons who choose to use the word in their speech.

[Spacey]

The word used (and many others), historically, has been used by those whose intent was to opress, harm, and seperate members of society. I would postulate that the re-claiming of the word is empowering to those groups who were hurt by it.

There is no such thing as free speech, but that is another discussion.

[Fear Of The Duck]

The word used (and many others), historically, has been used by those whose intent was to opress, harm, and seperate members of society.

how about such words as "socialist", "communist", "social justice", "abortion" etc.? why aren't they banned? i can see here pc hypocrisy and inventing new "nice" sounding words for certain things (and new definition of words already in use). i've heard this lately: "ageism".
i call things what they are i don't care if sbdy might feel "abused" by them. if i consider smbdy an idiot, i call him an idiot.
if somebdy considers me an idiot, he can call me an idiot, i have no problems with that and can't see why others should. if one has, one's a sissy imho.

There is no such thing as free speech, but that is another discussion.

there is free speech. just sometimes ppl aren't free AFTER giving that speech.

[Biscuit]

Free speech is just a "buzz word" used by people. Of course you can say what you want. You don't need a "law" to tell you either way. I say what I want when I want.
I use words in the wrong context around friends. That's just the way it is but we know what the words mean.
Words only hurt when you allow them to hurt you. I would not care if someone called me a "cracka", "whitey" or be seen as a stereotypical Irish person (always being drunk). Race, words or anything else that is entailed by it doesn't bother me in any way.
I do not know where the "N word" came from but I always thought it came from the area in Africa that is called Niger. If anyone knows please enlighten me. I would never use the "N word" nor do I think it's right to not allow white people to use it in a friendly way that African Americans use it.
I don't really understand why they beep the "N word" in songs though.

[Kit-Fox]

You know in the UK African people object to being called black, yet when the government asked several representatives in the 60's what they would like to be referred as they asked to to be called black.

not to mention they still refer to people of European extraction as white.

[Spacey]

I don't have the time to respond fully to some posts here, I wrote a small thesis in the mod station just now...

this is turning out to be somehting where people are pointing fingers at ethnic groups rather than trying to learn more. I have no compunctions about locking and deleting this if I see more "blah blah blah", "x group is very racist anyway", or similar posts. Free speech does not exist here.

Jack:
Terms or words like the n word, "fag", etc. is classed as hate speech:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech

You cannot say it wasn't used in an opressive manner.

I am not American. I will not comment on the First Ammendment. It is a crime where I come from.

In Canada, advocating genocide or inciting hatred against any 'identifiable group' is an indictable offense under the Canadian Criminal Code with maximum terms of two to fourteen years. An 'identifiable group' is defined as 'any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.' It makes exceptions for cases of statements of truth, and subjects of public debate and religious doctrine. The landmark judicial decision on the constitutionality of this law was R. v. Keegstra (1990).

I will say that you are not allowed to say whatever you want. Ex. Can you walk around in Austin wearing a poster board saying "I Hate G.W. Bush" without being threatened? I would argue that a person is then not free to express their opinion based on the fact that the person wearing the sign will be injured/killed.

Biscuit, Jack, Corran, Kit Fox:
wiki the n word and read it, and specifically the part above the footnotes

[Kit-Fox]

Check your PM's Spacey, However just in case you miss it, heres my point

People complain about racist behavior and racist language.

Calling/describing a person of African descent as black is now considered racist.

In the UK during the 60/70s the African descent community was engaged by governments of the time asking them how they would like to be referred to on offical forms & police reports etc (basically all offical paper work)

They chose the word 'black' to be used in describing them.

It was their choice & theirs alone.

Now the same people who chose that are the ones complaining it is racist, along with the nimby PC crowd who think they need to stick up for everyone in society and be bleeding heart to every cause.

They (read: the black community) while objecting to being described as 'black' on the basis that their skin colour isn't black still describe those of EU descent as white, despite the fact it isn't our skin colour either.

So lets give over on assuming somethings racist as you know sometimes its just possible that people have read to much into and made a mountain out of a molehill, much like this post has

EDIT: Likewise while your sitting there saying that the word 'fag' is a hate word remember that to a British person it means cigarette, however the context its used in does play a part, as it should in all decisions about words that are 'hate words'

[Spacey]

Calling/describing a person of African descent as black is now considered racist.

Now the same people who chose that are the ones complaining it is racist, along with the nimby PC crowd who think they need to stick up for everyone in society and be bleeding heart to every cause.

So lets give over on assuming somethings racist as you know sometimes its just possible that people have read to much into and made a mountain out of a molehill, much like this post has

EDIT: Likewise while your sitting there saying that the word 'fag' is a hate word remember that to a British person it means cigarette, however the context its used in does play a part, as it should in all decisions about words that are 'hate words'

differences exist based on where people live, ie. the notion of cig and the term used to describe gay people

I worked at a place that was prone to theft, and in making a police statement the officer corrected me in saying Africian Canadian. He said 'just say black. You don't know that he was from Africa.'

Actually you could walk around Austin wearing a poster board that says you hate Bush most people do hate Bush and even if they didn't the entire reason someone would react violently in the first place is BECAUSE of the errornous thinking that people shouldn't say what's on their mind but should "respect others" that's nice if you want to be polite but no one should force you to be polite

Once more about your comment on being beat up by people not liking what you say...

I pmed you jack, in addition:

I was saying that people aren't truly free to say what they want. What we hear and see is controlled heavily.

[Fear Of The Duck]

just read in the paper (not sure if it's not made up):

guy somewhere in colorado has been arrested after telling 2 women they were extremely beautiful and should work as models. they felt sexually harassed by this.
now, what can you say to a girl in colorado if you fancy her???

[Spacey]

Firstly, are you assuming that the newspaper is telling you the whole story?

[Fear Of The Duck]

Firstly, are you assuming that the newspaper is telling you the whole story?

no. they'd never do such a thing.

btw: can we still give our children names "richard", "william" or "michael"?

[Spacey]

Then, how can a conclusion be made like this:

This is the type of bull that really angers me...it ALWAYS gets carried away...

How do we know that it was "carried away"?

[Spacey]

my point is is that you are formulating personal opinion without all the facts... based on an internet post, about an article