Minnesota citizens demand discipline for teachers who perpetuate gay slurs - ProudParenting

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nhjeff wrote:

So what would happen to a teacher in this district who singled out a black with constant comments about eating fried chicken and watermellon? Suppose he suggested that a black female couldn't resist white men? Do you think they'd give the teacher "sensitivity training?"

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michael wrote:

what on earth is a Law Enforcement Teacher? Get the cops OUT of the schools duh.....

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michael wrote:

what on earth is a Law Enforcement Teacher? Get the cops OUT of the schools duh.....

pauline 2 wrote:

Its a tough area. The teachers still think that they can belittle students who do not conform with their ideas.
The school Board will only move if they get enough pressure, they are set in their ways.
Unfortunately Minnesota is one of the most tolerent of states, but Anoka is a rather Redneck area. Imagine its neighbor Coon Rapids, a name that some would love to see disappear. We had a Ford Dealer who had his dealership in CR. he would list Minneapolis as his dealership address at Ford conventions and functions.
Now the Anoka school board does not mean just the city of Anoka, its also a county. and CR is part of it.
Not all rednecks are from the south. We have a few here as well. Probably Lutherans who are unhappy with how things are going.

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JohnInToronto wrote:

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Not so sure about the renaming part. Is it unacceptable to use the word "coon" in its original meaning - a masked pesky little critter that lives in trees?

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JohnInToronto wrote:

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Not so sure about the renaming part. Is it unacceptable to use the word "coon" in its original meaning - a masked pesky little critter that lives in trees?

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pauline 2 wrote:

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I guess you like Canada, few social ramifications.
Not that long ago in the southern states, the locals (KKK, skinheads, etc) would go out at nite Coon hunting.
and not the furry little creatures type.
Words have different meanings in different areas.
If they renamed the city Raccoon Rapids there would be no complaints.
From black or whites.

pauline 2 wrote:

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I guess you like Canada, few social ramifications.
Not that long ago in the southern states, the locals (KKK, skinheads, etc) would go out at nite Coon hunting.
and not the furry little creatures type.
Words have different meanings in different areas.
If they renamed the city Raccoon Rapids there would be no complaints.
From black or whites.

JohnInToronto wrote:

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But it illustrates how a word changes meaning to the point where people are reluctant to use the original. Look at the bitching the homophobes put up about the word "gay." They are still free to use it in the original sense, but they are afraid if they do, other homophobes won't understand them.
It's also interesting that many ethic and religious epithets are either a shortening of the proper word for the group or a re-use of same as an epithet (an example is the many languages that use "Israelite" for a Jews as the original word derived from the Hebrew Yehudim has become an epithet in those languages). In some cases, the epithet comes from something fairly innocuous. I believe both the words k*ke (which came from the Yiddish word for a circle) and gu*nea (don't remember the derivation but I think it wasn't anything bad) fall into this case. As does the word m*ck, which is obviously taken from the prevalence of the "Mc" prefix in Irish names. Probably these things started as simple terms for an outsider without any judgmentalism.
Living with a person who is not a native speaker of English and coming into contact with his friends, I constantly need to explain that some dictionary translations of words (not just words for ethnic groups or people, but words for all kinds of things) are (1) obsolete or at least going out of fashion,(2) literary and not used in the spoken language,(3) British and not American/Canadian usage, and/or (4) have a loaded value, such originally being okay but now being offensive. Since my spouse is Russian the situation is exacerbated by the fact the Russian-English dictionaries are not as up to date as those of other languages. It has given me an interesting perspective on the English language and its words and idioms.

Daniel P from Long Island wrote:

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Interesting. Care to give some examples ?
All languages change all the time. Just watch some movies from the 30's or 40's. Sometimes some of the wors they use which were commonplace then, have a completely different meaning now or simply aren't used.
I picked up a book one day at Borders' about crime in New York. The book was WRITTEN in 1912.(It was a new printing). But I couldn't read it, because the English was so different in 1912 in the U.S., that a lot of what i was reading I couldn't make sense of even though it was in English. They just spoke differently then. And does anybody really speak the way we did in 1959 ?
Language is always changing, and probably at a faster pace now simply because of the revolution in telecommunications including, but not limited to, the internet, the web (which many people confuse with the internet, but they are different things), celfones, faxes, email, etc...
Things change.
Even in the gay community it's noticeable. I came out 30 years ago, and the symbols and words we used regarding gay liberation either aren't used anymore or have changed.
Remember Lambda ?