Whitey' fails to wound
Fellow slurs snicker at word's utterance
Tribune staff report
June 15, 2008
It's hard to come up with an ethnic slur that has less of a sting than "whitey."
A prevalent yet unsubstantiated Internet rumor has it that Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, used this term at some point in a speech, and the Obama
campaign is concerned enough to have posted an online rebuttal.
I've got to ask, though. Are there really white people out there so ignorant of history, so unaware of the nuances of language and so threatened by
minority grievances that they take genuine umbrage at the term "whitey"?
More a taunt than a threat, the word has no ugly history and hints at no particular stereotypes. It may have been hurled in a menacing fashion in ugly
personal confrontations from time to time, but it's never been used to keep a people down, to put them in their place, to rank them as subhuman.
To be truly offensive, a derogatory term needs to have an ominous context that "whitey" lacks.
Those who take offense are confusing prejudice—which is making negative assumptions about people based solely on external characteristics, of which
all races and ethnicities are guilty—with racism, which is prejudice in action.
It requires them to imagine that "whitey" marginalizes, diminishes and therefore harms white people.
And if they're really that dumb, then I guess they deserve to be insulted.
the source of the info
trinity church.....now this...hmmm sounds like we got WHITE hater's running for office to me.
apologize dont help ms.obama
i bet hillary or mcain never called you a NWORD...
isn't that what his ex preacher said lol
but we have now been labeled whitey.
but he obama campaign...
[edit on 15-6-2008 by beforetime]