No Riley Cooper Thread?

[links18]

There was a discussion on the use of this word by white comedians the other day on a cable news network show. One white comedian said that white comedians shouldn't be barred from using the word--they should use it in order to strip it of its power. This idea was unanimously rejected by the black panelists who said that white people are just going to have to get over not having control over the use of the word. White people just need to accept that they don't control everything and that it is black people who have the power to determine when the use of this word is appropriate or not. I suppose the same point could me made about athletes. It was an interesting discussion.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Albert Breer ‏@AlbertBreer 1m
Roger Goodell just said on ESPN Radio that the NFL will not be taking action against Riley Cooper. Also said Cooper will undergo training.

 

[Galian Beast]

I think his actions and words were reprehensible. He wanted to impose violence on the security guards before using the word. It was clearly hate speech from somebody that has a hatred against black people.

That said, I don't think he should be released either.

Our society has become increasingly forceful on trying to control freedom of speech. The real irony of this is that the government has not tried to control our freedom of speech; the people have done the dirty work for them.

Instead of using the old adage of 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me', we see people that are 'outraged' and 'offended' and that causes people to lose their jobs and put forth phony and uninspired apologies.

Instead of just blindly releasing Cooper, the Eagles should wait and see if this is really a pressing issue. Can his teammates deal with him after what he said? Are the fans and supporters genuinely offended and outraged enough to stop supporting the Eagles? Can the fans handle what Cooper did?

The onus should be put on the 'outraged' and 'offended' to show that they are genuinely hurt enough before assuming that they are hurt by the situation.

The real double standard here has nothing to do with hip-hop. It's the countless times I've been to or watched NFL games and heard the word being used by black players and nothing gets done about it. While Cooper's actions and words were awful, he was doing it in his private life and at a non-NFL function. Yet, when black players use that word in actual games...it is never addressed.





YR

Too often is freedom of speech paraded around as an excuse to be able to say whatever you want. Freedom of speech doesn't mean there are no consequences to your words, rather it insurance against speaking out against the Government and not being imprisoned for doing so.

Freedom of speech does not extent to a lack of consequences socially and financially. Words are actually quite limited in many cases. Hate speech that incites violence, threatening language, libel, slander...

We don't have criminal law against overt expressions of racism, but that doesn't mean there are no social consequences for those expressions. Please stop saying freedom of speech, that's not what it means.

 

[Avery]

Never read Huck Finn? The word became a pejorative in the early 1800s.

Quite true. Goes to show you how much a word can change.

A few other thoughts about the word 'redneck' as a deragtory term. I have to call this one out because many try to equate this word with what we're talking about, but they are on two different planes altogether.

Has anybody ever called CMT, Animal Planet, National Geographic, etc. and asked them to remove this word from their lexicon? A sampling of TV shows with this word in it:

My Big Fat Redneck Wedding
My Big Redneck Vacation
Redneck Island
Redneck Rehab
Redneck Riveria
Rocket City Rednecks

I highly doubt it as the word itself is widely used proudly and as a term of endearment to many. How else do you explain the popularity of Duck Dynasty, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, etc? These are people that gladly proclaim themselves as such. You'd be find hard-pressed to find many African-Americans who would gladly proclaims themselves the other word.

I'm sure the word 'redneck' is offensive to some and may someday be looked back at in a different manner than it is today. However, if you want to change the trajectory of how the word is used, you need to change the nature of how the word is used and not using it when you're comfortable with it and decrying it when it's not.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Albert Breer ‏@AlbertBreer 10m
Goodell also said that the league wouldn't punish a player if the club already did, which suggests the Eagles consulted with him.

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet 51s
Roger Goodell on Mike&Mike on Riley Cooper's comments: "Obviously wrong and they’re insensitive and they’re unacceptable."
Goodell won't add more penalties (via Mike&Mike): "We don't penalize at the club level & league level for the same incident" Against the CBA

 

[RoyTheHammer]

If you call yourself something derogatory then that's your right. If you call someone else a derogatory label then that's not ok. So there is a difference in a black using that word and a non-black.

It's a word which should go away though and won't as long as its being used so frequently. Everyone looks the same when you open them up. The melanin content of one's skin is irrelevant other than the true purpose it serves which is photoprotection from UVB radiation damage.

I agree with this statement, however, when black people use the term, most often they are not referring to themselves, but to another black person.. which i still feel isn't right. Just because you are ok with someone calling you a derogatory name, doesn't mean every person of your culture or race is ok with being called that. That being said, i also agree with some other people that its just a word.. and it only hurts you as much as you let it.. same as any other word.

 

[bounce]

If a word is considered offensive, it should be considered offensive no matter who says it. I hate the "black people should have control over this word..." because it seems like some sort of leverage thing. If it's offensive, and it offends you, don't say it. White people shouldn't say it, and black people shouldn't say it. What's stupid about it is, it's a word. Nobody NEEDS to say it. It's not stripping anyone of some sort of personal right by eliminating that word from their vocabulary.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Quite true. Goes to show you how much a word can change.

A few other thoughts about the word 'redneck' as a deragtory term. I have to call this one out because many try to equate this word with what we're talking about, but they are on two different planes altogether.

Has anybody ever called CMT, Animal Planet, National Geographic, etc. and asked them to remove this word from their lexicon? A sampling of TV shows with this word in it:

My Big Fat Redneck Wedding
My Big Redneck Vacation
Redneck Island
Redneck Rehab
Redneck Riveria
Rocket City Rednecks

I highly doubt it as the word itself is widely used proudly and as a term of endearment to many. How else do you explain the popularity of Duck Dynasty, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, etc? These are people that gladly proclaim themselves as such. You'd be find hard-pressed to find many African-Americans who would gladly proclaims themselves the other word.

I'm sure the word 'redneck' is offensive to some and may someday be looked back at in a different manner than it is today. However, if you want to change the trajectory of how the word is used, you need to change the nature of how the word is used and not using it when you're comfortable with it and decrying it when it's not.

You could say the exact same thing for the other word, could you not?

 

[RoyTheHammer]

In rap videos it is used as a term of endearment (-a ending) as opposed to the way riley said (-er ending). Come on dude you're better than this. Do I really have to explain this to you?

Its the same word.. this reasoning is asinine.

 

[Denim Chicken]

It may sound dismissive, but it would be seriously better if everyone would just ignore this. The chasm across racial lines is designed and perpetuated by the government and it lackey, the media. Their greatest fear is cooperation and love between people of all genders, races, sexual orientation, etc. and that is why stories like these are sensationalized. They organized the nuclear family to break up extended families power (tribes) and they continue to try and isolate us further using political correctness as a tool to sensationalize racial stories while appearing noble. By endlessly debating what inconsequential, minor events (in the grand scheme),you fall into their trap and become part of the problem no matter how noble you think your argument to be.

 

[The Natural]

Its the same word.. this reasoning is asinine.

your line of thinking is asinine. Young hispanic kids in many cities call each other _____a's like there is no tomorrow. I've seen it with Asians as well. Black people dont care about it because there's an understanding in how it's being used. It's a difference when you're using the word amongst your friends in an endearing matter (whether you agree thats possible or not) and when your using another variation of the word in a manner that implies bad intent, as Cooper did. I dont see what is so hard to understand about this.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

your line of thinking is asinine. Young hispanic kids in many cities call each other _____a's like there is no tomorrow. I've seen it with Asians as well. Black people dont care about it because there's an understanding in how it's being used. It's a difference when you're using the word amongst your friends in an endearing matter (whether you agree thats possible or not) and when your using another variation of the word in a manner that implies bad intent, as Cooper did. I dont see what is so hard to understand about this.

You don't get to use a word in an endearing way.. and then be outraged by the same word whenever it fits your agenda.

..and if you show me the word with an "a" on the end in any real dictionary anywhere.. i'll agree that its a different word.

Its not.. its a slang term for the same word. If it means something different to you, that because you've been brainwashed by pop culture to believe that there's a difference.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

It may sound dismissive, but it would be seriously better if everyone would just ignore this. The chasm across racial lines is designed and perpetuated by the government and it lackey, the media. Their greatest fear is cooperation and love between people of all genders, races, sexual orientation, etc. and that is why stories like these are sensationalized. They organized the nuclear family to break up extended families power (tribes) and they continue to try and isolate us further using political correctness as a tool to sensationalize racial stories while appearing noble. By endlessly debating what inconsequential, minor events (in the grand scheme),you fall into their trap and become part of the problem no matter how noble you think your argument to be.

I agree, in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly worth even talking about.. however, like i said, if you're a public figure, you simply have to know that you can't use this word in public without consequences in our incredibly PC and hypocritical society.

 

[The Natural]

You don't get to use a word in an endearing way.. and then be outraged by the same word whenever it fits your agenda.

That sense of entitlement among certain people I was talking about. Here's the embodiment of it right here.

 

[rynochop]

don't understand why you don't think the term "redneck" isn't racist. Its definition: Redneck is a derogatory slang term used in reference to poor, uneducated white farmers, especially from the southern United States.

Concerning but comical at the same time that you use a racist word to explain why someone shouldn't have used a racist word. Geeze

every redneck i know thinks of it as a term of endearment, and are in fact proud of the fact.

 

[Denim Chicken]

I agree, in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly worth even talking about.. however, like i said, if you're a public figure, you simply have to know that you can't use this word in public without consequences in our incredibly PC and hypocritical society.

Yes it is ignorant from a career standpoint as well as a humanistic, but the media is what drives these stories to be more than they are. Why so much coverage of the GZ trial, for instance, when Oscar Grant is largely ignored.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

That sense of entitlement among certain people I was talking about. Here's the embodiment of it right here.

Good grief you're out there.. how am i being "entitled" in any way shape or form, by what i posted, sir?

You told me its not the same word, correct? I asked you to show me in a dictonary where they have two different words listed?

Was that such an impossible task that you had to resort to bs'ing around the actual discussion in order to try and raise yourself up and push me down?

If so, i'll assume you couldn't find it in a dictionary anywhere so thank you for confirming my point.

Just like someone said about the term "redneck".. using any word in an endearing way and then being outraged when you hear the word other times, is the height of hypocrisy.

 

[BAZ]

There was a discussion on the use of this word by white comedians the other day on a cable news network show. One white comedian said that white comedians shouldn't be barred from using the word--they should use it in order to strip it of its power. This idea was unanimously rejected by the black panelists who said that white people are just going to have to get over not having control over the use of the word. White people just need to accept that they don't control everything and that it is black people who have the power to determine when the use of this word is appropriate or not. I suppose the same point could me made about athletes. It was an interesting discussion.

This is why comedians should never talk seriously about things.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

your line of thinking is asinine. Young hispanic kids in many cities call each other _____a's like there is no tomorrow. I've seen it with Asians as well. Black people dont care about it because there's an understanding in how it's being used. It's a difference when you're using the word amongst your friends in an endearing matter (whether you agree thats possible or not) and when your using another variation of the word in a manner that implies bad intent, as Cooper did. I dont see what is so hard to understand about this.

Ahhh.... this is not true. The African American community definitely cares about it's usage. If they didn't, you wouldn't see the firestorm you are seeing right now over it's usage. We would simply look at Cooper for the fool he is and move on. Instead, we have 8 pages of discussion on something that happened with the Philadelphia Eagles on a Dallas Cowboy Football board.

 

[The Natural]

Ahhh.... this is not true. The African American community definitely cares about it's usage. If they didn't, you wouldn't see the firestorm you are seeing right now over it's usage. We would simply look at Cooper for the fool he is and move on. Instead, we have 8 pages of discussion on something that happened with the Philadelphia Eagles on a Dallas Cowboy Football board.

Ok last post because I was supposed to be done here. You're talking about two different situations. I said Black people do not care about other ethnic groups using "gga" in reference to themselves when they are in their circles. If it was within the rules I'd post a youtube video of a bunch of hispanics throwing it around at each other over 30X and no one would care. I did not say Black people do not care about Riley Cooper saying he's going to fight every "gger" in the joint.