Sticks and Stones

[pasithea]

may break my bones, but I disagree. I think names can hurt. I don't like that 'toughen up' poem.

More often though, names confuse me. I remember when I was young, hearing words like kike and spic and no having any idea what they ment at all. The person they were used to refer to seemed perfectly normal to me. Maybe in part that's why that sortof narrow-minded thinking didn't stick so well. The racists in my life just assumed that I would see the world through the same twisted eyes that they did.

Anyhow, someone mentioned this URL: http://www.rsdb.org/ It's a database of racist codewords for various peoples. Kind of disturbing when you see just how much of this stuff there is. At least now though when some ignorant asshat uses some expression like that, I'll be able to call them on it.

Comments

In case you haven't noticed.....

[plucky.livejournal.com]

You are wonderful. I've been lurking, watching you grow. When we met, you weren't really that passive but you were very introspective. Over the last couple of years I have noticed that the squirral has gone from peeking out of her treehole and gone to punk squirral throwing rotten fruit and nuts at assholes who get her and her loved ones. It is a beautiful sight and your aim has improved ever so much. BOING!

[blackbyrus.livejournal.com]

That's crazy there are so many of them, and even worse that so many of them seem to be towards black people. If that's not indicative of a racist culture(s), I don't know what is. Also, the ones I saw for whites were not nearly as bad as the ones for other races/ethnicities. Some are almost amusing in their non-offensiveness. I almost want to start calling myself Flour Bag now. XD (Though I agree anything can be hurtful, especially considering age. Kids used to tease me relentlessly about being super-pale in early elementary school, and it really stung back then.)