• Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    5 days ago

    A white man stood in the middle of an Atlanta street in broad daylight and brandished a gun at a Black FedEx driver after repeatedly calling him “boy,” a Jan. 22 video shows.

    I’ve had someone lose it at me on here when I told them ‘boy’ can be used as a racially based insult in the US. But what do you know, the same type of shithead I grew up with is still doing the same racist garbage 🤷‍♂️

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Someone got upset that you pointed out the racist undertones of that word when said with that tone? Must be tough for them going through life being so stupid and obstinate

    • Grimy@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Fun fact, Mr T chose his name because white people kept calling his dad “boy”.

      • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        5 days ago

        I can believe it! I’ve also heard that ‘man’ as a way of casually addressing someone emerged out of black people resisting the way black men got called ‘boy,’ and that it later made its way into mainstream culture.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Boy is fine if I’m talking to my son or if you’re Kratos. Boy is not fine talking to an adult man, especially if he’s black. That fucker needs jail time.

      • Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        5 days ago

        Pretty much exactly what’s in the video, aggressively and condescendingly calling someone ‘boy’ to degrade them. It goes way back in the US and is tied in to both Jim Crow and chattel slavery based racism, which revolved around the concept of black people not being equals to white people due to inherent characteristics of being black (BS, obviously). This led to racist white people referring to grown black men only as boys, not men. Yelling it in someone’s face while ordering them around is invoking that history and is basically just short of shouting the N-word to a lot of people.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          5 days ago

          Like a dog, you say ‘here boy’ to a dog — it’s like calling a woman a bitch. (And meaning it, not this new age ‘we’re taking the word back’ bullshit)

            • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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              5 days ago

              Because it is, or are you of the impression that calling someone a bitch isn’t an insult? Seems to me it’s still a pejorative, same with all the other ‘reappropriated’ words except for the n-word (contextually, I’ve heard black people use it as an insult too so go ahead and figure that one out for me).

              • VeganBtw@piefed.social
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                4 days ago

                There’s not much to figure out. If I use a certain tone, the word “queer” will still be used as pejorative, even if it’s mostly not these days. It sounds like you don’t really understand what you are complaining about, unless you have more to say to make your point?

                • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 days ago

                  The English language is not a tonal language, and it’s interesting that you bring it up — because I have only heard queer used as a pejorative.

                  Reappropriation does not work.

                  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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                    4 days ago

                    Never heard we’re here, we’re queer! Get used to it!

                    Never heard of Queer eye for the straight guy?

                    Never heard of Queer Nation?

                    Hmmm.

                  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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                    4 days ago

                    I have only heard queer used as a pejorative.

                    Then you haven’t been paying attention for the last 30+ years. “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” has been an activist chant since the 90s, started by a group called Queer Nation. The Q in LGBTQ+ stands for queer. If you were involved with the queer community, you would know that it is used as a self-identifier for any non-heteronormative person regularly these days.

                  • VeganBtw@piefed.social
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                    4 days ago

                    Maybe you live somewhere rural or something, I literally never heard it said as a pejorative except in movies, and I hear it plenty. People quite literally identify as queer around me, it’s a shining example of reappropriation working. People not getting with the program doesn’t mean the program isn’t working. For example, a lot of people don’t understand basic logical reasoning despite having been to school for a long time. It doesn’t mean school is new age bullshit.

                    Also, the word “tone” is polysemous. Maybe you didn’t know, but it makes me think I’m taking the troll bait?

              • Taleya@aussie.zone
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                4 days ago

                Bud, i’m Queer. Got some big ol’ history about taking weapons from those who would oppress us and turning them into windchimes my friend…

                • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 days ago

                  Listen, I understand that there’s this mentality that taking words back is somehow empowering. My counterpoint is that there’s a considerable number of men, at least where I live, who would take being called queer as an insult. They’d definitely take being called bitch as an insult, shit dude — maybe you’ve never met someone who went into prison but you do not call them a bitch. You’re likely to get the shit kicked out of you.

                  • Taleya@aussie.zone
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                    4 days ago

                    Mate. Buddy. Champ. These words will also get the shit kicked out of you.

                    Context.