^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy4Y20dOlKs

NJS_ Honestly, I associate "spic" with 60's and 70's films. In New York it comes from the hispanophone pronunciation of "speak", as in "noh spic eengleesh".
If somebody were to say spic to my face with full force of venom or sarcasm I would probably laugh at him as a modern day Rip Van Winkle and go on my way.

Well, while I defer to those with US experience of the usage, the cockney rhyming slang is a fact and relates to Italians, rather than Spanish people or people of Spanish descent but, maybe there is a serious point underlying our bandinage: It's not what we call people or what they call us, or whether people choose to point out evident racial differences, such as skin colour - but it is how we treat each other. I have a great friend, who is a Ceylonese Tamil, by birth and descent; old enough to recall British Ceylon. He is a doctor of philosophy and a member of the Bar. He calls me a "British bastard", owing to my refusal to accept his point of view over Empire. However, he is married to an English Rose (who sides with me on Empire), and we all get along famously: some of my most searching conversations I have had with him; sinking many a pint of Burton's IPA (!) in the process. The problem that I have with the lingiuistic censors is they they seek, primarily, to become historical revisionists and just about pretend that certain, nasty, recent things never happened at all - like racial segregation  and I supect that the linguistic censorship is strongest from those nations in which treating people differently and significantly on grounds of race continues. It is not enough to ban the use of certain words (which have become derogatory because the givers and the takers historically understood them to be derogatory), in order to avoid the fact that the behaviour between certain horribly ignorant individuals, within the different racial groups, has not actually changed. Behave well each to another and all will be well. That fundamentally simple principle seems to be underwritten by most mainstream religious, humanist and philosophical thinkers, yet so many people fail to get the message.

Last edited by NJS (2014-10-22 15:57:51)

Gents, for the record I deleted Kingston1an's post when he referred to Chevere as a 'spic' and I sent him a PM asking him to refrain. As he has now chosen to portray himself as subject to over zealous and politically correct moderation I will explain my approach.

'Spic', 'wop', 'dago' all mean pretty much the same thing in my book - all are in the lesser order of derogatory racial epithets. Everyone knows that such expressions might be used during banter between friends without causing offence. However when directed as a parting shot after a pointed disagreement the expression falls in the entirely different context of an insult. Whether the target, in this case Chevere, is offended by it is not the test I will apply.

As moderators we have to moderate and members who want to call others with whom they disagree racist names can desist from it or leave. Thank you.

Last edited by NJS (2014-10-22 18:07:43)

That Cuban Sandwich photo, to me, is worthy of the Van Buck tie.