Of course you didin't but it's clear to me that he used word "Polacks" with no intention to offend so what's the big deal?
Well this story was all over the news, so evidently many Poles and non-Poles felt it was newsworthy and a big deal.
Btw the word Polacks is clearly from word Polak so I don't know what the problem is
Yes English language word "Polack" is from the Polish word "polak" and "Polack" has a harder sounding P and K sound which was used in a derogatory context during the 1960's and 70's TV shows where Polish people were slurred. It was part of that anti-Polish TV era of "Dumb Polack Jokes" which were meant to insult Polish people.
I'm gonna give the ex-mayor a pass and this is why. In my neck of the woods the Poles have co-opted the "p-word" similar to blacks using the n-word. I hear it all the time. Staś asks his black friend "where is that polak Jaś". They call each other "dumb polak", so on and so forth.
Well like I said in my first post, I give Marion Barry a pass as far as him saying the P-word maliciously. Its clear he was not saying the P-word to malign Poles. Ironically, he was using the word to sympathize with Polish people "catching hell" in the US.....which he is right about. His P-word comment was more said out of ignorance then anything else. But the story was newsworthy because most Poles and non-Poles thought an ex-mayor of Washington DC would know better than to use that word.
As for those unsophisticated Poles who use the P-word and parrot other Hollywood anti-Polish media messages like "dumb Polack" in an attempt to "co-opt them", that's no better than those Italians calling each other dumb waps or Jews calling each other hooked nosed Kikes or Blacks calling each other Niggers.
Is it so wrong for decent people to critique the crude language of others to raise the level of conversation? Or should we all just settle for crude unsophisticated language?
. Unless told otherwise, as our african american brothers have done, non-Poles will assume it's ok and cool to use the offensive word......just a thougt
Yes......that's the point.
I've said it before on the forum many Latinos or Blacks don't know that the word Polack is offensive. They hear it said and think it simply means a Polish person. Besides who cares, Marion Barry is a ex crackhead with holes in his brain.
To your point, I have also heard white people say the P-word in a degrading way about Polish people, but I have ALSO heard white people and non-white people say it in a neutral way about Polish people.
But there are also people out there who use words like wop for Italians, Kike for jews, Nigger for Blacks in a non-deragatory way because they don't know better. Now MOST people know better then to use these terms for these groups because these groups have been vocal in the past, speaking out against these ethnic slurs about them.
