Posted by Peter Ceresole on August 12, 2013 at 00:45:38 user PeterC.
In Reply to: TarBoard moderation and Re: Re Ransome's working-class characters and the use of certain words posted by Adam Quinan on August 11, 2013 at 12:10:34:
I would urge people to be careful in what they post and any offensive posts will be removed but, as Ransome did use the word in a manner that was typical of his time and not intended to be offensive, we should be able to discuss that if necessary.
I think that you are spot on there. Usage changes; when I was small, my father taught me that the proper word to use for an African was 'negro'. As used by AR in PD. But that certainly wasn't the commonly used word- rather la-di-da in fact. AR used common usage when it was right to do so. Nowadays you'd say 'black' which arose because of blacks in the USA re-appropriating a word which, when I was small, would be used in an insulting or belittling way. AR's use of the very-demotic extended to his letter writing too. As I cruised enjoyably through Hugh Brogan's splendid 'Signalling from Mars' yesterday, I saw that, in a letter to Pamela Whitlock (today I can't find the page ref, sorry) in which he was listing the multiplicity of people she should not be writing for, but only for herself, he includes 'Chinks', which wouldn't go down a storm in Limehouse or even Peking nowadays.
I really wish we could think of the context, and relax.