Re: Black Sheep Beer-black this, black that oh hahaha


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Posted by Jock on January 04, 2006 at 21:44:01 from 86.134.110.109 user Jock.

In Reply to: Re: Black Sheep Beer-black this, black that oh hahaha posted by Peter H on January 04, 2006 at 13:35:23:

Jock - first of all - I drink Black Sheep beer.

Wonderful! Perhaps we should discuss this out over a pint?

It is blindingly obvious to me that 'Black', when used of a sheep, refers to its colour and nothing else.

I am surprised that as an editor you should make this claim. Typing "black sheep of the family" into Google throws up "A worthless or disgraced member of the family." Clearly, an example of 'black' being used in the sense that you would proscribe. It was Paul Theakston who was having a joke at the expense of his family elders, not me at your expense.

I think Jock's attempt to make a joke out of 'niggardly' is the worst, and he ought to be ashamed of it. The word has an entirely different root and he knows it.

I wasn't trying to make a joke out of 'niggardly'. What I was trying to do was to show was that once you decide to make the changes that you advocate you find yourself on a slippery slope. You felt that we should avoid the negative uses of 'black' because any negative usage of the word 'black' is likely to offend. regardless of the fact that this usage goes back to the Greeks and Romans. It is legitimate for me to ask what you would do about 'niggardly' which although having a different root to 'n' has also caused offence.

Sadly, it is much easier to cut words which may have, or have not, racist overtones than to address the underlying issues. Banning such words doesn't stop people using language in a racist manner. I was depressed to read how a major USA TV network carried reports of the Los Angeles flooding. Black peolple were referred to as 'looting' supplies, while white people were referred to as 'finding' supplies.


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