Mercedes Lackey Ejected From Nebula Conference For Using Racial Slur

[Mannahnin]

Not really. Either they considered it and so far deemed it acceptable or did not even feel the need to consider it at all. Because otherwise they would have changed it.

As simple as that, huh?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

given that the NAACP hasn't felt the need to change its name,

Trust me, there are a lot of us who wish they would. Still, it’s expensive and confusing when an established institution/organization changes its name.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Different word. Homonyms may be spelled the same but are different words.

It’s not a different word, it’s the same word with different accreted definitions due to use. Like “run”.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

It’s not a different word, it’s the same word with different accreted definitions due to use. Like “run”.

Ok.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When I was in London UK just a couple of years ago, that word was everywhere. Supermarkets aisles, in the names of chinese restaurants, everywhere. Once you noticed it it was hard to unnotice it. That news hasn't spread beyod the borders of the US yet!

No joke, in my hometown of New Orleans, you could find “Wop Salads” on menus all over the city well into the 1980s. And it didn’t really get fully replaced by “Italian salad” until almost 2000.

 

[MGibster]

It's not really for someone not on the receiving end to decide what is "silly" or not.

English is very often silly, but your point is valid.

You might be surprised how much such linguistic constructions can matter.

I agree. I think the general consensus here is that the words we use matters, and we should address people as they wish to be addressed.

Do you know whether they've considered a change, and do you think you're in an informed position to judge the various factors that go into such a decision for them? That "obviously" seems a bit dubious, to me.

According to the Reverend William Barber, former president of North Carolina chapter of the NAACS:

There has been some internal wrestling with the name, but one reason it hasn’t been changed is out of respect for history and the founders.

I can see where he's coming from. Changing the name might be seen as a slap in the face to folks like Walter White, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. DuBois. But as Barber said, the name is something the origanization has wreslted with. At any rate, I don't know if this particular tangent matters all that much. While I have no problem saying the entire name of the NAACP or the United Negro College Fund, I'm sure as heck not referring to any living person using either archaic description. English really is funny sometimes.

 

[billd91]

It obviously does not matter enough for the NAACP to rename itself NAAPOC because C is so offensive.

NAACP has a long and storied history under that name. They're not going to change it because you think there's some inconsistency about whether or not the term "colored people" is broadly considered insensitive or pejorative. Sometimes, that historical identity is more important than shifting terminology.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I much prefer black or Black as it is a color like white (and neither is accurate for the actual skin color). I honestly don’t know about others and how they want their skin color described. My wife and many Asians I know are offended by POC.

I go by “black”, as do my parents. While I’m not offended by terms like “African-American” or “PoC”, I know some are. Mom, for one, REALLY hates “African-American”, and you will unleash a lecture if you use it in reference to her.

(OTOH, Mom is a bit weird about terminology. She’ll give a different incensed lecture when someone in media says the phrase, “the N-word”. I always ask her “What would you have them say?”, which usually just gets me the Mom Eye.)

 

[Echohawk]

Elsewhere in the world, and in other dialects of English, the term may have entirely different connotations, however; for example, in South Africa, "Coloureds" refers to multiple multiracial ethnic groups and is sometimes applied to other groups in Southern Africa, such as the Basters of Namibia."

Until this thread popped up, I had absolutely no idea this was an offensive term in many places. It turns out that's simply because I happen to live in a country where it has an accepted, non-offensive meaning. Given my country's appalling history on matters of race, and acknowledging my own privilege—I'm a white South African with a multiracial family—I feel strongly that I have a particular duty to pay close attention to these issues. Consequently I'm grateful to have learned from this thread that a word I might innocently use in my country would be considered offensive elsewhere.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

She is also verbally dyspraxic; watch any YouTube interview with her and this is immediately obvious if you know what to look for. The stumbles are very brief, and usually she immediately corrects herself, and she is brilliant and articulate so that's the general impression one comes away with

All the more reason for a swift apology and an explanation. If she is indeed dyspraxic, she may be no more responsible for this slip than a Tourette’s sufferer who uses profanity & slurs.

That would turn this mess into a VERY teachable moment, as the saying goes. I personally never heard of her being diagnosed as such. Hell- I never heard her (or 99% of the authors on my shelves) speak.

And I wouldn’t be surprised to find the complaining panelist to be similarly in the dark.