Nice Old Kansas Fella Is Newest Accidental Racist
We think we all know that this nice old Kansas fella cannot be a racist, because of how he has black friends. But maybe he can accidentally be a racist when he says "nigger-rigged" during a meeting of the county commission he sits on, and then when folks were like "asphinctersayswhat?" he clarified that he was talking about "Afro-Americanizing" it instead. (Sadly, when it comes to Afro-Americans, we have determined that we no longer get to COMMAND that black women wear their hair just as we would want them to, in a kickass regal sexy and did we mention kickass afro, because we have learned that they are really motherfucking hard to maintain, and as queen of the world we would never mandate a hairstyle that took work.) Oh, right, then he said SOME MORE STUFF. By accident.
First, some blockquote for ya:
In a recording made by County Clerk Don Merriman of the study session, [Jim] Gile, who is white, can be heard to say the county needed to hire an architect to design the improvements rather than "nigger-rigging it."
His comment brought laughter from others in the room. Salinan Ray Hruska, who attends most commission meetings and study sessions, asked Gile what he said.
"Afro-Americanized," Gile replied.
And now some I Am Not A Racist
"I am not a prejudiced person," Gile said Friday. "I have built Habitat homes for colored people."
Gile said he also has a close friend whom he regards as a sister who is black.
"I don't ever do anything bad and don't know how to do anything bad. People know I am not," he said.
In addition to building Habitat homes, Gile has been involved with CAPS, DVACK, the Food Bank, Salvation Army and Salina Rescue Mission, and he helped start Hunger Barrel, Souper Bowl and Project Salina.
In 1989, Gile was awarded the JC Penney Golden Rule award for his volunteer work and he was given the Salina Award for Outstanding Citizen in 2009.
Aw you guys, he seems really nice. It was probably Reconstruction and Gold Chains got him down.
Chemically it is TiO2.
PS: Google Fiber showed up today in ATX along with my goat fucking Governor. Yeah me.
Another vote for no, that's not too old to know better.
From your 65-year-old internet friend whom you don't personally know, but MissT has met.
I would guess that they put this in the "who cares" category. And the answer to that is that "who cares" are the people who are being referred to.
You might ask them if they think it's okay to intentionally mispronounce the names of people who have non-standard-English spellings. ("Boner" vs "Bayner" does spring to mind here, but I'm thinking more of, e.g., "Sinead").
My personal theory is that you pronounce peoples' names the way they want them pronounced. If your folks can accept that, then they should be able to accept that you use collective terms that are broadly acceptable to the folks being referred to.