Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Lists of ethnic and other slurs

Wikipedia has a List of ethnic slurs by ethnicity and a List of religious slurs.

Not listed are terms like racist, sexist, xenophobic, antisemitic, homophobic. 90% of the times these are just used as slurs -- ie, just name-calling for the purpose of disparaging someone. Calling a white man a racist is like calling a black man a nigger. It does not mean much, except to express some sort of disapproval.

Here are Michigan lawyers making a racial accusation:
The State Bar of Michigan issued an apology today and withdrew its honorable mention award for a story, Post-Conviction Relief, found to be embedded with racist cues and symbolism. At the same time, the State Bar announced the discontinuation of the contest that resulted in the award. State Bar officials were alerted to the issue by several members contacting the State Bar about the story’s racism.

“We cannot apologize enough,” said State Bar President Thomas C. Rombach. “The short story contest has been popular with many members. But if this result could occur even with the high caliber of the judges who conferred the award, the contest should be discontinued.”
Here is the fictional story. It does not mention the race of anyone. There is also commentary by the author, and by a racist hate site.

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