In the interview “The Racially Charged Meaning Behind The Word 'Thug” (2015), the National Public Radio’s Melissa Black interviews Columba University’s John McWhorter, and he describes the idea that there are different connotations of the word “thug” between the African-American race and the Caucasian American race, while simultaneously reviewing the word’s efficiency to describe Baltimore, Maryland’s violent protestors. McWhorter emphasizes that “thug” is a more polite version of the “N-word”. He describes how the word “thug” could be of a different meaning for black and white people, and analyzes the reason behind the rioters’ violent acts. McWhorter focuses on these three subtopics in order to allow the reader to comprehend the controversial meaning of the word “thug”. It is a strong possibility that the intended listener or reader of this interview is a linguist or any person who lives in the now racially sensitive 21st century.…
Sean McElwee overall claim in "The Case for Censoring Hate Speech" , is showing how people are easily influenced by the media, websites known as Reddit, Facebook, and twitter. Which allow bigot comments, #hashtags, and remarks to certain touchy topics. The article also talks about the two targets of hate speech, one being a way to target a minority and uplift sectarians of the world. The author uses words in the text to show a serious, concerned and progressive tone for the audience .In the article the author shows how he is progressive, by mentioning how we need to all blame ourselves and put forth effort to fix it.…
The words ‘terrible’ and ‘discriminatory’ represent the kind of word play used to incriminate the…
Swear words and obscenities are surrounded by negative insinuations that are frowned upon in society. This is why that when these words are used, people tend to become offended because these remarks are clearly an insult. Curse words are some of the most negative words used in language and by using them against others, the message can become even more harmful to the individual. In the article “The F Word”, Dumas’s brother’s original Iranian name Farshid became ‘Fartshit” (Dumas). By associating one’s name to a curse word, there are no implications about what the antagonizer thinks of the person.…
Popular media in our society exposes what we have collectively decided is passable behavior. If it can be published in Hollywood without the backlash of its audience, then it’s socially exceptable. In the case of such movies as Tropic Thunder, as observed by author Patricia E Bauer, while those unaffected by the movie’s harsh language may not care, it shouldn’t be so easy to dismiss those that were. The apathy in regards to the mentally disabled is a testament to a past of fear and lack of understanding towards them. Though the taboo behind the word is recognizable to us at this point, to many it’s still ok to use as long as they “didn’t mean it like that”. Bauer doesn’t have an issue with the word in its intended form. It’s the twisted use…
Goldhagen explains the German’s instinctive, demoralizing attitude towards the Jewish people that had been simmering and majorly progressed in the nineteenth century. The Germans endorsed this elimination themed antisemitism which easily turned into an extermination themed antisemitism once Hitler came to power. Goldhagen refers to this as “a demonological antisemitism [that] was the common structure of the perpetrators’ cognition and of German society in general.” The use of trivial excuses to justify the enormity of the abuse and murder further supports how little they valued a Jewish life and how easy it was for them to carry out these acts. The fact that this hatred toward a group of people was already their culture’s norm helped shape the extreme mentality where you can kill someone with the excuse of proving one’s masculinity or not wanting to be an…
This article was written about the topic of political correctness in American society. This is a very relevant subject in today’s political issues. Not until recently, has America seen such a push towards this idea of political correctness, to avoid saying certain statements, facts, or truths, just because it may “offend” an opposing viewpoint. The author believes that political correctness is extremely detrimental to American…
It should noted that classification, symbolization, and dehumanization all reinforce one another and are deeply intertwined. Racially or ideologically inspired hate speech inherently dehumanizes the "other", but is also simultaneously sharpens divisions within society…
During World War II, many Nazi’s did not believe in the perfect, Aryan race like Hitler but they did hate Jews. Now why did they hate Jews? Jews did not suffer nearly as much as others during the depression in Europe due to their work ethic and established businesses. When non-Jewish German’s saw the prosperity of the Jews in comparison with their poverty, the non-Jewish German’s pain and anger transferred to the Jews. Comparing the quality of life of the Jews to their own life, many non-Jews grew to hate Jews for their happiness. Throughout history many cases of hatred and prejudice came from comparison, displaying how comparison leads to hatred.…
The subjects of concern are the brave judges belonging to the 20th Century who were the pillars that laid the foundation of the First Amendment that called for what has widely become lingo – freedom of speech – but which has also become largely distorted and diluted in its meaning, in its context, and in its essence. Lewis reminds us what this amendment in the Constitution truly entails – the restriction laid on the government, the banning of offensive speech on the government’s part, is the focal point of the argument that Lewis puts before his readers. His advocacy for the first amendment and his reminder comes at a likely time for reminders, when the campaigns elections are in full swing, and when the State has been suddenly taken as if by a thunderous storm of hate speech, offensive speech, and what is tantamount to straight up vulgarity. Lewis reminds his audiences and jogs our memories back to the draft in the Constitution that deal so strictly with the issue of offensive speech. A timely judgment on Lewis’ part, this kernel of concentrated thought hits the mark with acute precision and with an iron fist, and puts many a cheek to the red blush of shame, and guilt, and…
In “The F Word” written by Firoozeh Dumas an excerpt from her autobiography titled Funny in Farsi, she talks about her struggles living in America from having a very different name, to not understanding English very well. Dumas uses examples from her childhood and all throughout her life to explain why she feels Americans are ignorant to new and different things. The author would like her audience to be aware of other cultures, and their names and lifestyles. She feels Americans were not open to accept her culture and difference, and instead of embracing it, they made fun and insulted what they were unsure of. Based on the simplicity of words she uses, the mild tempered language she includes, and how relatable her story is, I think she intended her audience to be anyone, but mainly clueless insecure Americans, and immigrants who all might have experienced this at some point. I will now break down Firoozeh’s excerpt for further analysis.…
When most people think about World War II, their thoughts go straight to the European front with concentration camps, Adolf Hitler’s regime, and Nazi racism of Jews. Millions of people died as a result of this profound racism, which caused this to be the most devastating war in history. What people tend to forget, though, is that racism existed not only in Europe, but in the Pacific front as well. John Dower wrote a historical text portraying the impudent behaviors of racial stereotyping in the countries of Japan and the United States. For example, Japan referred to Americans as “demons” and the U.S. referred to Japanese as “vermin.” Fueled by this tension, battles on the Pacific front greatly contributed to the overall number of casualties during World War II, thus making racism a very important factor. In Dower’s monograph, War Without Mercy, brutality of racism in WWII was demonstrated through the different ways Japanese and Americans stereotyped one another through the dehumanizing terms of “demons” and “vermin.”…
Cited: "Anti-Semitism." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005175>.…
The Anti-Defamation League 's annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents recorded 1,239 anti-Semitic incidents across the United States in 2010, which represents a 2.3% increase over 2009. These included 22 physical assaults on Jewish individuals (down from 29 in 2009). There were 900 cases of anti-Semitic harassment, threats and events (up from 760 in 2009). Lastly, there were 317 cases of anti-Semitic vandalism (down from 422 in 2009). (Anti-Semitism, 2010). These statics show a slight increase in incidents and that racism and anti-Semitism still exists in the United States. There is still problem in the United States with racism and anti-Semitism. Racism and Anti-Semitism has existed throughout history.…
[Abstract] euphemisms prevalent in the language of the world 's cultural phenomenon, it is widely used in all social strata and fields. Euphemism as a euphemism in one of the many, has its deep roots produced, in which packets of religion and politics, but also literature and history. This paper attempts to religion, race, politics, literature, history, in a bid to explore the emergence of English Euphemisms source. Language reflects life, and always closely linked with social, conversation in the language, due to a certain code of conduct and Ethics constraints, people often use the euphemism ---- the 'lubricant ', making harsh, non -…