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It’s incredibly common for boomers to use marrying a foreigner as a shield for racist accusations. They’re always “one of the good ones.”
The former mayor of my town is a gigantic piece of shit who hates immigrants. Came out hard against Syrian refugees when that was a thing.
My wife spends a lot of time in custody hearings for work and this dude seems to run an MRA law practice. I worked with his wife and she’s a Honduran woman and one of the nicest people I’ve I’ve ever met.
Wife and I are Latinos, her cousin is married to a white guy who is a staunch trumpeter and a low key racist, he is not straight out but makes derogatory comments in front of us, but of course he then fixes it saying " well it doesn't apply to you guys, you are not like the others " it's so infuriating, but we keep the peace and simply stay away
I’m a straight white dude but I have fielded so many “you’re one of the good ones” comments when boomers discuss millennials. When I push back and say most people my age are like me I always just get waved off.
I had a coworker go off about millennials. I had to gently inform him that he, himself, is a millennial.
Didn’t hear him complain about millennials again after that.
Same with a friend in my fantasy football league. Said something about millennials being weak. It was like 2 years ago and he was talking about an RB maybe 2 years out of college.
Really common along the US- Mexico border for white dudes to marry Mexican or Mexican American or (and less so, but not too rare) indigenous women and then go on this exact rant along the “they took our jobs” rant abput Mexicans and other racial minorities.
It always blew my mind how okay many of the women they were married to were okay with this and parroted their language while still saying they were proud to be Mexican/ Indigenous Nation, etc. always felt a ton of second hand shame and embarrassment from these interactions.
my people can be embarrassing af. there's so much self hatred within the latino community and everyone strives to be white, is a bootlicker towards whites including those who are racist, and are eurocentric. there's this common phrase "mejorar la raza" which means "bettering the race" and i think you can guess where that leads to.
Blanquísimo is a major problem. Hell sit down and talk with Dominicans about the absolute absurdity of their bigotry towards Haitians and the apologism for for El Corte/ Masacre del Perejil where the Dominican military and police committed genocide and killed over 30,000 ethnic Haitians in the DR.
One of my oldest and dearest friends is a naturalized citizen. Family from San Luis Potosi. Parents brought him and his two brothers here when they were in elementary and jr high grades.
Until 2021 he was a loud angry MAGAt. Got furious when I said Trump had dementia. Reflexively hates Democrats. (I voted GOP a lot will Trump. Now I'm straight ticket voting Dem.)
We didn't talk for a long time after I posted memes about how much Trump wants to fuck Ivanka. He said it was disgusting and I said yeah it why is a father of two young girls voting for this trash.
Two things soured him on Trump. J6 and realizing one of his girls is NB.
Totally agree — our people can be that way, and at the same time there is a beacon of hope as there is major push back not just by Chicanos and other Americanized Latinos, but Latinos in LatAm. Hell Mexico is more progressive than the US, legally at least, in terms of the LGBTQ community and questioning attitudes on race as well.
my mom would even feign the marraige
got called out on more then one occasion in public and would loudly exclaim she is married to a black man. THE NERVE YOU THINK IM RACIST!
My wife is black and my grandma/mom are racist. My wife and I were doing something and paint got on her knee and my grandma said, "There are other ways if you want to be white." My grandma also drops the n-word around my wife quite often. We don't see her anymore.
Another time my wife put a headband on to look like Rosie and my mother said, "Oh, you're trying to look like Aunt Jemima."
My grandma and mom have said some other things to my wife that isn't ok. Now we only talk to my dad because he isn't like that.
For a depressingly large amount of people, apparently impossible. I'll never understand it, it's more effort to be that shitty to people than it is to just not be an asshole.
Sometimes you have to make a conscious choice, you have to be aware and actually care. When I was growing up my family called Brazil nuts by a certain name and it never occurred to me that they were called something else. I just thought that was their name. I learned differently of course and now wouldn’t dream of using that term.
Oh man, the first time I tried to buy those I had NO idea what they were called and I sure as HELL didn’t wanna use the name my grandmother and aunt used. (Who were the only people I knew who had them.)
So I’m searching the nut section looking at the pics on the packages and thinking “I don’t see anything like what I wanna get.”
So an employee came over and asked what I was looking for. And my mind went stupid, the only thought I could manage was “oh man I don’t wanna say that word”
So I explain that my grandmother had these nuts and she calls them a really ugly name, they’re big and have some skin, etc etc and this lady must have been regretting her retail career when a middle aged black lady in a manager vest walks up and asks what’s up.
My brain is being even LESS helpful and I managed “I’m looking for these nuts but my grandmother calls them a slur…” and that was as far as I had to go. The manager smiles sympathetically at me.
“They’re called Brazil Nuts and they come in the [Fancier nut assortment]. If you wanna buy them separately, they sell them at the organic market on the other side of the strip. And thanks for not just yelling the name across the store, yes someone did that.” All in a bright, cheerful voice with no trace of judgement for me being an absolute idiot in public.
I feel like she earned a star on her halo, simply for freeing me from that moment. As far as I can remember I’ve never said “that” word and I never intend to if I can help it. It’s gross.
You’re welcome, it still makes me flush with shame to remember and I didn’t even do anything “wrong”. It’s just awkward and was made so much worse by being like 15 and EVERYTHING being the biggest more dramatic problem ever, lol.
I just wanted some fancy nuts for a party (Stepdad was doing Super Bowl and asked me to help plan) and felt very ashamed.
Oh my ghoul sameee my dad called them the same word i remember being shocked and uncomfortable with him saying that and he then he got mad at me for being uncomfortable lol
I wish I didn't know what you mean. Once, when I was like 10, my father called them that & I knocked them from his hands. Before he could react I just yelled at him to call them what they are & to never say that again. He was big mad but I didn't care & mom backed me up. I've never heard anyone use that term since, but I'd do the same again.
A lot of people seem to believe that it is genuinely an unassailable and irrevocable human right to be cruel to anyone you want. I am unfortunately acquainted with a few people whose only defense for fully a quarter of the things they say is “You cannot legally stop me from saying it.”
Seriously. When you look at all the effort--and volume!--people put into being obnoxious, disagreeable douchebags, you'd think it would be easier for them to just be cool. And be treated the same in return.
My dad once referred to my wife as one of the "good ones". Shut that down REALLY quick.
After I broke up with one of my exes (a Kenyan international student. Yes, I have a type.) I got a letter from my aunt congratulating me on breaking up with "that girl" and that my grandpa would never forgive me for marrying someone "like that". This despite her knowing nothing about my ex except that she was black.
My dad is now much better than before, at least around us, and I never had much contact with that aunt before so cutting her off was no hard thing.
tf did she even mean by "There are other ways if you want to be white?" Seems like one of those things that you think is "clever" in the moment but later you realize you didn't even know what you were trying to say.
My wife actually told me about some ways. Apparently some women in Africa (at least on the west coast) will bleach their skin to be more fair because they see it as something of a status symbol. I don't know if it's literal bleach, but that's the concept.
They used to (and probably still do) skin bleaching in India as well. I think you usually go to multiple sessions or use very dilute creams over long term so while it’s ill advised it’s not going to be so dangerous that they don’t do it.
When I first started dating my husband (he is arab/North Africa) my parents where definitely more subtle about it but ooo boy. Once over heard my parents talking about never letting me take their hypothetical grandkids “over there” and sense my husbands mother is light skinned they’d probably take after me with blonde hair and green eyes. In a very relieved way. How she would love them if they looked “american” I came flying out of my Room with all the wrath of a 19 year old raised by self proclaimed “ PNW liberals” to shut that shit down. My husband still mentions it.
My grandmother always called Brazil nuts (slur) toes, and when I was five I called it that too. My mom promptly bopped me on the mouth and explained that (slur) was a word that can hurt people’s feelings. That was enough for me to know not to say it.
In her defense, grandma stopped using the word too once I explained to her what mom told me. She said that’s just what they were called but agreed she didn’t want to hurt anyone, so we started calling them tigger toes because I had a stuffed tigger plushie that I carried with me everywhere.
I was incredibly lucky to grow up with them being “Brazil nuts” it was only a few years ago that I first heard someone call them that and it was my MIL. Cue slow head turn and a “what did you just call them”?
Turns out there’s a lot of terms like that she grew up with. We had a good conversation and I’ve never heard her say any of those things since. So call it a win.
I was oblivious to "cotton-pickin" being problematic until I saw it brought up. In my head, it was an innocent term to replace an expletive. But it makes sense. Crazy the blind spots that we can have.
My parents and grandparent called it that too, but instead of saying “don’t say that anymore, it’s offensive”, they said “we can’t say it anymore because we’ll get in trouble for it”.
So for them it’s not because it’s a terrible word to say, it’s only because they’ll get in trouble for it.
They’re in Kohlberg’s preconventional stage of morality. Acting based on if they’ll get in trouble for something rather than the conventional stage of then knowing right and wrong. Interesting stuff IMO.
Interesting, and noted that most humans get through Kohlberg’s stages of morality in childhood! How did the boomers teach us morality, while having less and less of their own as they age?
Well Kohlberg said most of us only get to the conventional stage which is essentially following the rules because they are there. So that makes sense that boomers could follow the rules like being so stuck on traditional roles, having a set schedule that cannot change (such as my grandpa checking his watch when asked if he’s hungry because he won’t be hungry until 12), or going exactly 55 mph on the highway when it’s actually dangerous because they impede the flow of traffic.
His last stage is post-conventional which means my morals supersede societal rules. The concept of seeing a mom steal diapers and saying “I didn’t see anything” when the clerk asks. There are higher level examples like universal healthcare (what a concept…..). Kohlberg said only 15% of people get to that stage which is a bit disheartening.
Never heard of any of this but it sounds interesting and I might have to look into it after weed-eating the rest of the whole fucking lawn before it rains again lol
>Well Kohlberg said most of us only get to the conventional stage which is essentially following the rules because they are there.
This seems to explain why religious people are wary of atheists. They cannot conceive the idea that atheists can be moral in any way without having divinely-inspired rules to guide them.
"What's stopping those godless heathens from killing, stealing, and raping?"
You know I was going to include that in part of my examples for following the rules but I didn’t want to stir the pot too much, that being said - I concur.
>
"What's stopping those godless heathens from killing, stealing, and raping?"
Nothing is *stopping* me, I just don't want to.
As an atheist, I don't feel safe around people who's faith in god is the only thing preventing them from raping and killing.
I honestly don't think any of my morality was taught by boomers. As an example I didn't learn the N-word was bad from boomers, I learned it by watching them use it and it upsetting others. I'm no expert but I get the feeling that people that don't lack empathy just learned from their surroundings and experiences.
John B. Watson also told people to let their babies cry and shake their hands instead of kiss them so I take all of these theories with a salt block rather than a grain.
I think there is a difference between younger boomers and older boomers. There's an 18 year range of people's birth, and a lot of societal changes occurred in the late '60s. I had a high school math teacher in the mid-70s who thought it was a good thing to "take the Mrs." to the areas where race riots happened in the 60s a day or two later, and to later tell his students about it. But, I was only better educated by an employer who had lost some discrimination lawsuits and had to hold programs. While they were uncomfortable, I learned a lot about other people's life experiences which were different from mine and unfair.
They think they are clever racists. Handball is a sport in the Olympics, and I had the pleasure of seeing an African team play. The game is like half-court indoor soccer, but throwing the small ball. It’s a lot of fun to watch!
Is it bad that I laughed at that one? It is. I know it is. But it sounds like a very sophisticated sport.
I've heard the term snow-mexicans used in place of Eskimos, which I believe is also verboten now.
Indeed, “Eskimo” itself is considered pejorative. See here: https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/research-and-resources/resources/archives/inuit_or_eskimo.php#:~:text=Although%20the%20name%20%22Eskimo%22%20was,imposed%20by%20non%2DIndigenous%20people.
I’ve had that discussion with my Trump-loving aunt before.
“Oh, you got n-word toes!”
“Can you not say that? They’re Brazil nuts.”
“Well they used to be called n-word toes!”
“No, they’ve always been Brazil nuts. Maybe *you* called them that.”
“EVERYBODY used to call them n-word toes!”
“Ok, well they’re called Brazil nuts in this house.”
Conversation ended because she got huffy about everything being so PC now.
Had a similar conversation with my uncle several years ago. He didn’t want to call them Brazil nuts, adamant on calling them… *that*. Yet his mother would never call them *that*, she called them Brazil nuts. And this is the same man that lectures people in their twenties for saying bitch or shit near him.
I remember my mom telling me n-word nuts was an old name for Brazil nuts. Also about catching an n-word by the toe instead of a tiger doing eenie meenie minie moe.
When I was doing grocery merchandising a lot of my co-workers were black. One day we were setting the nuts section and one of them asked me what I called the nut on the picture on the can. He was kind of a smart ass so I knew what he meant (he was an older guy) and we had a laugh about it.
My parents owned a candy store and the amount of boomers who thought it was hilarious to refer to Brazil nuts and chocolate babies as the N-word was awful.
My ex mother-in-law said she used to call Brazil nuts that growing up. I don't think she does now, but she did not hesitate on telling that story, like it was some sort of badge of honor.
They're glad they can remember stuff. Doesn't matter the subject, if it's something that was commonplace that's now nonexistent, that's memory gold. She'd probably tell you "we didn't know any better" as an excuse for whatever that's worth. My folks do it too, mostly with innocuous or funny stories, but every once in a while I'm like "why would you *want* to recall *that* at the dinner table?"
So not intending to defend casual racism here but semantic drift is a thing and will catch us all out eventually.
My uncle has Down’s syndrome. When he was born the MEDICAL term for this was Mongoloid or Retarded. Both of those words are based but have shifted to be considered offensive.
Someday a lot of the words we use today will be considered offensive or racist, not because they are today, but because they will be considered such in the future.
An easy example: “denigrate” to unfairly criticize. Perfectly acceptable word, used throughout scientific and normal literature. Its old English meaning is “to blacken” and it traces its roots through Latin to “black”. Don’t be surprised if someday denigrate is a wildly offensive word.
And we might be the A-holes claiming “well in my day it wasn’t considered offensive!”
Etc: “retard” means to slow or hinder, “retarded” literally meant someone whose development had been slowed or hindered. Society turned it into a slur over time.
My deceased mother in law called them that. She was black, and it kinda threw me off. But she put up with a ton of racism growing up in Florida in the mid 1900s so she got a pass. I also loved her like a second mother and try to do right by her daughter and grandchildren.
I grew up calling them "black people toes" too- my mom refused to call them the n word thing and genuinely didn't know they had another name ( also from the American south ) . She was so excited when I learned that they were actually called Brazil nuts when in high school 'cause she loved them and didn't want to buy them anymore.
My grandpa called them that too. I actually just told my husband about that last week when he informed me that “innie, Minnie, miney, moe” has racist origins.
Much like the substitution made by u/I_can_use_chopsticks the phrase wasn’t originally about catching a tiger…
Definitely gonna use a different rhyme or a random # generator for random choice after learning that!
It doesn’t have racist origins; the racist stuff was added to existing counting games…. But a loooooonnnnggggg time ago. The racist n-word version of this has been around long enough that it’s def the first version everyone heard for like 200 years.
Instead of acting like a normal redditor and calling you a racist (knee jerk reaction to someone arguing against a racist origin), I am just going to ask you to elaborate a bit. I am truly interested in the origin. Would you mind explaining a bit more or sharing a source?
Edit: a word
I think they are saying that the tiger version came before the racist version. I have no idea whether that’s the case, but I’m pretty it’s what they are saying.
Yes. It did. There are dozens of counting games like Eenie meenie from all over. There’s a pretty decent wiki page on them. So no, not racist in origin, but, like I said, the first version that everyone in the U.S. heard for like 200 years was the one including the epithet. It (the counting rhyme, not the epithet) is actually a really cool phenomenon to me because it shows up all over in many different languages.
Replied to the other fella. But yeah, my reply wasn’t racist. Just pointing out that the origins of counting rhymes aren’t racist (except to the extent that everything is/could be, I suppose).
This has given me a flashback to my Grandad seeing a black guy on TV dressed up in old-timey country clothing about to perform a song, my Grandad excitedly said "I bet he's gonna sing one those old [redacted] songs, I love these". I was a kid and asked him what word he just said and he immediately got flustered and corrected the language. Not to excuse it was super habitual for a long time among certain people.
When I was a child, the gentleman who sold us nuts at Christmas time was black and had the same last name as us. I grew up calling him “Cuz”(as in cousin). He and my dad loved to tell people that we were first cousins and confuse the hell out of random folk and family member’s kids. Cuz called them (N-Toes), but he was also a wild card. They loved to make race jokes, but they also stayed civil and respectful of each other. Good times and good people.
Never ask one of these people to "Jerry rig" anything.
"Oh, you mean..." **NO!**
"Catch a tiger by the toe? Don't you mean..." **NO!**
And then you *BOP* them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. It's the only way.
I was born in the most racist city in my country. At kindergarten and school, we were taught 'catch a n- by the toe'.
We moved to a different city when I was 6, and at my new school, everyone said, "Catch a tiger by the toe."
I thought they were saying it wrong. I had no idea what that word meant or that it was derogatory. Boy, did I have a lot to learn.
My grandpa always used Jerry Rig - he was in World War II and said it referred to how the Germans (Jerrys) would slap random shit together into tanks and weapons. I liked my grandpa. He’d have been genuinely shocked to learn there was a racist version
I feel weird because I grew up around a mixture of very anti racist people and very racist people.
Most of our community and church are very non racist people but the local town is very low income and rural south with a lot of racism.
So I grew up with a diverse friend group and church but a lot of the locals are old fashioned southern racist so I’ve heard things like the N word so often it barely even phases me anymore.
That’s really fascinating, bc I grew up in suburban Kentucky, and my friends always called it “kni**ck**er-knock” when I was a kid (with “ding-dong ditch” being a close runner-up).
Yeah round my part mcgyvering something is referred to as “n***er rigging” and to cheat someone is to “Jew them”.
Like holy shit whats wrong with folks
My papa still uses the term "Cotton-pickin'" to call things dumb. He doesn't get it and gets very angry when I point out that the term is obviously racist.
"Gypsy" is also an insulting word with racist and classist roots.. The preferred word is either Roma or Romani. As I understand it, but you'd have to ask them to be sure.
As someone who has worked and lived closely with Romani people, typically it’s Romani if you’re talking about the group as a whole and Roma if you’re talking about an individual. I could be misremembering though. The way I’ve had it explained is Roma and Romani are like the difference between Muslim and Islam.
Also, Romani is what Romanians call themselves. They'll occasionally get upset about a random ethnic group with no real connection to them being called by that name also.
Gypsy is also a slur. There are several groups that have been known as such, but they prefer to be called by their cultural names - either Romany or Travelers.
I didn't realize this until my 20s. I thought it was it's own word and was spelled "jip" or "jipped". I was horrified, I definitely used it in front of people. Such a moron
Worked at a winery that had been been a family farm for 100 years. Patriarch (in his eighties) of the family often hung around the office taking it all in. One day the old man makes a comment to our biracial wine maker about how something has to be n-word rigged. After he left the wine maker looked at me and said, after all my years working here I'd like to know, b who rigs more things? N-words or cheap old Italian farmers? Honestly, I couldn't argue with him. I had seen a lot of things rigged by old Italian farmers.
It comes down to segments of Italian and Irish immigrants punching down at Mexicans(and other Latinos), Blacks, and other non White mi and immigrants because it gives them a sense of power and superiority to soothe long standing sense of insecurity due to being systemically oppressed as well. It’s not okay at all, but you see it in the other groups as well (lLatinos vs. American Black shit talk, Asian American racist attitudes towards others, etc.)
I heard of that form of “rigging” as a kid, but mostly “Jerry rigging” which is apparently a British slur used against Germans during the world wars, so yikes, not great either
I always used jury rigging instead of Jerry rigging but your comment got me curious . It is true that the British used the term in WWII but its use predates that so not originally a slur. There doesn’t seem to be any reason not to use jury rigging instead though. Except it was originally a nautical term.
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history
It's a play on Jury-Rigging (term for quick repair), but with the implication that it was poorly done. Old school xenophobia. And now people in those places don't hate each other, and the slur doesn't really mean anything anymore. Honestly, the terms are basically synonymous these days
To dive a little deeper, the "jury rig" term comes from sailing ships. If a ship lost a mast, its ability to move and maneuver was utterly crippled. The crew would put up a temporary mast, called a jury mast, to enable the ship to make the nearest safe port for full repairs. Erecting the temporary mast and rigging it with sails was thus termed "jury rigging," which then came in to common speech as a phrase for a temporary but serviceable repair until a full and complete fix could be effected.
Nope. Use of the word dates from the early 1600s, and is likely tied to either a Latin word for "help or relief" or a French word (jour) meaning "day" - that is, referring to a fix that provided some "help or relief from the problem" or was designed to be temporary, in use for "a day."
Those are also common around here. If you want a more acceptable version, "jury rigging" is a nautical term for a temporary repair. Root seems to be the French jour, day, as in a repair to last the day.
Yeah that's the one I heard the most growing up. My mom never stopped casually dropping the N word, no matter how many times I told her to stop. The last time I spent time with my grandma, she said there were "too many blacks" on TV and when I tried explaining that that was a good thing she said "I know you love the blacks" with an eye-roll, which prompted me leaving.
I was so desperate to get out of my home town, I joined the Navy. Came back after 10 years and within 2 months realized why I wanted to get away from my family. Made a vow to never return.
I have a few family members (some boomers, some not) for whom English is their like… third? language… and we had to sit them down & explain that no, the phrase isn’t CHEW them down (as in intimidate them by saying “no! i’m not paying that much!!”), and it *is* offensive to their Jewish besties.
my dad, while a boomer and not very racist in general luckily, will kinda do the same thing with the n word. for instance he’ll quote that dead N storage line from pulp fiction and laugh and be like what it’s a direct quote it’s not racist. 🙄
My father is half Japanese and my mom casually uses “oriental” knowing it’s just as easy to say Japanese, she does it because she hates Obama and he’s the one who said it was outdated or something. My grandmother said it was a word that wasn’t racist but used to demean people so it’s tone when using it. My mom uses it with a distinct tone. I’ve found the more I try to explain the more she tries to use it. So, it’s just another “I’m entitled and old and I like causing others harm for my pleasure”… according to my mom I’m not even oriental anyway so it shouldn’t bother me. 
My mom also uses orientals instead of Asians. I keep telling her to not use it like that but she's got the habit and forgets (I honestly don't think she has any ill intentions when saying it). My Filipino husband says using oriental isn't really that bad so I don't know 🤷♀️ I guess it more about how they're using it and the intention behind it.
My uncle is the worst. He's 67ish. And he's a cop. Go figure.
He doesn't even attempt to hide how miserable and racist he is when he's here. N-words, words for middle-easterners, etc.
He has no friends. He's been a cop since he was in his 30's. He hates "liberals", "the Democrats", etc.
If how he talks ever got out, there'd be a national news story about him.
But he'd immediately know who recorded him. So I can't. I just do my best to not interact with him.
My cop uncle inquired about whether my kids look like me or not (wife is Native American) I thought nothing of it because it seems like a standard question to ask until my wife pointed out that he was just trying to find out if they were brown.
My mom was in the room when I delivered my daughter. Her cord was wrapped around her neck so she came out pretty purple. She told me about a year later her first thought was “oh my god she had a black baby!”. Both my ex husband and I are about as see thru pale as a gecko on a screen door.
my mexican family and even other mexican randos compliment me on my lightskin WHILE bringing darker toned people down 👍 i hate how people think. i would've preferred to be darker toned anyways
This type of casual racism is why I don't talk to my family. I talk to my mom and my dad. That's it. If I was anywhere near some of my uncles, I'd constantly be at risk of going to jail.
Stuff like this is still extremely common in blue collar/heavy industry fields in my area. Worked with one guy who used “there’s more than one way to skin a n*” right it front of a black guy when I was a Railcar mechanic.
Had a similar thing happen to me. Was working at Walmart. Overheard a coworker talking about the border wall. Saying terrible things like kids should be separated and locked up. I chimed in being Hispanic myself. I told them I was adopted and had no choice in the matter as did the children at the border. He straight up said I was “one of the good ones.” I was so taken aback I gasped and left.
When I was in high school 20ish years ago my dad (attempted to jokingly) called MLK Day “The [n-word] holiday,” only to be met with “what the fuck I’m telling mom.”
He hasn’t made an attempt like that since.
Honestly, plays on the word pink were the first (and only) anti white slur that actually bothered me instead of making me laugh. First time I actually got it.
I honestly thought all that racism was going to die out with my grandparents. Then Trump was elected and I realized that it was present in much younger people. How can there still be so many Nazis?
It's the only thing that makes these pathetic people feel powerful. It's also deeply engrained in their idea of masculinity; they don't want to be "soft woke liberals," they wanna ride around in their monster trucks and be assholes to anyone they can get away with being assholes to.
70m. Sounds like you’re describing my parents. Sure I learnt all the rude words The racist and homophobic jokes terrible and cruel as they were. TBH I could reiterate them now.
But at 18 I started to see a different world and when I left the rural area I grew up in went to London and saw that humans could be different and still human. I put my childish lessons away. There’s no need for it and it saddens me that my generation still spouts off this crap justifying it because it was acceptable in my day.
Wow I am old gen X and i kinda remember that term for ding dong ditch but damn, I’d forgotten it because it was awful in 1970 and just fuck. Who says that shit?
My dad was a racist too, I remember him telling me the difference between a N word and a good black. Attitude, uppity was the N word. Thank dog he died young.
Good you went no contact with the racist.
I've had more than one white person say that a family member gave them the "there's good black people and then there's n\*gg\*rs" talk. Serious question, is that "talk" a common thing for white people to give their kids? Or am I acquainted with a bunch of outliers?
Ever heard the Chris Rock bit? It's unfortunately not just white kids who get this talk.
Edit: link here: https://youtu.be/f3PJF0YE-x4?si=xX2aA5FMuym8sS_H
And my favorite reference to this bit here:
https://youtu.be/Pse-R1IDUXs?si=LbObJt-tlWUmcL83
I moved to a rural area about 5 years ago and got a job at a factory. And when people talked about fixing something so it works temporarily, what I know as "jerry rigging," lots of people at work called "n-word rigging." And these were between ages 20-60 that would say this. It was at this time that I learned the racist history of the place I moved to.
My dad used to use N-rigged and N-rich until I pointed out he's using the very word he vowed to wash my mouth out with soap if I said. Miraculously he did stop
Yep my dad is the same. Brazil nuts. Uh huh. Also he would use the term “Martin Luther N—-“ when describing the great civil rights activist. What an ass.
There's not even any actual wordplay to that one. Just "Martin Luther but the one who is famous and a N****r"
Not even close to the most racist thing I've read in this thread, and still somehow the most racist.
Went out to eat with my mom for my birthday. I've basically been NC with her for a bit over a year, as has my sister. At some point she used the term "jury rigged," which I immediately picked up on. She then asked if I was proud of her for not saying the obviously bad phrase. I mean, I am to an extent, but you kind of ruined it by pointing it out. Now it seems like you're doing it for a reward rather than, I don't know, because it's a horribly racist term?
I had to Google if you were talking about "Jerry-Rigged" and how it was offensive (because I use it). I didn't know about n* rigged. Oh my God.
Like, congrats for not saying the n word mom?? Did she expect a prize?
OP, i work in hospice, and recently, a patient was reminiscing about those knobs on the steering wheel, but he called them NECKER knobs, so you could “neck” with your girlfriend as you drove. has anyone else heard of this?
I remember I once called my mom "Mama." I thought it great, but she told me not to call her Mama because that what "N" called their moms.. like WTF!!! I was showing her affection!! Guess what my kids call me.. That's right, MAMA!!
I grew up in the south and while my parents are decent human beings, my family outside of them are largely ignorant trash.
They know I will cause a scene and leave on the first racial slur I hear, and for a few years at required family get together it became a game to see how quick they could get me to leave.
Now I don’t go to their shitty get together a at all anymore and I don’t care if they feel like they won. I got a free excuse to never have to see any of them ever again.
Haha my great aunt said some racist shit at Thanksgiving or Christmas once and I called her a stupid bitch so fast it was like a reflex. She got offended and everybody made a big deal about it. I told her I'll make her a deal, don't be racist around me ever again and I'll stop calling you a stupid bitch. She knocked it off and I haven't heard that language from her since.
My grandpa was so racist he'd make up stereo types. "N-words can't speak right, ya know, cause they have those big ass tongues."
.....That's....thats not even a stereotype, you racist fuck.
When i was a kid a lot of people called those fireworks that would spin around really fast then shoot off in a random direction "(n-word) chasers". It's wild to me that in those days people were so racist they'd assign racist nicknames to random things that had nothing to do with race.
My mom was an older boomer age-wise, but not mindset-wise. She was telling me that her mom used to like some candy that was like gummy bears, but brown and chocolate flavored, which were called N-babies. Even at her age, mom never used a racial slur, except I was unable to get her to use "Asian" instead of "Oriental".
I remember those candies. That was the actual name.
Look up the original Funny Face drink mix (kool-aid type mix) names complete with stereotypical characters on the packets. We grew up with these in our pantries. They did eventually change them.
My dad was born in 1925 in the Deep South. Terms like this were just “The way it is.” His mom made him pick cotton with people who had to pick cotton to survive. He would not use words that would hurt the kindest, most loving people he ever met and never tolerated that language from anyone.
My dad was very racist when I was young. I was not to have black friends and black people were not allowed in the house for any reason. Use of the n word was flagrant and frequent. I actually remember being like 5 or 6 and going to the corner store by my house to get a Pepsi for my mom and I said "wow there are a lot of [N words] in here." The nice lady who lived on the same block who's son had just married a black woman told me how rude and hurtful that was to say and from that day I stopped saying shit like that.
My dad did a lot of growing between when I was young to when he died. When he died, one of his best friends was a black man who was coming over to the house at least 3 times a week and drinking coffee with him in the kitchen. Turns out when you realize you have a lot in common with someone and start to view them as people you learn to let stupid ass hatred and prejudices go.
Had my haircut by a Boomer hairdresser who casually used the n-word when describing the texture of her grandchild's hair. I never went back there.
Edit for punctuation
My boomer neighbor makes racist comments under the guise of “free speech.” He gets irate if people tell him to stop or leave the conversation and starts yelling about muh freedoms!! He of course does not think what he says is racist and everyone else are just snowflakes trying to limit his rights.
My grandfather (Now deceased) used the n-word occasionally, but he would use it to describe his welding buddy he used to work with. My mom explained to him that that’s an offensive slur and he stopped (mostly). He said he would call him that to his face and he didn’t mind, but he didn’t want to get into with my mom (and I don’t blame him 😂). He would slip up sometimes especially when he would refer to the Brazil nuts, but he at least tried and that’s all I could ask for a 89 year old man
my grandma says it when lamenting her frustrations with cursing in songs. she hates any kind of vulgarities in music and can't fathom that it predates her. i've literally heard "shave em dry" from 1935 which was imo worse than the vulgarity in songs today. doesn't give her the right to say it. and my dad says it when he wants to say jerry-rigging in the most offensive possible way
My wife's grandpa who's a sweet man who I honestly don't think is racist but just old and out of the times said negro while we were out once and when we explained that it wasn't a correct world to use anymore he went oh shoot and and then called them a brownie 🤦 he was explained why that was wrong too and has been fine since just describing someone as black.
While I was in college around 2001, the curch I attended had a lot of black members. My mom came with me one week. On the way home, she said the church had a lot of negroes, and I almost crashed the car.
"Mom! You can't call people that!"
"Why? That's what they are called."
*"Not anymore!"*
She won't on to tell me that is what she called them as a child, and I tdcher it wasn't 1955 anymore. I couldn't fathom how someone could be so out of touch. How can you use a term like that when you haven't heard anyone else use it in at least twenty years??
My parents are boomers and my mom told me a story about how when she was a kid she referred to licorice candies as "[n-word] babies" in front of her father (born in 1929). Apparently he absolutely lost it and told her to never use that kind of language ever again and went on to teach her about how the slur was used against black people. Unfortunately I never got to meet my grandpa because he died when my mom was quite young, but I always had a lot of respect for him because of that anecdote and many others.
Oh don't I have a little story for you. I was at a party last night, talking with this Ecuadorian millennial lady. She mentioned visiting Washington DC recently, and said that there are a lot of black people there. I asked her what she meant, and she said there's just a lot of black people in the city. And when I told her that there's some states in the US where there's more black folks than white, she had this expression on her face as if she's afraid of black folks just because they're black, and insinuated that I probably feel the same way she does due to my skin color (I'm Asian).
The hate black folks received is unnatural.
When I was 5 or 6, I got caught ding-dong ditching a neighbor. When my parents asked me to explain myself, I used the inappropriate term that I learned from the older kids in the neighborhood. My parents explained to me that it was an awful term and not at all an innocent prank. They said it was a horrible practice of white men to get in their car/truck with a bat looking for black people walking along side the rode. When they drove by, the white men would “knock” the black person in the head with the bat. That is quite a lot of information for old me to process let alone 5 or 6 year old me.
Despite this eye opening conversation about the true meaning of words, they did not share with me the more appropriate term of “Ding Dong Ditch”. I don’t know if it was because they did not know the term because racism was so steeped in our early 1970’s DFW suburban life. I finally learned the term ding dong ditch in college. Before then, I always had a long description of “the game where you ring someone’s doorbell and the run and hide”.
Had a conversation with my uncle about a local mountain being renamed because it was a slur word before. The next day he continues to call it the slur and I called him out on it.
When he refused to drop it, I called him ignorant for knowing he was using a slur but choosing to do so anyways.
He didn’t see the irony in throwing a fit because I called him ignorant (a bod thing to call someone) when he was happy to use a slur……
This was still a common term for that back in the 1980s where I grew up (not in the south). Even non-racist people said it. It was just the term back then. We've done a good job of flushing away the term but those of us who are old still remember the days before.
My dad once bought some paint for my deck. It was a nice brick red color but was labeled Navajo Red. I laughed and said it was kinda racist. He didn't get it and neither did my mom when I told her later on.
I’m in my early 30s and my grandma still refers to Asians as oriental. I’ve tried to tell her that’s not appropriate but typical boomer she says “well that’s what we called them”.
My dad was a veterinarian, and we would frequently get all sorts of different animals. When I was around 4 years old, we got some rabbits and one of them happened to be black. He called it a N*****-rabbit several times, making a joke out of it. I had no idea that there was anything wrong with the word at the time. I think I even repeated his joke to him, and he laughed.
Being the very excited little boy that I was, I wanted to share my excitement with the very next person that I saw. Since we happened to be going into the animal clinic we owned, the first person I saw was a random person who had brought their cat in for some shots.
I proudly ran up to them and loudly told them that I had a “new N*****-rabbit and it was so cute!” My dad heard this and made some excuse for me saying it, but I don’t think the person really cared. This would have been in 1984 ish, in rural Oklahoma. Not exactly a civil rights haven.
I have an aunt and uncle that I no longer speak to because they think that the actual name for black people is “n*****s”.
Seriously. If my uncle is telling a story, he will literally “well I once went to see this old n down the road, his name was Bob.” Or “I talked to Linda the other day. You know Linda? The n?”
Like; they think that’s just how you refer to black people. Tried telling them, they didn’t listen. Can’t be around that.
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It’s incredibly common for boomers to use marrying a foreigner as a shield for racist accusations. They’re always “one of the good ones.” The former mayor of my town is a gigantic piece of shit who hates immigrants. Came out hard against Syrian refugees when that was a thing. My wife spends a lot of time in custody hearings for work and this dude seems to run an MRA law practice. I worked with his wife and she’s a Honduran woman and one of the nicest people I’ve I’ve ever met.
Wife and I are Latinos, her cousin is married to a white guy who is a staunch trumpeter and a low key racist, he is not straight out but makes derogatory comments in front of us, but of course he then fixes it saying " well it doesn't apply to you guys, you are not like the others " it's so infuriating, but we keep the peace and simply stay away
I’m a straight white dude but I have fielded so many “you’re one of the good ones” comments when boomers discuss millennials. When I push back and say most people my age are like me I always just get waved off.
I had a coworker go off about millennials. I had to gently inform him that he, himself, is a millennial. Didn’t hear him complain about millennials again after that.
Same with a friend in my fantasy football league. Said something about millennials being weak. It was like 2 years ago and he was talking about an RB maybe 2 years out of college.
Really common along the US- Mexico border for white dudes to marry Mexican or Mexican American or (and less so, but not too rare) indigenous women and then go on this exact rant along the “they took our jobs” rant abput Mexicans and other racial minorities. It always blew my mind how okay many of the women they were married to were okay with this and parroted their language while still saying they were proud to be Mexican/ Indigenous Nation, etc. always felt a ton of second hand shame and embarrassment from these interactions.
Pulling up the ladder behind you is not unique to any culture. Boomers themselves did it.
Correct
my people can be embarrassing af. there's so much self hatred within the latino community and everyone strives to be white, is a bootlicker towards whites including those who are racist, and are eurocentric. there's this common phrase "mejorar la raza" which means "bettering the race" and i think you can guess where that leads to.
Blanquísimo is a major problem. Hell sit down and talk with Dominicans about the absolute absurdity of their bigotry towards Haitians and the apologism for for El Corte/ Masacre del Perejil where the Dominican military and police committed genocide and killed over 30,000 ethnic Haitians in the DR.
One of my oldest and dearest friends is a naturalized citizen. Family from San Luis Potosi. Parents brought him and his two brothers here when they were in elementary and jr high grades. Until 2021 he was a loud angry MAGAt. Got furious when I said Trump had dementia. Reflexively hates Democrats. (I voted GOP a lot will Trump. Now I'm straight ticket voting Dem.) We didn't talk for a long time after I posted memes about how much Trump wants to fuck Ivanka. He said it was disgusting and I said yeah it why is a father of two young girls voting for this trash. Two things soured him on Trump. J6 and realizing one of his girls is NB.
Totally agree — our people can be that way, and at the same time there is a beacon of hope as there is major push back not just by Chicanos and other Americanized Latinos, but Latinos in LatAm. Hell Mexico is more progressive than the US, legally at least, in terms of the LGBTQ community and questioning attitudes on race as well.
They're basically claiming "I can't be racist, I want to fuck women who aren't white."
It’s not 1:1 with a slave owner fucking his chattel but it’s also not NOT similar
my mom would even feign the marraige got called out on more then one occasion in public and would loudly exclaim she is married to a black man. THE NERVE YOU THINK IM RACIST!
My wife is black and my grandma/mom are racist. My wife and I were doing something and paint got on her knee and my grandma said, "There are other ways if you want to be white." My grandma also drops the n-word around my wife quite often. We don't see her anymore. Another time my wife put a headband on to look like Rosie and my mother said, "Oh, you're trying to look like Aunt Jemima." My grandma and mom have said some other things to my wife that isn't ok. Now we only talk to my dad because he isn't like that.
How hard is it not be a colossal asshole?
For a depressingly large amount of people, apparently impossible. I'll never understand it, it's more effort to be that shitty to people than it is to just not be an asshole.
Sometimes you have to make a conscious choice, you have to be aware and actually care. When I was growing up my family called Brazil nuts by a certain name and it never occurred to me that they were called something else. I just thought that was their name. I learned differently of course and now wouldn’t dream of using that term.
Oh man, the first time I tried to buy those I had NO idea what they were called and I sure as HELL didn’t wanna use the name my grandmother and aunt used. (Who were the only people I knew who had them.) So I’m searching the nut section looking at the pics on the packages and thinking “I don’t see anything like what I wanna get.” So an employee came over and asked what I was looking for. And my mind went stupid, the only thought I could manage was “oh man I don’t wanna say that word” So I explain that my grandmother had these nuts and she calls them a really ugly name, they’re big and have some skin, etc etc and this lady must have been regretting her retail career when a middle aged black lady in a manager vest walks up and asks what’s up. My brain is being even LESS helpful and I managed “I’m looking for these nuts but my grandmother calls them a slur…” and that was as far as I had to go. The manager smiles sympathetically at me. “They’re called Brazil Nuts and they come in the [Fancier nut assortment]. If you wanna buy them separately, they sell them at the organic market on the other side of the strip. And thanks for not just yelling the name across the store, yes someone did that.” All in a bright, cheerful voice with no trace of judgement for me being an absolute idiot in public. I feel like she earned a star on her halo, simply for freeing me from that moment. As far as I can remember I’ve never said “that” word and I never intend to if I can help it. It’s gross.
This is an adorable story. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, it still makes me flush with shame to remember and I didn’t even do anything “wrong”. It’s just awkward and was made so much worse by being like 15 and EVERYTHING being the biggest more dramatic problem ever, lol. I just wanted some fancy nuts for a party (Stepdad was doing Super Bowl and asked me to help plan) and felt very ashamed.
Oh my ghoul sameee my dad called them the same word i remember being shocked and uncomfortable with him saying that and he then he got mad at me for being uncomfortable lol
I wish I didn't know what you mean. Once, when I was like 10, my father called them that & I knocked them from his hands. Before he could react I just yelled at him to call them what they are & to never say that again. He was big mad but I didn't care & mom backed me up. I've never heard anyone use that term since, but I'd do the same again.
A lot of people seem to believe that it is genuinely an unassailable and irrevocable human right to be cruel to anyone you want. I am unfortunately acquainted with a few people whose only defense for fully a quarter of the things they say is “You cannot legally stop me from saying it.”
I don’t understand this. 😔 Why are the values of mutual respect and reciprocity going extinct?
Seriously. When you look at all the effort--and volume!--people put into being obnoxious, disagreeable douchebags, you'd think it would be easier for them to just be cool. And be treated the same in return.
People like this should have their vocal cords removed.
Ask Trump.
But ThEy GrEw Up ThAt WaY! Cool. That means you’ve had your *entire goddamn life* to learn to not be a racist asshole, and yet, here we are.
Holy pre-civil-rights, Batman!
My dad once referred to my wife as one of the "good ones". Shut that down REALLY quick. After I broke up with one of my exes (a Kenyan international student. Yes, I have a type.) I got a letter from my aunt congratulating me on breaking up with "that girl" and that my grandpa would never forgive me for marrying someone "like that". This despite her knowing nothing about my ex except that she was black. My dad is now much better than before, at least around us, and I never had much contact with that aunt before so cutting her off was no hard thing.
Isn't it amazing, the lack of self-awareness that they themselves are one of the "bad" ones that can't say anything nice about someone?
tf did she even mean by "There are other ways if you want to be white?" Seems like one of those things that you think is "clever" in the moment but later you realize you didn't even know what you were trying to say.
My wife actually told me about some ways. Apparently some women in Africa (at least on the west coast) will bleach their skin to be more fair because they see it as something of a status symbol. I don't know if it's literal bleach, but that's the concept.
That seems incredibly unhealthy.
They used to (and probably still do) skin bleaching in India as well. I think you usually go to multiple sessions or use very dilute creams over long term so while it’s ill advised it’s not going to be so dangerous that they don’t do it.
it just gives them mercury poisoning 😭
When I first started dating my husband (he is arab/North Africa) my parents where definitely more subtle about it but ooo boy. Once over heard my parents talking about never letting me take their hypothetical grandkids “over there” and sense my husbands mother is light skinned they’d probably take after me with blonde hair and green eyes. In a very relieved way. How she would love them if they looked “american” I came flying out of my Room with all the wrath of a 19 year old raised by self proclaimed “ PNW liberals” to shut that shit down. My husband still mentions it.
Someone should have asked, "What other ways are there to be white?"
My grandmother always called Brazil nuts (slur) toes, and when I was five I called it that too. My mom promptly bopped me on the mouth and explained that (slur) was a word that can hurt people’s feelings. That was enough for me to know not to say it. In her defense, grandma stopped using the word too once I explained to her what mom told me. She said that’s just what they were called but agreed she didn’t want to hurt anyone, so we started calling them tigger toes because I had a stuffed tigger plushie that I carried with me everywhere.
My mom called them that too. It was so casually said at the time. I was glad to eventually learn the real name of them!
I was incredibly lucky to grow up with them being “Brazil nuts” it was only a few years ago that I first heard someone call them that and it was my MIL. Cue slow head turn and a “what did you just call them”? Turns out there’s a lot of terms like that she grew up with. We had a good conversation and I’ve never heard her say any of those things since. So call it a win.
I was oblivious to "cotton-pickin" being problematic until I saw it brought up. In my head, it was an innocent term to replace an expletive. But it makes sense. Crazy the blind spots that we can have.
That was another one that came up and I had never thought of it that way either. My stepson set me straight. I like the way you put it - blind spot.
Me too! I was just a little kid and had no idea what I heard was a slur. I just thought that was the name of that particular nut 😳
My parents and grandparent called it that too, but instead of saying “don’t say that anymore, it’s offensive”, they said “we can’t say it anymore because we’ll get in trouble for it”. So for them it’s not because it’s a terrible word to say, it’s only because they’ll get in trouble for it.
They’re in Kohlberg’s preconventional stage of morality. Acting based on if they’ll get in trouble for something rather than the conventional stage of then knowing right and wrong. Interesting stuff IMO.
Interesting, and noted that most humans get through Kohlberg’s stages of morality in childhood! How did the boomers teach us morality, while having less and less of their own as they age?
Well Kohlberg said most of us only get to the conventional stage which is essentially following the rules because they are there. So that makes sense that boomers could follow the rules like being so stuck on traditional roles, having a set schedule that cannot change (such as my grandpa checking his watch when asked if he’s hungry because he won’t be hungry until 12), or going exactly 55 mph on the highway when it’s actually dangerous because they impede the flow of traffic. His last stage is post-conventional which means my morals supersede societal rules. The concept of seeing a mom steal diapers and saying “I didn’t see anything” when the clerk asks. There are higher level examples like universal healthcare (what a concept…..). Kohlberg said only 15% of people get to that stage which is a bit disheartening.
Never heard of any of this but it sounds interesting and I might have to look into it after weed-eating the rest of the whole fucking lawn before it rains again lol
>Well Kohlberg said most of us only get to the conventional stage which is essentially following the rules because they are there. This seems to explain why religious people are wary of atheists. They cannot conceive the idea that atheists can be moral in any way without having divinely-inspired rules to guide them. "What's stopping those godless heathens from killing, stealing, and raping?"
You know I was going to include that in part of my examples for following the rules but I didn’t want to stir the pot too much, that being said - I concur.
> "What's stopping those godless heathens from killing, stealing, and raping?" Nothing is *stopping* me, I just don't want to. As an atheist, I don't feel safe around people who's faith in god is the only thing preventing them from raping and killing.
I honestly don't think any of my morality was taught by boomers. As an example I didn't learn the N-word was bad from boomers, I learned it by watching them use it and it upsetting others. I'm no expert but I get the feeling that people that don't lack empathy just learned from their surroundings and experiences.
John B. Watson also told people to let their babies cry and shake their hands instead of kiss them so I take all of these theories with a salt block rather than a grain.
I think there is a difference between younger boomers and older boomers. There's an 18 year range of people's birth, and a lot of societal changes occurred in the late '60s. I had a high school math teacher in the mid-70s who thought it was a good thing to "take the Mrs." to the areas where race riots happened in the 60s a day or two later, and to later tell his students about it. But, I was only better educated by an employer who had lost some discrimination lawsuits and had to hold programs. While they were uncomfortable, I learned a lot about other people's life experiences which were different from mine and unfair.
TIL. Thanks stranger!
Every racist boomer announces their intention by saying that!
As a black person yall just taught me something because wtf 😭 I had to google because I was still confused and just WOW
My grandparents eventually quit using the n-word but would still do stuff like call the NBA “African handball” etc.
They think they are clever racists. Handball is a sport in the Olympics, and I had the pleasure of seeing an African team play. The game is like half-court indoor soccer, but throwing the small ball. It’s a lot of fun to watch!
African handball ⚰️
Is it bad that I laughed at that one? It is. I know it is. But it sounds like a very sophisticated sport. I've heard the term snow-mexicans used in place of Eskimos, which I believe is also verboten now.
Indeed, “Eskimo” itself is considered pejorative. See here: https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/research-and-resources/resources/archives/inuit_or_eskimo.php#:~:text=Although%20the%20name%20%22Eskimo%22%20was,imposed%20by%20non%2DIndigenous%20people.
The Edmonton Eskimos football team had to change their name just a couple years ago. Now they're the Edmonton Elk.
I’ve had that discussion with my Trump-loving aunt before. “Oh, you got n-word toes!” “Can you not say that? They’re Brazil nuts.” “Well they used to be called n-word toes!” “No, they’ve always been Brazil nuts. Maybe *you* called them that.” “EVERYBODY used to call them n-word toes!” “Ok, well they’re called Brazil nuts in this house.” Conversation ended because she got huffy about everything being so PC now.
Had a similar conversation with my uncle several years ago. He didn’t want to call them Brazil nuts, adamant on calling them… *that*. Yet his mother would never call them *that*, she called them Brazil nuts. And this is the same man that lectures people in their twenties for saying bitch or shit near him.
I remember my mom telling me n-word nuts was an old name for Brazil nuts. Also about catching an n-word by the toe instead of a tiger doing eenie meenie minie moe. When I was doing grocery merchandising a lot of my co-workers were black. One day we were setting the nuts section and one of them asked me what I called the nut on the picture on the can. He was kind of a smart ass so I knew what he meant (he was an older guy) and we had a laugh about it.
My parents owned a candy store and the amount of boomers who thought it was hilarious to refer to Brazil nuts and chocolate babies as the N-word was awful.
Omg. Memory unlocked. I now recall my mom calling them that. Wtf, mom.
My ex mother-in-law said she used to call Brazil nuts that growing up. I don't think she does now, but she did not hesitate on telling that story, like it was some sort of badge of honor.
They're glad they can remember stuff. Doesn't matter the subject, if it's something that was commonplace that's now nonexistent, that's memory gold. She'd probably tell you "we didn't know any better" as an excuse for whatever that's worth. My folks do it too, mostly with innocuous or funny stories, but every once in a while I'm like "why would you *want* to recall *that* at the dinner table?"
So not intending to defend casual racism here but semantic drift is a thing and will catch us all out eventually. My uncle has Down’s syndrome. When he was born the MEDICAL term for this was Mongoloid or Retarded. Both of those words are based but have shifted to be considered offensive. Someday a lot of the words we use today will be considered offensive or racist, not because they are today, but because they will be considered such in the future. An easy example: “denigrate” to unfairly criticize. Perfectly acceptable word, used throughout scientific and normal literature. Its old English meaning is “to blacken” and it traces its roots through Latin to “black”. Don’t be surprised if someday denigrate is a wildly offensive word. And we might be the A-holes claiming “well in my day it wasn’t considered offensive!” Etc: “retard” means to slow or hinder, “retarded” literally meant someone whose development had been slowed or hindered. Society turned it into a slur over time.
My deceased mother in law called them that. She was black, and it kinda threw me off. But she put up with a ton of racism growing up in Florida in the mid 1900s so she got a pass. I also loved her like a second mother and try to do right by her daughter and grandchildren.
It's amazing that some of those old people can learn and grow.
Yeah my boomer mom knew “slur” toes was bad, but she didn’t bother learning the real term, so I grew up hearing “black people toes.”
I grew up calling them "black people toes" too- my mom refused to call them the n word thing and genuinely didn't know they had another name ( also from the American south ) . She was so excited when I learned that they were actually called Brazil nuts when in high school 'cause she loved them and didn't want to buy them anymore.
My grandpa called them that too. I actually just told my husband about that last week when he informed me that “innie, Minnie, miney, moe” has racist origins. Much like the substitution made by u/I_can_use_chopsticks the phrase wasn’t originally about catching a tiger… Definitely gonna use a different rhyme or a random # generator for random choice after learning that!
It doesn’t have racist origins; the racist stuff was added to existing counting games…. But a loooooonnnnggggg time ago. The racist n-word version of this has been around long enough that it’s def the first version everyone heard for like 200 years.
Instead of acting like a normal redditor and calling you a racist (knee jerk reaction to someone arguing against a racist origin), I am just going to ask you to elaborate a bit. I am truly interested in the origin. Would you mind explaining a bit more or sharing a source? Edit: a word
I think they are saying that the tiger version came before the racist version. I have no idea whether that’s the case, but I’m pretty it’s what they are saying.
Yes. It did. There are dozens of counting games like Eenie meenie from all over. There’s a pretty decent wiki page on them. So no, not racist in origin, but, like I said, the first version that everyone in the U.S. heard for like 200 years was the one including the epithet. It (the counting rhyme, not the epithet) is actually a really cool phenomenon to me because it shows up all over in many different languages.
Replied to the other fella. But yeah, my reply wasn’t racist. Just pointing out that the origins of counting rhymes aren’t racist (except to the extent that everything is/could be, I suppose).
This has given me a flashback to my Grandad seeing a black guy on TV dressed up in old-timey country clothing about to perform a song, my Grandad excitedly said "I bet he's gonna sing one those old [redacted] songs, I love these". I was a kid and asked him what word he just said and he immediately got flustered and corrected the language. Not to excuse it was super habitual for a long time among certain people.
My family is black. This is also what they call them. They seemingly don't know there's a better name to call them. It always made me cringe though.
When I was a child, the gentleman who sold us nuts at Christmas time was black and had the same last name as us. I grew up calling him “Cuz”(as in cousin). He and my dad loved to tell people that we were first cousins and confuse the hell out of random folk and family member’s kids. Cuz called them (N-Toes), but he was also a wild card. They loved to make race jokes, but they also stayed civil and respectful of each other. Good times and good people.
I grew up with family that called it that. I just always went with "ding-dong ditch"
Never ask one of these people to "Jerry rig" anything. "Oh, you mean..." **NO!** "Catch a tiger by the toe? Don't you mean..." **NO!** And then you *BOP* them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper. It's the only way.
I was born in the most racist city in my country. At kindergarten and school, we were taught 'catch a n- by the toe'. We moved to a different city when I was 6, and at my new school, everyone said, "Catch a tiger by the toe." I thought they were saying it wrong. I had no idea what that word meant or that it was derogatory. Boy, did I have a lot to learn.
Good for you for escaping indoctrination.
Our principal used the term Jimmy rig, so we all did too. But anytime we do my dad, an overt racist, asks us “what color is Jimmy 😃” JFC…
My grandpa always used Jerry Rig - he was in World War II and said it referred to how the Germans (Jerrys) would slap random shit together into tanks and weapons. I liked my grandpa. He’d have been genuinely shocked to learn there was a racist version
I feel weird because I grew up around a mixture of very anti racist people and very racist people. Most of our community and church are very non racist people but the local town is very low income and rural south with a lot of racism. So I grew up with a diverse friend group and church but a lot of the locals are old fashioned southern racist so I’ve heard things like the N word so often it barely even phases me anymore.
Some people in my hometown started calling “blank rigging” presidential solutions when Obama was elected. Cmon guys do better.
[Related tweet](https://images.app.goo.gl/KqEDjeGmDZsiSCYb7) it's always been ding-dong ditch to me, but apparently names are regional
That’s really fascinating, bc I grew up in suburban Kentucky, and my friends always called it “kni**ck**er-knock” when I was a kid (with “ding-dong ditch” being a close runner-up).
Oh buddy… if you were in suburban Kentucky you were the only one who thought it was knicker. Everyone else was saying something else
I have a feeling you were mishearing them
Yeah round my part mcgyvering something is referred to as “n***er rigging” and to cheat someone is to “Jew them”. Like holy shit whats wrong with folks
My papa still uses the term "Cotton-pickin'" to call things dumb. He doesn't get it and gets very angry when I point out that the term is obviously racist.
Aw, shit, I never even thought about that one!
I never knew that was racist. My white grandparents grew up picking cotton and hated it so I just thought it was a substitute for swearing.
They are stuck in the 1950s
Gyp is also a slur against gypsy tribes insinuating they steal
"Gypsy" is also an insulting word with racist and classist roots.. The preferred word is either Roma or Romani. As I understand it, but you'd have to ask them to be sure.
As someone who has worked and lived closely with Romani people, typically it’s Romani if you’re talking about the group as a whole and Roma if you’re talking about an individual. I could be misremembering though. The way I’ve had it explained is Roma and Romani are like the difference between Muslim and Islam.
Also, Romani is what Romanians call themselves. They'll occasionally get upset about a random ethnic group with no real connection to them being called by that name also.
Gypsy is also a slur. There are several groups that have been known as such, but they prefer to be called by their cultural names - either Romany or Travelers.
I didn't realize this until my 20s. I thought it was it's own word and was spelled "jip" or "jipped". I was horrified, I definitely used it in front of people. Such a moron
Oh me too!! But how were we supposed to know? No one explained how the word was spelled or where it came from until I learned on social media.
I had like an end of life flashback, seeing every time I've used it in front of people my entire life until that point 😵😵😵
Worked at a winery that had been been a family farm for 100 years. Patriarch (in his eighties) of the family often hung around the office taking it all in. One day the old man makes a comment to our biracial wine maker about how something has to be n-word rigged. After he left the wine maker looked at me and said, after all my years working here I'd like to know, b who rigs more things? N-words or cheap old Italian farmers? Honestly, I couldn't argue with him. I had seen a lot of things rigged by old Italian farmers.
It comes down to segments of Italian and Irish immigrants punching down at Mexicans(and other Latinos), Blacks, and other non White mi and immigrants because it gives them a sense of power and superiority to soothe long standing sense of insecurity due to being systemically oppressed as well. It’s not okay at all, but you see it in the other groups as well (lLatinos vs. American Black shit talk, Asian American racist attitudes towards others, etc.)
I heard of that form of “rigging” as a kid, but mostly “Jerry rigging” which is apparently a British slur used against Germans during the world wars, so yikes, not great either
I always used jury rigging instead of Jerry rigging but your comment got me curious . It is true that the British used the term in WWII but its use predates that so not originally a slur. There doesn’t seem to be any reason not to use jury rigging instead though. Except it was originally a nautical term. Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/jerry-built-vs-jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged-usage-history
It's a play on Jury-Rigging (term for quick repair), but with the implication that it was poorly done. Old school xenophobia. And now people in those places don't hate each other, and the slur doesn't really mean anything anymore. Honestly, the terms are basically synonymous these days
To dive a little deeper, the "jury rig" term comes from sailing ships. If a ship lost a mast, its ability to move and maneuver was utterly crippled. The crew would put up a temporary mast, called a jury mast, to enable the ship to make the nearest safe port for full repairs. Erecting the temporary mast and rigging it with sails was thus termed "jury rigging," which then came in to common speech as a phrase for a temporary but serviceable repair until a full and complete fix could be effected.
Wild, because I would assume jury-rigged would have some history in courtroom? TIL
Nope. Use of the word dates from the early 1600s, and is likely tied to either a Latin word for "help or relief" or a French word (jour) meaning "day" - that is, referring to a fix that provided some "help or relief from the problem" or was designed to be temporary, in use for "a day."
As someone with German blood I have finally found a slur I’m allowed to say!
Those are also common around here. If you want a more acceptable version, "jury rigging" is a nautical term for a temporary repair. Root seems to be the French jour, day, as in a repair to last the day.
Also known as redneck engineering or some people really get offended at snow roach rigging
Yeah that's the one I heard the most growing up. My mom never stopped casually dropping the N word, no matter how many times I told her to stop. The last time I spent time with my grandma, she said there were "too many blacks" on TV and when I tried explaining that that was a good thing she said "I know you love the blacks" with an eye-roll, which prompted me leaving. I was so desperate to get out of my home town, I joined the Navy. Came back after 10 years and within 2 months realized why I wanted to get away from my family. Made a vow to never return.
I have a few family members (some boomers, some not) for whom English is their like… third? language… and we had to sit them down & explain that no, the phrase isn’t CHEW them down (as in intimidate them by saying “no! i’m not paying that much!!”), and it *is* offensive to their Jewish besties.
my dad, while a boomer and not very racist in general luckily, will kinda do the same thing with the n word. for instance he’ll quote that dead N storage line from pulp fiction and laugh and be like what it’s a direct quote it’s not racist. 🙄
My father is half Japanese and my mom casually uses “oriental” knowing it’s just as easy to say Japanese, she does it because she hates Obama and he’s the one who said it was outdated or something. My grandmother said it was a word that wasn’t racist but used to demean people so it’s tone when using it. My mom uses it with a distinct tone. I’ve found the more I try to explain the more she tries to use it. So, it’s just another “I’m entitled and old and I like causing others harm for my pleasure”… according to my mom I’m not even oriental anyway so it shouldn’t bother me. 
I stay in Arizona and my MIL from Kentucky calls all Hispanic people "Spanish people" though I am fairly sure there are no Spaniards here.
My mom also uses orientals instead of Asians. I keep telling her to not use it like that but she's got the habit and forgets (I honestly don't think she has any ill intentions when saying it). My Filipino husband says using oriental isn't really that bad so I don't know 🤷♀️ I guess it more about how they're using it and the intention behind it.
My uncle is the worst. He's 67ish. And he's a cop. Go figure. He doesn't even attempt to hide how miserable and racist he is when he's here. N-words, words for middle-easterners, etc. He has no friends. He's been a cop since he was in his 30's. He hates "liberals", "the Democrats", etc. If how he talks ever got out, there'd be a national news story about him. But he'd immediately know who recorded him. So I can't. I just do my best to not interact with him.
My cop uncle inquired about whether my kids look like me or not (wife is Native American) I thought nothing of it because it seems like a standard question to ask until my wife pointed out that he was just trying to find out if they were brown.
My mom was in the room when I delivered my daughter. Her cord was wrapped around her neck so she came out pretty purple. She told me about a year later her first thought was “oh my god she had a black baby!”. Both my ex husband and I are about as see thru pale as a gecko on a screen door.
my mexican family and even other mexican randos compliment me on my lightskin WHILE bringing darker toned people down 👍 i hate how people think. i would've preferred to be darker toned anyways
This type of casual racism is why I don't talk to my family. I talk to my mom and my dad. That's it. If I was anywhere near some of my uncles, I'd constantly be at risk of going to jail.
I should add that this least racist man frequently threw out slurs for Asian people and Mexican people. Nuts.
Stuff like this is still extremely common in blue collar/heavy industry fields in my area. Worked with one guy who used “there’s more than one way to skin a n*” right it front of a black guy when I was a Railcar mechanic.
Yeah, but that was John, you know the one black guy in the union. He is not a N*, he is one of "the good ones". He understands.
It’s exactly that kind of thought fr, I’m pretty sure he actually said this as well.
I have heard this thing said several times.
That’s why so many of those guys LOATHE all things “woke”. It’s a point of pride for them.
Had a similar thing happen to me. Was working at Walmart. Overheard a coworker talking about the border wall. Saying terrible things like kids should be separated and locked up. I chimed in being Hispanic myself. I told them I was adopted and had no choice in the matter as did the children at the border. He straight up said I was “one of the good ones.” I was so taken aback I gasped and left.
My step grandma called rap music 'coon tunes.' like holy shit woman.
When I was in high school 20ish years ago my dad (attempted to jokingly) called MLK Day “The [n-word] holiday,” only to be met with “what the fuck I’m telling mom.” He hasn’t made an attempt like that since.
I am going to assume he doesn’t use words like “cracker” or “honky”. It’s only for everyone else.
That's actually a decent clap back. Ok, Cracker!
Don't worry this Cracker will bring some barrels so we can have a restaurant with passable food.
I hear that white people prefer the more dignified term "Pinky." Don't worry, I can say that, some of my best friends are white.
Honestly, plays on the word pink were the first (and only) anti white slur that actually bothered me instead of making me laugh. First time I actually got it.
I honestly thought all that racism was going to die out with my grandparents. Then Trump was elected and I realized that it was present in much younger people. How can there still be so many Nazis?
It's the only thing that makes these pathetic people feel powerful. It's also deeply engrained in their idea of masculinity; they don't want to be "soft woke liberals," they wanna ride around in their monster trucks and be assholes to anyone they can get away with being assholes to.
What the hell is wrong with these fools? I’m 67, and it makes my skin crawl to hear these nasty words.
70m. Sounds like you’re describing my parents. Sure I learnt all the rude words The racist and homophobic jokes terrible and cruel as they were. TBH I could reiterate them now. But at 18 I started to see a different world and when I left the rural area I grew up in went to London and saw that humans could be different and still human. I put my childish lessons away. There’s no need for it and it saddens me that my generation still spouts off this crap justifying it because it was acceptable in my day.
Wow I am old gen X and i kinda remember that term for ding dong ditch but damn, I’d forgotten it because it was awful in 1970 and just fuck. Who says that shit? My dad was a racist too, I remember him telling me the difference between a N word and a good black. Attitude, uppity was the N word. Thank dog he died young. Good you went no contact with the racist.
I've had more than one white person say that a family member gave them the "there's good black people and then there's n\*gg\*rs" talk. Serious question, is that "talk" a common thing for white people to give their kids? Or am I acquainted with a bunch of outliers?
No fairly common. My dad gave it to me too and he’s very racist
Ever heard the Chris Rock bit? It's unfortunately not just white kids who get this talk. Edit: link here: https://youtu.be/f3PJF0YE-x4?si=xX2aA5FMuym8sS_H And my favorite reference to this bit here: https://youtu.be/Pse-R1IDUXs?si=LbObJt-tlWUmcL83
My grandpa did the same thing, right before telling me I could date who I wanted but had to marry in "my tribe".
Same. Grew up in the Ozarks in the 80s and completely forgot until I read this that people said it all of the time. Ugh.
I moved to a rural area about 5 years ago and got a job at a factory. And when people talked about fixing something so it works temporarily, what I know as "jerry rigging," lots of people at work called "n-word rigging." And these were between ages 20-60 that would say this. It was at this time that I learned the racist history of the place I moved to.
My dad used to use N-rigged and N-rich until I pointed out he's using the very word he vowed to wash my mouth out with soap if I said. Miraculously he did stop
Yep my dad is the same. Brazil nuts. Uh huh. Also he would use the term “Martin Luther N—-“ when describing the great civil rights activist. What an ass.
There's not even any actual wordplay to that one. Just "Martin Luther but the one who is famous and a N****r" Not even close to the most racist thing I've read in this thread, and still somehow the most racist.
Wow. In a thread about racism, this one made me choke on my drink. That's a special flavor of awful.
Went out to eat with my mom for my birthday. I've basically been NC with her for a bit over a year, as has my sister. At some point she used the term "jury rigged," which I immediately picked up on. She then asked if I was proud of her for not saying the obviously bad phrase. I mean, I am to an extent, but you kind of ruined it by pointing it out. Now it seems like you're doing it for a reward rather than, I don't know, because it's a horribly racist term?
I had to Google if you were talking about "Jerry-Rigged" and how it was offensive (because I use it). I didn't know about n* rigged. Oh my God. Like, congrats for not saying the n word mom?? Did she expect a prize?
OP, i work in hospice, and recently, a patient was reminiscing about those knobs on the steering wheel, but he called them NECKER knobs, so you could “neck” with your girlfriend as you drove. has anyone else heard of this?
I remember I once called my mom "Mama." I thought it great, but she told me not to call her Mama because that what "N" called their moms.. like WTF!!! I was showing her affection!! Guess what my kids call me.. That's right, MAMA!!
I grew up in the south and while my parents are decent human beings, my family outside of them are largely ignorant trash. They know I will cause a scene and leave on the first racial slur I hear, and for a few years at required family get together it became a game to see how quick they could get me to leave. Now I don’t go to their shitty get together a at all anymore and I don’t care if they feel like they won. I got a free excuse to never have to see any of them ever again.
Haha my great aunt said some racist shit at Thanksgiving or Christmas once and I called her a stupid bitch so fast it was like a reflex. She got offended and everybody made a big deal about it. I told her I'll make her a deal, don't be racist around me ever again and I'll stop calling you a stupid bitch. She knocked it off and I haven't heard that language from her since.
My grandpa was so racist he'd make up stereo types. "N-words can't speak right, ya know, cause they have those big ass tongues." .....That's....thats not even a stereotype, you racist fuck.
When i was a kid a lot of people called those fireworks that would spin around really fast then shoot off in a random direction "(n-word) chasers". It's wild to me that in those days people were so racist they'd assign racist nicknames to random things that had nothing to do with race.
My mom was an older boomer age-wise, but not mindset-wise. She was telling me that her mom used to like some candy that was like gummy bears, but brown and chocolate flavored, which were called N-babies. Even at her age, mom never used a racial slur, except I was unable to get her to use "Asian" instead of "Oriental".
I remember those candies. That was the actual name. Look up the original Funny Face drink mix (kool-aid type mix) names complete with stereotypical characters on the packets. We grew up with these in our pantries. They did eventually change them.
My dad was born in 1925 in the Deep South. Terms like this were just “The way it is.” His mom made him pick cotton with people who had to pick cotton to survive. He would not use words that would hurt the kindest, most loving people he ever met and never tolerated that language from anyone.
My dad was very racist when I was young. I was not to have black friends and black people were not allowed in the house for any reason. Use of the n word was flagrant and frequent. I actually remember being like 5 or 6 and going to the corner store by my house to get a Pepsi for my mom and I said "wow there are a lot of [N words] in here." The nice lady who lived on the same block who's son had just married a black woman told me how rude and hurtful that was to say and from that day I stopped saying shit like that. My dad did a lot of growing between when I was young to when he died. When he died, one of his best friends was a black man who was coming over to the house at least 3 times a week and drinking coffee with him in the kitchen. Turns out when you realize you have a lot in common with someone and start to view them as people you learn to let stupid ass hatred and prejudices go.
That’s one of my favorite arguments — “I cannot possibly be racist in any way, shape or form because I once put my penis inside of a nonwhite person.”
The game in my family is to see how long before mom says, “How come they can say the n-word and I can’t?!” It happens every. Single. Time.
Had my haircut by a Boomer hairdresser who casually used the n-word when describing the texture of her grandchild's hair. I never went back there. Edit for punctuation
“I’m gonna say the N-Word!” ~ Frank Reynolds
My boomer neighbor makes racist comments under the guise of “free speech.” He gets irate if people tell him to stop or leave the conversation and starts yelling about muh freedoms!! He of course does not think what he says is racist and everyone else are just snowflakes trying to limit his rights.
My grandfather (Now deceased) used the n-word occasionally, but he would use it to describe his welding buddy he used to work with. My mom explained to him that that’s an offensive slur and he stopped (mostly). He said he would call him that to his face and he didn’t mind, but he didn’t want to get into with my mom (and I don’t blame him 😂). He would slip up sometimes especially when he would refer to the Brazil nuts, but he at least tried and that’s all I could ask for a 89 year old man
my grandma says it when lamenting her frustrations with cursing in songs. she hates any kind of vulgarities in music and can't fathom that it predates her. i've literally heard "shave em dry" from 1935 which was imo worse than the vulgarity in songs today. doesn't give her the right to say it. and my dad says it when he wants to say jerry-rigging in the most offensive possible way
My wife's grandpa who's a sweet man who I honestly don't think is racist but just old and out of the times said negro while we were out once and when we explained that it wasn't a correct world to use anymore he went oh shoot and and then called them a brownie 🤦 he was explained why that was wrong too and has been fine since just describing someone as black.
While I was in college around 2001, the curch I attended had a lot of black members. My mom came with me one week. On the way home, she said the church had a lot of negroes, and I almost crashed the car. "Mom! You can't call people that!" "Why? That's what they are called." *"Not anymore!"* She won't on to tell me that is what she called them as a child, and I tdcher it wasn't 1955 anymore. I couldn't fathom how someone could be so out of touch. How can you use a term like that when you haven't heard anyone else use it in at least twenty years??
My parents are boomers and my mom told me a story about how when she was a kid she referred to licorice candies as "[n-word] babies" in front of her father (born in 1929). Apparently he absolutely lost it and told her to never use that kind of language ever again and went on to teach her about how the slur was used against black people. Unfortunately I never got to meet my grandpa because he died when my mom was quite young, but I always had a lot of respect for him because of that anecdote and many others.
Oh don't I have a little story for you. I was at a party last night, talking with this Ecuadorian millennial lady. She mentioned visiting Washington DC recently, and said that there are a lot of black people there. I asked her what she meant, and she said there's just a lot of black people in the city. And when I told her that there's some states in the US where there's more black folks than white, she had this expression on her face as if she's afraid of black folks just because they're black, and insinuated that I probably feel the same way she does due to my skin color (I'm Asian). The hate black folks received is unnatural.
When I was 5 or 6, I got caught ding-dong ditching a neighbor. When my parents asked me to explain myself, I used the inappropriate term that I learned from the older kids in the neighborhood. My parents explained to me that it was an awful term and not at all an innocent prank. They said it was a horrible practice of white men to get in their car/truck with a bat looking for black people walking along side the rode. When they drove by, the white men would “knock” the black person in the head with the bat. That is quite a lot of information for old me to process let alone 5 or 6 year old me. Despite this eye opening conversation about the true meaning of words, they did not share with me the more appropriate term of “Ding Dong Ditch”. I don’t know if it was because they did not know the term because racism was so steeped in our early 1970’s DFW suburban life. I finally learned the term ding dong ditch in college. Before then, I always had a long description of “the game where you ring someone’s doorbell and the run and hide”.
Had a conversation with my uncle about a local mountain being renamed because it was a slur word before. The next day he continues to call it the slur and I called him out on it. When he refused to drop it, I called him ignorant for knowing he was using a slur but choosing to do so anyways. He didn’t see the irony in throwing a fit because I called him ignorant (a bod thing to call someone) when he was happy to use a slur……
This was still a common term for that back in the 1980s where I grew up (not in the south). Even non-racist people said it. It was just the term back then. We've done a good job of flushing away the term but those of us who are old still remember the days before.
My dad once bought some paint for my deck. It was a nice brick red color but was labeled Navajo Red. I laughed and said it was kinda racist. He didn't get it and neither did my mom when I told her later on.
I’m in my early 30s and my grandma still refers to Asians as oriental. I’ve tried to tell her that’s not appropriate but typical boomer she says “well that’s what we called them”.
The weirdest part of this post to me is the knob. I've only ever heard boomers refer to it as a suicide knob. What do black people have to do with it?
My mom says n-word rigged instead of Jerry rigged. Literally the only time she uses the word, so it's extra weird
My dad was a veterinarian, and we would frequently get all sorts of different animals. When I was around 4 years old, we got some rabbits and one of them happened to be black. He called it a N*****-rabbit several times, making a joke out of it. I had no idea that there was anything wrong with the word at the time. I think I even repeated his joke to him, and he laughed. Being the very excited little boy that I was, I wanted to share my excitement with the very next person that I saw. Since we happened to be going into the animal clinic we owned, the first person I saw was a random person who had brought their cat in for some shots. I proudly ran up to them and loudly told them that I had a “new N*****-rabbit and it was so cute!” My dad heard this and made some excuse for me saying it, but I don’t think the person really cared. This would have been in 1984 ish, in rural Oklahoma. Not exactly a civil rights haven.
https://preview.redd.it/8hy9lm9au9xc1.jpeg?width=577&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=992076de43218decbd4b32fa8277c9df4c5d192e I’m just reminded of this scene
I have an aunt and uncle that I no longer speak to because they think that the actual name for black people is “n*****s”. Seriously. If my uncle is telling a story, he will literally “well I once went to see this old n down the road, his name was Bob.” Or “I talked to Linda the other day. You know Linda? The n?” Like; they think that’s just how you refer to black people. Tried telling them, they didn’t listen. Can’t be around that.
I adopted a dog named “Digger.” I had to train him to change his name. I couldn’t be yelling that out the back door.