Cw: asshole ableism

Looking forward to more of this

  • bananon [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I learned how to write from copying hundred year old papers. I didn’t know Americans spell grey with an A until I was like 10, and I live in fucking Texas lol. Consequently, I also learned sn*gger before snicker.

    • TheOldRazzleDazzle [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      That's a good thing, because it means you learned to read and write through reading and writing. (Though nowadays 100 year old texts aren't that old anymore -- Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925). Since we are an increasingly aural society a lot of people learn to write through speaking, which isn't bad but is different and it does separate them from other forms of written communication.

      I guess what I'd say is that it's worth examining when and how you'd use words such as a synonym for a stingy person or the nominalized form of someone who nags. Would you say them out loud without reservations in front of anyone? a random BIPOC? maybe just a specific social group? Likewise, would you use it in writing intended for anyone? An audience of BIPOCs? Maybe just on discussion boards? I think it's worth considering the way that those words shape what you are saying and how you'd modulate their usage or not.

      • bananon [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        No I definitely wouldn’t say sn*ggering in front of people. I remember I said it once in front of some of my white friends and even they were weirded out because they didn’t know it was a real word. This reminds me of that one college humor bit where they made a song exclusively of words that sound racist but aren’t.