I had a post removed today for using the word "spook" in reference to government agents, a common usage that I see around the site, because it is a racial slur, although ive never seen it used with that intent (not that it matters), and it only gets removed maybe 10% of the time. In order to be consistent and not offend any comrades I would propose adding it to the word filter so its removal will be uniform and not open to mod interpretation.

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I have never heard either spook or glowie used with any racial intent, literally ever. I know that's totally anecdotal so can anyone help me with examples of where it gets used that way?

    I will need to be able to explain it to libs at some point and if I can't understand it myself I can't explain it to libs.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Glowie is absolutely a racist term, it came from the guy that made his own operating system (Terry Davids and temple OS I think) and he used it with racial intent. The original term involved the n word as far as I remember.

      As for spook, I've never heard of it being used as a slur.

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
      ·
      2 months ago

      glowie is absolutely, unambiguously racist. maybe some people use it without racist intent because they don't know where it came from, but it was coined only recently because 4channers thought a mentally ill guy's racist delusions were really funny.

    • RedWizard [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Its not a common or widely used slur but it has a historical usage.

      https://www.etymonline.com/word/spook

    • kleeon [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I think the only time i've heard it used as a racial slur was in american history x. Honestly, i don't think we should start declaring random words to be slurs just because they were used this way at some point

      • Smeagolicious [they/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Accurate pfp. Maybe I'm in the vast minority but I have heard it used as a slur IRL.

        declaring random words to be slurs just because they were used this way at some point

        Idk if I have any strong feelings about it getting filtered but that's a bad take

    • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I don't think "glowie" has ever had racial intent, but some of it's earliest usages were "glowie-Nword". Usage has definitely spread beyond fascists and people trying to talk like them, though.

      • popcornlung [they/them]
        ·
        2 months ago

        The word spook was only racist for a very short period of history, I mean it’s still racist but it’s very archaic. Most people don’t know what it means, it’s best we censor it though.

        • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
          ·
          2 months ago

          Yeah, its unambiguously a slur in certain usages, might as well.

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      2 months ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Tumin#Inspiration_for_The_Human_Stain

      • Awoo [she/her]
        ·
        2 months ago

        So is it actually used?

        Like I'm dead serious when I say does anyone have examples of actual usage? I have never seen anyone use it, not in fictional media/drama, not online, not anywhere.

        I mean this in entirely good faith. I am trying to properly understand and build the basis of how I would have this conversation with someone who is as oblivious to this as me. My assumption here is that this must be a regionally specific american thing or something hence my complete and total obliviousness to it.

        I think the bigger issue I will have with this is that it's going to be almost impossible for me to convince anyone in the UK to stop using it. It's definitely not used as a slur here and there was a very popular UK drama show called "Spooks".

        • NewAcctWhoDis [any]
          ·
          2 months ago

          Once a cousin of mine used it meaning a CIA agent, and another cousin said "you mean a black person?"

          That's my only experience with it off the top off my head (but I'm white)

        • Findom_DeLuise [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          2 months ago

          For some reason I vaguely remember it being used in the first Back to the Future when Biff's gang encounters the band playing the school dance, because of course Biff would be a racist on top of everything else.

          I'll see if I can find the timestamp and edit once I can confirm/deny.

          Edit 1: OK, yup, found the quote on IMDB while waiting for the damn movie to buffer [CW: old-timey racism]:
          https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/quotes/?item=qt0416348&ref_=ext_shr_lnk

          Edit 2: Timestamp is around 1:21:00, when Biff's henchmen are throwing Marty in the trunk of the car.

          • Awoo [she/her]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Edit 2: Timestamp is around 1:21:00, when Biff's henchmen are throwing Marty in the trunk of the car.

            Would be genuinely useful to find a clip of that online, or get it clipped and posted on youtube with a title like the gran torino one. Entertainment media including it is the easiest example for libs. It'll be popular with racists but it'll also be valuable for libs.

    • Dickey_Butts [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      The s word is an old timey USA slur, you aren't seeing it in modern media because it is very racist. Gran Torino features a scene where Clint Eastwood uses it.