| I acknowledge that you aren't saying "people! stop using Buffie! It's racist!". But it gets a bit silly when a random group of people, a very small socially marginalized one, can co-opt any random word for a stupid reason and then we all have to tip-toe around it because we might accidentally offend somebody who wears their "offend me" button on the outside. Check out http://www.reference.com/browse/List_of_ethnic_slurs_by_ethn...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_racial_slurs It's amazing the length of the list of words that have been historically used as ethnic slurs. If I had to keep a mental rolodex of these words around, I'd probably never be able to talk about pretty much anything. According to the list above, even some cherished dances from part of my cultural heritage are now considered racial epithets as is the first name of President Lincoln! The reason newspapers and the like try and avoid these words has nothing to do with their usage by racist assholes. If that were the case, all you had to do force newspapers into all kinds of pretzels would be to just start using random verbiage as slurs. The reason they avoid those words is that people get offended by being called those random things. Offended readers can be vocal readers and vocal readers can cause trouble. If "salad" suddenly started being used as a racial epithet for African-Americans tomorrow by the KKK, would newspapers the world over have to stop using it? That's silliness and that's the point we're collectively trying to make. BTW http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=niggle&search... the etymology of "niggle" comes from the Norwegian "nigla" - "to be busy with trifles". Urban dictionary is probably the best place to go if all you're trying to be offended by a word. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=salad at least half a dozen uses of the term with a sexual connotation. I can just see my Mother the next time we go to the Country Kitchen Buffet. "'Salad' Bar?! Cover the children's eyes and ears, we're outa this place!!!!" |
Also, the salad example is a bit weird as sexual innuendo and racist slurs are beasts of a different kind as there's usually a specific target to ethnic slurs as opposed to innuendo like "laying pipe" or "tossing salad."
But I agree that there's a limit to such sort of political correctness. In this case, for example, it's clear that I'd never ever use "niggardly" in any context whatsoever (and I'd find a writer that does tremendously ignorant) but I can see that the word "niggle" is a bit more on the fence. And I've seen it used on Engadget & other blogs, even if magazines and newspapers won't do it.
Personally, I think it's wise to avoid it as I have heard it used in a tremendously racist way. And again, everyone has different experiences in this regard. I do think, however, that it's a bit odd to get offended when someone points out this kind of usage. At the very least, we know that it's happening.