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by concordDance 779 days ago
"Gammon" is a clear reference to a ruddy skin color and is intended to be offensive. It is a textbook racial slur.

Claiming that its not is like claiming the "n-word" isn't a racist slur because it was about a particular attitude and doesn't apply to all African Americans (see Chris Rock's https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggas_vs._Black_People for an example of this).
2 comments
defrost 779 days ago
You're not from the UK are you?

It seems clear you've never heard it used or how it's used there.

If you are and you have then it would seem you're arguing in bad faith.

It's a slur on character as two people of clearly the same race, age, and gender could overwhelmingly be voted as one Gammon, one not.

It's about a cetrain shoutiness and empire centric values and attitude.

I've seen a lot of Chris Rock and your opinion notwithstanding that doesn't easily apply here.

As a genuine question, how is it that you've honed in on my response to this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40194063 which is an actual dismissal of recognition of non western values?

You appear to have latched onto the mote in one comment and ignored the beam in another.

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concordDance 778 days ago
I'm from the UK, but have only admittedly heard it used twice (once in person, which I objected to and my objection was accepted).

Yes, I've latched onto that one thing because I don't have anything to say about the other. Catering for other minority value systems is an extremely thorny issue for many reasons (on the extreme you get utility monsters) and far too hard a problem for me to have a firm opinion on. I've leaned both ways depending on minority size, history and apparent value strength and dont have a proper philosophy for it to share.

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defrost 777 days ago
Fair enough.

I'm from Australia, widely travelled, and have worked with many people with many different belief systems.

I have no issue with respecting the wishes of those that don't want images and names of the recently deceased put out in public, which is an actual thing here in Australia with many people that I grew up with alongside, it's no stranger than many of the beliefs held by other groups.

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48864w6ui 779 days ago
I'd thought gammon was a clear reference (in GBBO tradition) to a "swiney hiney".
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