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by smelendez 235 days ago
In the US, where this publication is based, it’s pretty universally frowned upon to use an ethnic group name as a metaphor for a character trait.

It’s also a bad editorial decision. Here we are debating the headline and not even talking about the article.

2 comments

>Here we are debating the headline and not even talking about the article

Your reaction to a thing comes from you, not from the thing.

> debating the headline > not even talking about the article

Both typical around these parts.

I suspect the author or publisher may have chosen the name of the book for that attention-drawing controversiality. RLS was not the healthiest author and partly 'wandered' in search of better prospects than those of Old Blighty.

Authors can illicit reactions by word choice; it's part of the job. "Know thy audience" for a reason.
It seems to me that "peak sensitivity" with regards to potentially offensive words and ideas was reached in 2020-1 and the US seems to be on the downward trajectory since then, with the slope of that trajectory vastly increasing in 2025.

So this editorial decision might be just part of this overall trend.