So then, if someone perceives the word “niggardly” as offensive, it IS offensive?
Since I'm sure people that use it do that
exactly to spite people without being
technically racist, it's not just offensive but also holier-than-thou.
And what makes you so sure of that? Actually it means they possess a vocabulary that includes words of more than two syllables. Why should intelligent, literate people censor themselves to accommodate the ignorance of others?
Ignorance comes in many forms, including that of historical insensitivity.
He said "niggardly" isn't racist. But it is so rarely used and so obviously loaded that those who do use it go out of their way to learn and use it. And those people are nominally either "trying to take it back", or pretending..."holier-than-thou"-like...that history does not pertain to them.
This is an easy mistake to make. We'd like to believe we would act differently than our forebears, that not only are their sins not ours, but neither is our capacity for them, nor the remaining effect of their old actions.
There are plenty of other words and phrases in the English language that say the same thing. Try to take it back if you like, but from what I can tell, you have too big a chip on your shoulder to do it well.
Yeees, yeeeeesss...the individual is
weakkk...but a mannn... He has a PENIS!
“Time waits for no man.”
“No man is an island.”
“No man assails me with impunity.”
“No man is a failure who has friends.”
“No man is free who is not a master of himself.”
Replace
man with
one in any of these quotations and you take the soul out of them. It has nothing to do with genitals.
Yes it does. Metaphorical genitals. Each of those invokes a traditional ideal of manhood. "No MAN is an island" reminds us that MEN tend to try to be..."No MAN assails be with impunity" I can already hear you saying...and partially
this man deserves it...I
am being kind of dickish.
But "soul"...there are no actual souls and if there were, they wouldn't care about grammar. I think you're being romantic here about old literary displays of manhood. None of those phrases has been used as so by Danielle Steele or Toni Morrison...at least not without a hint of irony. ...And I for one am sick of irony. Lets say what we mean. "No
one is an island"...not quite so rugged or haughty sounding, but I'm taking comfort in remembering that neither is the phrase's message.
