Is it over yet?

[nolly]

A family member forwarded a political opinion piece to me today. It contained the line "Let us call a spade a spade [No pun intended]."

I don't care who you support. That kind of language is absolutely, utterly, 100% unacceptable, and I am incredibly upset by receiving it from a family member, even as a forward. This is not OK.

Comments

[heisenfeature.livejournal.com]

I wish it were over.

[krow.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_call_a_spade_a_spade

The phrase predates the racial slur "spade". I looked this up last year after I caught myself using it :)
The term "spade" was not common where I grew up.

[aldren.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for the Wikipedia entry. I'd not known that was a racial slur.

I've always known it as a gardening implement.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It's the "No pun intended" that tears it for me. Without that, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the phrase, because it's not inherently tied to the slur. At most, I would have thought the writer simply didn't think of it that way, which would be fine. A writer who was aware of the potential implication and wanted to avoid it would have most likely used a different phrase. Calling it out like that says "I know exactly what I'm saying here, and I want my readers to think of it that way, too." And using "pun" rather than something like "No slur intended" or "No offense intended" says "A racial slur is a joke, a laughing matter, not something to be taken seriously."

[krow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't comment on the context, just the phrase.

If Obama loses at the last moment by a large swath, it will say a lot about racism in the US. I am worried about what the result is going to be in the end.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It was the combination of phrases that I find objectionable. As for context, it's a piece claiming Obama is a "pathological narcissist", complete with comparison to Hitler, Stalin, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, and others.

[krow.livejournal.com]

This election has brought out the worst in people. The name calling is appalling.

[ben-raccoon.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how this election has brought out the racist in a lot of people. What makes them possibly think that such stuff is suddenly okay?

Geeze. Some people are way too obsessed with reliving the 1950s.

[tablesaw]

What should be clear, is that these people never thought that such stuff wasn't okay, at least, not when applied to themselves.

[ben-raccoon.livejournal.com]

Good point. It's just that before, they at least had the good manners not to verbalize their nonsense.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darkvictory/]

Yours is the fifth post I've seen today about getting a political email forward that was offensive or disturbing in some way. It's scary, given that these things have been making the rounds for months. Sorry it's a family member sending you this junk.

Wonder if it would be possible to spend the next 48 hours looking at pictures of kittens?

[cpk.livejournal.com]

No doubt.

Also, if I see one more political ad from either party, I think my head will explode.

[lindito.livejournal.com]

i do not miss living in dc, let me tell you -- especially since this time dc would have been saturated with political ads, what with virginia [virginnia] being in play and all.

i saw very few national ads in 2004, and almost zero in 2000.

[joyce.livejournal.com]

We don't do broadcast TV or radio, so we've been insulated from the ads for the most part, but every time we've been over at my parents recently, I'm in shock over 1) the number of ads and 2) the sheer effrontery of some of the ads. I'd really forgotten that some people throw around the word "liberal" like a cuss word. =/

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

The positive side of that is that the political analysts have been pointing out that this year negative campaigning seems to be backfiring badly. The American people are noticing that Obama is not sinking to that level, and they prefer that approach. I'm extremely hopeful. It's the first US election that I have voted in since I moved to this country eleven years ago. It is the first election that has been that important to me. I suspect it is the most significant US election of my lifetime.

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I read this immediately before this post. Perhaps it will help a little.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Wow. It took me several seconds to figure out what the offensiveness was (and then, only because you had pointed out that it was offensive... most of this stuff goes right over my head).

Weirdly, I've gotten way fewer strange email forwards this year than in 2004. But I still can't wait for it to be over.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Ish. Words fail me. :(