Let's not allow racists to co-opt our language.

[porphyrian]

Of course I understand that the use of certain words should remain taboo in the interest of healing wounds, such as the use of racial slurs by people of other races (though I can't imagine ever being offended by being referred to as "honky" by anyone). However, we can't allow terms such as "well-spoken" and "articulate" to be owned by undercover racists. As minorities have been doing for decades, we must look at the context of the usage and the actions of the source to determine whether they are meant as racist. We should not fear our own language, because it limits our ability to communicate, and that is what they want. Word have power, let's not give it to them willingly.

[Iris]

1. I agree with you. While I understand what people are saying in the other

thread, we can't allow people to make euphemisms out of perfectly acceptable words - words like "liberal" and "progressive" come to mind.


However, honky - well, I'd be offended as I've never once rode into a red light district and honked my horn for a prostitute to come out.

[porphyrian]

2. Is that the origin of the term?

I always thought the credit went to either Benson or The Jeffersons on television.

[Iris]

3. yes. That's where it came from! Not the Jeffersons!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Actually,

according to Cecil Adams' "The Straight Dope" (either book 1 or 3) the term comes from a slang word for people from Hungary and Bohemia-"bohunk" was the term. It gradually changed to "honky" and was applied to anyone who is melatonally challenged.

[mcscajun]

5. It goes way back to the early part of the last century.

The Jeffersons just "popularized" the term outside the black community.

Wikipedia lists the "honking for a prostitute" explanation, but the more likely origins are also there (additions and emphasis mine):

"Honkey" (also honkie, honky) was probably derived from Civil War era "Yankee". Possibly a combination of the Wolof word honq meaning pink or pale and hunky, an alteration of bohunk*, a nineteenth-century pejorative term for an Eastern European.

(snip)

3. A synonym of "Honger", which means a person who is from Hong Kong.

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition, copyrighted in 1942, defines hunky as: A foreign-born laborer, usually unskilled, especially a Hungarian or Yugoslav.

4. Hunky is an old word for a European menial worker. Read the talk page.

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

*a slur similar to today's "Indo-Pak"

[displacedtexan]

6. I'm glad you posted this. Newspaper employment ads...

... are full of this crap. I never noticed it until I moved to Baltimore. Now, I notice it every time I read the Baltimore Sun online. They have a sidebar with "Today's Top Jobs," and most of them demand "clear speaking voice," "a demonstrated command of English," and "articulate" applicants only.

This screams racism to me in a city with a large number of blacks (Democrat)s.

[Jim__]

7. Why would you take that as racist?

It may be that this is the actual intent ofthose words; but, at first cut, that's not the way I would interpret it. It might depend on the job - I mean for a job on the telephone, I would expect those to be requirements.

Maybe I'm missing something here.

[porphyrian]

8. Again, I think we have to look at the context...

...and what we know about the source. If it were an ad for a job at Ebony magazine, it would likely not be racist in its intent. However, if it were for a directorial position at a Thomasville, Georgia country club, chances are those words did have racist intent. At any rate, we shouldn't allow them to control us by making us scared to use that terminology.

[displacedtexan]

9. How much do you know about Baltimore?

And I'm not talking about Edgar Allen Poe and H. L. Mencken references.

"Black" Baltimore has a unique vocal cadence, a quasi-drawl, and melodious quality.

"Coincidentally," I checked the Gaithersburg employment ads yesterday, and the same requirements were in the ads. Now, in G'Burg you're either affluent white or immigrant minority.