To (say) Thug or to not (say) Thug, that is my ?

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

oftenreading said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

rgambs said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

I love how I presented irrefutable evidence to the contrary of the notion that 'thug' is reserved for black people and people not only chose to ignore it... they persist with their argument.

In the event some are talking more than they are listening: Mayor Gregor Robertson publically denounced the large, predominantly white contingency of rioters in Vancouver as thugs.

He did so because that is what these 'individuals-persisting-with-non-legal-activities' (would that satisfy some?) were- thugs.

I don't think Vancouver is a great example at all. Canada simply doesn't have the same racial tensions that we do. If you find an example from the US please post it, I am not sure it hasn't happened, but you can bet your bottom dollar Fox News doesn't call any white people thugs.

Even if they do occasionally, some of you are seriously blind if you don't see that there are people out there who are using thug as a new racist epithet. It happens, get over it. Thug is not a racist term, but it gets used as one, and that is plain truth, if you can't see that your eyes are closed.

If Vancouver isn't a good example then neither is Fox News. Fox speaks to a certain audience only and that audience does not include you or I. Much like Richard Sherman, Fox doesn't get to decide what words mean, or define how they are used across society.

I'm off to see the Avengers but I'm sure I'll check in later.

The other part to this being that the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots happened in 2011 and we're talking about word usage in 2015. If we are talking about evolving usage, that's plenty of time for it.

Plenty of time? Are you serious?

4 years... and a common word is plucked from everyday vernacular and converted to succinctly depicting a group based on their race when engaged in the behaviors typically eliciting the descriptive term?

What's the new term for 'white' thugs?

No. No way.

I"m not arguing for or against the validity of this usage, Thirty, I'm just saying that word meanings can change very quickly. How quickly did the word "tweet" come to commonly mean a post on twitter instead of the sound of a bird? Or go listen to any teenagers talk.

"Tweet" is an example of taking an existing word and using it to name something that did not exist before. It didn't change the existing meaning of the word. Birds still tweet and chirp outside my window, Twitter or no.

Yes, absolutely. Of course it's an example of taking an existing word and repurposing it; that's exactly what we're talking about. When word meanings change the old meaning is not suddenly incorrect, but becomes be less common usage. Kind of like how every adult on this board knows that the word "gay" was used for centuries to mean someone who was fun, bubbly, light-hearted; we could still use it in that way, but today when we say someone is gay we all know what we mean.

And bear in mind that I'm not arguing for this new definition of thug; like PJ_Soul, I hadn't even heard of this until this thread and it all seems kind of odd. I just wanted to argue the point about 4 years with Thirty, because it's fun and he's wrong

Hahahahaha!

Between you and Callen, I have no more hair by my temples.

Good to hear I'm achieving at least one of my life's goals , and am delighted to be included in such august company with callen.

oftenreading said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

oftenreading said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

rgambs said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

I love how I presented irrefutable evidence to the contrary of the notion that 'thug' is reserved for black people and people not only chose to ignore it... they persist with their argument.

In the event some are talking more than they are listening: Mayor Gregor Robertson publically denounced the large, predominantly white contingency of rioters in Vancouver as thugs.

He did so because that is what these 'individuals-persisting-with-non-legal-activities' (would that satisfy some?) were- thugs.

I don't think Vancouver is a great example at all. Canada simply doesn't have the same racial tensions that we do. If you find an example from the US please post it, I am not sure it hasn't happened, but you can bet your bottom dollar Fox News doesn't call any white people thugs.

Even if they do occasionally, some of you are seriously blind if you don't see that there are people out there who are using thug as a new racist epithet. It happens, get over it. Thug is not a racist term, but it gets used as one, and that is plain truth, if you can't see that your eyes are closed.

If Vancouver isn't a good example then neither is Fox News. Fox speaks to a certain audience only and that audience does not include you or I. Much like Richard Sherman, Fox doesn't get to decide what words mean, or define how they are used across society.

I'm off to see the Avengers but I'm sure I'll check in later.

The other part to this being that the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots happened in 2011 and we're talking about word usage in 2015. If we are talking about evolving usage, that's plenty of time for it.

Plenty of time? Are you serious?

4 years... and a common word is plucked from everyday vernacular and converted to succinctly depicting a group based on their race when engaged in the behaviors typically eliciting the descriptive term?

What's the new term for 'white' thugs?

No. No way.

I"m not arguing for or against the validity of this usage, Thirty, I'm just saying that word meanings can change very quickly. How quickly did the word "tweet" come to commonly mean a post on twitter instead of the sound of a bird? Or go listen to any teenagers talk.

"Tweet" is an example of taking an existing word and using it to name something that did not exist before. It didn't change the existing meaning of the word. Birds still tweet and chirp outside my window, Twitter or no.

Yes, absolutely. Of course it's an example of taking an existing word and repurposing it; that's exactly what we're talking about. When word meanings change the old meaning is not suddenly incorrect, but becomes be less common usage. Kind of like how every adult on this board knows that the word "gay" was used for centuries to mean someone who was fun, bubbly, light-hearted; we could still use it in that way, but today when we say someone is gay we all know what we mean.

And bear in mind that I'm not arguing for this new definition of thug; like PJ_Soul, I hadn't even heard of this until this thread and it all seems kind of odd. I just wanted to argue the point about 4 years with Thirty, because it's fun and he's wrong

Hahahahaha!

Between you and Callen, I have no more hair by my temples.

Good to hear I'm achieving at least one of my life's goals , and am delighted to be included in such august company with callen.

Good thing i have given him a bit of a reprieve. Lol.

hedonist said:

I don't think I've ever seen the word "august" used in this way here. Well-done!

Thanks, hedonist . I love words - we have such a huge variety of great words in the English language, not to mention the other languages, so why not use them! I often jump into the threads on word meanings even if I don't know much about the rest of the topic, which, for the sake of thread integrity, brings us back to the "thugs" discussion...

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

oftenreading said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

oftenreading said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

oftenreading said:

JimmyV said:

rgambs said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

I love how I presented irrefutable evidence to the contrary of the notion that 'thug' is reserved for black people and people not only chose to ignore it... they persist with their argument.

In the event some are talking more than they are listening: Mayor Gregor Robertson publically denounced the large, predominantly white contingency of rioters in Vancouver as thugs.

He did so because that is what these 'individuals-persisting-with-non-legal-activities' (would that satisfy some?) were- thugs.

I don't think Vancouver is a great example at all. Canada simply doesn't have the same racial tensions that we do. If you find an example from the US please post it, I am not sure it hasn't happened, but you can bet your bottom dollar Fox News doesn't call any white people thugs.

Even if they do occasionally, some of you are seriously blind if you don't see that there are people out there who are using thug as a new racist epithet. It happens, get over it. Thug is not a racist term, but it gets used as one, and that is plain truth, if you can't see that your eyes are closed.

If Vancouver isn't a good example then neither is Fox News. Fox speaks to a certain audience only and that audience does not include you or I. Much like Richard Sherman, Fox doesn't get to decide what words mean, or define how they are used across society.

I'm off to see the Avengers but I'm sure I'll check in later.

The other part to this being that the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots happened in 2011 and we're talking about word usage in 2015. If we are talking about evolving usage, that's plenty of time for it.

Plenty of time? Are you serious?

4 years... and a common word is plucked from everyday vernacular and converted to succinctly depicting a group based on their race when engaged in the behaviors typically eliciting the descriptive term?

What's the new term for 'white' thugs?

No. No way.

I"m not arguing for or against the validity of this usage, Thirty, I'm just saying that word meanings can change very quickly. How quickly did the word "tweet" come to commonly mean a post on twitter instead of the sound of a bird? Or go listen to any teenagers talk.

"Tweet" is an example of taking an existing word and using it to name something that did not exist before. It didn't change the existing meaning of the word. Birds still tweet and chirp outside my window, Twitter or no.

Yes, absolutely. Of course it's an example of taking an existing word and repurposing it; that's exactly what we're talking about. When word meanings change the old meaning is not suddenly incorrect, but becomes be less common usage. Kind of like how every adult on this board knows that the word "gay" was used for centuries to mean someone who was fun, bubbly, light-hearted; we could still use it in that way, but today when we say someone is gay we all know what we mean.

And bear in mind that I'm not arguing for this new definition of thug; like PJ_Soul, I hadn't even heard of this until this thread and it all seems kind of odd. I just wanted to argue the point about 4 years with Thirty, because it's fun and he's wrong

Hahahahaha!

Between you and Callen, I have no more hair by my temples.

Good to hear I'm achieving at least one of my life's goals , and am delighted to be included in such august company with callen.

Good thing i have given him a bit of a reprieve. Lol.

Toss RG in with you guys and its the grand slam for old Thirty!

Hey man.....I'm hurt.

PJ_Soul said:

^^^ I don't understand the purpose of that post. Were you really not sure?

It's like watching the 'News' when it involves some racist remark/word, and the reporter reports (for example) 'and he said the N WORD'...

That's just pathetic,

Like this whole thug thing,

It's a word, they have meanings..they also have uses and we have (our own) intentions behind our use of words. (Mmmm)

Calling someone a 'nigger'...Bad, (trust me, I know, people have called me Nigger many times, It really stings hearing it thrown at you as a child too)

It is disgusting, the lack of Intelligence and understanding displayed by many people when it comes to the issue of race.

Talk about 'race' and watch the emotions fly, the 'N word!' omg, he said the n word!

You wanna have an open honest, progressive conversation about race? Stop being so emotional, ask questions, don't just freak out. blah blah blah

Some people who are using 'thug', sure, some are using it as some coded language. 'thug'=nigger...nigger=black people.

It's also the power we give a word...Like I really, needed to explain all this?

What did I post? (obviously you still do not get it)

Last-12-Exit said:

Thug absolutely does not equal the n word. Is criminal the same as the n word? How about looter?Maybe vandal?

Of course thug does not = the n word. But does 'bad' really mean 'good'? Yep, depends on whos saying it, context etc,

Thug is not synonymous with black people, but it's clear that many people are trying to equate the 2. Change meanings,

That's a 'bad ass car dude', you mean my car is bad? -errrm, no man, 'bad' as in good'.

Last-12-Exit said:

Idris said:

Last-12-Exit said:

So the black mayor of Baltimore was saying the n word in code? I think your reaction was knee jerk.

errrr, no. (now you, really missed the point)

Is your point that it's ok for black people to say thug but not white people? You wrote thug = the n word. Then said I missed your point. What am I missing?

First of all, sorry. I'm being lazy, I need to get back into the MTrain political posting vibe. So my bad.

That is not exactly what I said. I did not say thug=n word.(full stop that is the meaning of thug). I said (sure) 'some' are using it as coded language.