NationStates Jolt Archive

Just watched Clerks II. Why the hell is 'porchmonkey' so offensive? I've never heard it before. I understand how a broken bottle being refered to as a '****** knife' is offensive but why porchmonkey?

The word monkey has been used by bigots as a way to compare blacks to animals. Adding porch to it implies they were lazy and would sit on porches instead of work. The slur would therefore be calling them lazy animals.

Although, I have to admit that bit in Clerks II is hilarious.

I still don't see how porchmonkey is offensive. 'Jungle bunny' or 'nightfighter' yeah. We need to take back 'porchmonkey'!!

If you get worked up about the word monkey and always assume someone's applying it to yourself, it really does say more about you than them.

Porchmonkey is just a slur against black people. Slurs don't have to make sense. I'm of Italian descent and Guinea is a slur against my heritage. WTF does Guinea mean? It's a country in Africa, right?

Porchmonkey is just a slur against black people. Slurs don't have to make sense. I'm of Italian descent and Guinea is a slur against my heritage. WTF does Guinea mean? It's a country in Africa, right?
You think that's bad, what the hell kind of slur is chink or gook?! They sound like baby babble.

Asians have it so hard. :(

You think that's bad, what the hell kind of slur is chink or gook?! They sound like baby babble.

Asians have it so hard. :(


Not as hard as their dogs.

I need to turn the fire on - it's a bit Pearl Harbour in here!

You think that's bad, what the hell kind of slur is chink or gook?! They sound like baby babble.

Asians have it so hard. :(

And Patel (a slur against Indian people, like me) is actually a name!

http://www.joemanna.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/roflcopter.gif

Meh. I prefer the trunkmonkey anyway!

i saw that movie and had no idea what they where going on about

I still don't see how porchmonkey is offensive. 'Jungle bunny' or 'nightfighter' yeah. We need to take back 'porchmonkey'!!

Explain how you can see that "jungle bunny" is offensive but not see that "porchmonkey" is.

Where do you find monkeys? (Generally, in the jungle).
How were blacks portrayed in the bad old days of overt racism? As ape-like subhumans.

Is this thread trolling? *sniffs* Hmmmmm......

Just watched Clerks II. Why the hell is 'porchmonkey' so offensive? I've never heard it before. I understand how a broken bottle being refered to as a '****** knife' is offensive but why porchmonkey?

Weird. I always thought that "porchmonkey" was slang for a hick. Because they always hang around their porch, playing a banjo, cleaning their shotgun, etc. *shrug*

That would make more sense, yes.

Still, a word only becomes offensive if you let it be. If you don't let a word offend you, it loses its value. That's why the official name for black people in the US has changed so many times. ****** used to be official, but then it was misused, so they changed it. Then again, I'd like to see someone make a racial slur out of african american...

You can turn any word into a racist word.

You can turn any word into a racist word. What would you know about it, …tantool?

Yeah, you just need a word describing a colour and a word describing something completely random. Or you can have seemingly nonsense words, like chiny. :p Such a funny word.

Quite often it's all relative. For example, in Newcastle it is offensive to call someone a Mackum (refering to someone from Sunderland), but in Sunderland, 'bout 10 miles away, they call themselves Mackums and find Geordie (someone from Newcastle) offensive. Outside of America, very few people will understand what 'Porchmonkey' is refering to. I certainly don't.

And for the record, I'm a Geordie, and proud of it.;)

I still don't see how porchmonkey is offensive. 'Jungle bunny' or 'nightfighter' yeah. We need to take back 'porchmonkey'!!

"Nightfighter"? Some US warplanes have been classified as night-fighters. Where is that a slur against Blacks?

BTW, the full name isn't just "porch monkey", it's "Alabama porchmonkey" (q.v. Richard Pryor) -- that adds a bit of civil-rights-era stigma to the slur.

Is this thread trolling? *sniffs* Hmmmmm......Pretty damn close, yeah.

You think that's bad, what the hell kind of slur is chink or gook?! They sound like baby babble.That's rather the point. It's a racial slur based on how the language sounds to people who aren't familiar. Kinda like "barbarian".

I thought the phrase porchmonkey historically was tied to the little red and white statues of black men holding a lamp that people put on their porches, which kind of look like Jockeys...these have been viewed as racist as well...

What would you know about it, …tantool?

Yeah, you just need a word describing a colour and a word describing something completely random. Or you can have seemingly nonsense words, like chiny. :p Such a funny word.

I'll tell you what I'll do about you... mothball!

Or you pick words that aren't commonly used or make new words from pre-existing ones.

That's the real problem with racism, is it takes perfectly viable words and gives them a negative twist so that when the rest of us sane people want to use them, we can't because someone's feelings are going to get hurt... :rolleyes:

I say we start coming up with better words for racists that are very derogatory! You know, turn the tables on them! :)

Just watched Clerks II. Why the hell is 'porchmonkey' so offensive? I've never heard it before. I understand how a broken bottle being refered to as a '****** knife' is offensive but why porchmonkey?

Hmm...I always call people who hang out on the porch during parties when they're supposed to be inside so the cops don't come porchmonkeys. I don't mean it to be racist...I just hate them being on my damn porch...

Porchmonkey is just a slur against black people. Slurs don't have to make sense. I'm of Italian descent and Guinea is a slur against my heritage. WTF does Guinea mean? It's a country in Africa, right?

White supremacists like to claim that Italians have Sub-Saharan heritage.

You think that's bad, what the hell kind of slur is chink or gook?! They sound like baby babble.

Asians have it so hard. :(

Gook comes from the name for Koreans in their own language, Hangul.

slurs can be funny, used in proper comedic form they are seen for their ignorance. gratuitous use by rednecks, white trash and conservatives, then they're just wrong. off topic, but why the hell can i log in and post here and other general forums, but not my region??? on topic, clerks II was GREAT!!!

White supremacists like to claim that Italians have Sub-Saharan heritage. Unless the supremacists in question are Italian.

The funniest thing is when Greeks and Turks start going on about each other's ancestry.

That would make more sense, yes.

Still, a word only becomes offensive if you let it be. If you don't let a word offend you, it loses its value. That's why the official name for black people in the US has changed so many times. ****** used to be official, but then it was misused, so they changed it. Then again, I'd like to see someone make a racial slur out of african american...

Oh they will, give them time. However, my personal point of view is that African-American is not a good descriptor. If it's necessary to describe certain racial or ethnic communities, and I guess it is for now, they should just be called Black, and only when referring to their race. When you constantly call people African-American, it becomes less about a physical characteristic that is used to describe a person and more about separating them from the rest of America. When you hyphenate Americans (especially ones who haven't been recent immigrants for centuries) it undermines their rights as American citizens in my opinion. In addition, what do you call a recent naturalized immigrant from Africa? And what about the Arab and Berber North Africans, and the Dutch and English South Africans? There are a lot of problems with the use of this word.

Unless the supremacists in question are Italian.

The funniest thing is when Greeks and Turks start going on about each other's ancestry.

True. But because most Italians are swarthier than your average Northern European, they will always be excluded by SOMEBODY within the White supremacist movement, whereas a white Norwegian would not be.

As for the Greek/Turk thing...yeah...they pretty much look the same.

I thought the phrase porchmonkey historically was tied to the little red and white statues of black men holding a lamp that people put on their porches, which kind of look like Jockeys...these have been viewed as racist as well...

This was my impression as well, and I was going to post something to that effect, but you beat me to it - by several hours.

Oh they will, give them time. However, my personal point of view is that African-American is not a good descriptor. If it's necessary to describe certain racial or ethnic communities, and I guess it is for now, they should just be called Black, and only when referring to their race. When you constantly call people African-American, it becomes less about a physical characteristic that is used to describe a person and more about separating them from the rest of America. When you hyphenate Americans (especially ones who haven't been recent immigrants for centuries) it undermines their rights as American citizens in my opinion. In addition, what do you call a recent naturalized immigrant from Africa? And what about the Arab and Berber North Africans, and the Dutch and English South Africans? There are a lot of problems with the use of this word.

In my experience, people of color from the Caribbean do not in ANY way want to be confused with "African Americans", nor do recent immigrants from Africa.

That would make more sense, yes.

Still, a word only becomes offensive if you let it be. If you don't let a word offend you, it loses its value.
:rolleyes: Ah yes, the age old argument..."if it didn't bother you, it wouldn't be a slur". It's the INTENT of the thing. If I go around referring to you as a moronic turd, and you DARE to get offended, it's all on you, don't you see? We are responsible for our own feelings and you have no right to feel anyway about what I say to you. *gag*

That's the real problem with racism, is it takes perfectly viable words and gives them a negative twist so that when the rest of us sane people want to use them, we can't because someone's feelings are going to get hurt... :rolleyes: Wait...wop, gook, porchmonkey, chug...these are perfectly viable words you wish you could use without negative connotations?

Porchmonkey is just a slur against black people. Slurs don't have to make sense. I'm of Italian descent and Guinea is a slur against my heritage. WTF does Guinea mean? It's a country in Africa, right?

guinea is about as piss poor an excuse for a slur as i can think of. if i were italian-american i would be insulted by its lack of insult.

Online Etymology Dictionary

guinea

former British coin, 1664, from Guinea, region along the west coast of Africa, presumably from an African word; the 20-shilling coins so called because they were first minted for British trade with Guinea (but soon in domestic use) and with gold from Africa. The original guinea (in use from 1663 to 1813) was based on the value of gold and by 1695 it was worth 30 shillings. William III then fixed its value at 21 shillings, 6 pence in 1698. The extra 6 pence were lopped off in December 1717. The Guinea hen (1578) is a domestic fowl imported from there. Guinea "derogatory term for Italian" (1896) was originally Guinea Negro (1740s) and meant "black person, person of mixed ancestry." It was applied to Italians c.1890 probably because of their dark complexions relative to northern Europeans, and after 1911 was occasionally applied to Hispanics and Pacific Islanders as well.

It is not so much what you say, but how you say it.
I could call someone a 'lampshade' in a highly derisive and insulting manner. They might even be more offended then if I had called them a 'porchmonkey', or whatever other strange sounding slurs people come up with.

Oh they will, give them time. However, my personal point of view is that African-American is not a good descriptor. If it's necessary to describe certain racial or ethnic communities, and I guess it is for now, they should just be called Black, and only when referring to their race. When you constantly call people African-American, it becomes less about a physical characteristic that is used to describe a person and more about separating them from the rest of America. When you hyphenate Americans (especially ones who haven't been recent immigrants for centuries) it undermines their rights as American citizens in my opinion. In addition, what do you call a recent naturalized immigrant from Africa? And what about the Arab and Berber North Africans, and the Dutch and English South Africans? There are a lot of problems with the use of this word.

You don't hear a lot of hyphenations in Canada, but I always regarded 'African American' as referring to the blacks who've been in the US for generations. Here, we refer to the black who are recent immigrants by their country of origin. Somalian..South African, whatever...though most of our black people are from the West Indies, and they have some interesting names for themselves.

Pasta niggers? How about that? :confused:

It's shit isn't it.
Natives have been called prairie niggers.

It always confused the woodland Cree, and the coastal people.

Pasta niggers? How about that? :confused:

It's shit isn't it.

Pasta niggers? How about that? :confused:

It's shit isn't it.

LOL. that's great. I'll have to start using that when I put my race down.

*Other: PASTA ******, BITCH!*

Pleased to meet you pasta ******. I'm a guinness ****** meself.

There was a really annoying feature on a forum I used to be on. It banned the word ****** - asterisked most of it out. This applied to "snigger" and also, bizarrely, to "Nigeria" and "Niger" - which don't even have 2 Gs.

Grrr@sensitivity.

Wait...wop, gook, porchmonkey, chug...these are perfectly viable words you wish you could use without negative connotations?

What if you have a pet monkey that lives on your porch?

Porchmonkey is just a slur against black people. Slurs don't have to make sense. I'm of Italian descent and Guinea is a slur against my heritage. WTF does Guinea mean? It's a country in Africa, right?

Racial slurs usually don't make any sense, see "Kraut" and "Limey"

Racial slurs usually don't make any sense, see "Kraut" and "Limey"

Actually, "Kraut" and "Limey" make perfect sense. "Kraut", short for "Sauerkraut", and "Limey" from the days in the British Navy when much of the grog rationed out to a ship's crew was made primarily of rum and lime juice, lime being at the time the least expensive variety of citrus juice available (the citrus was to ward off scurvy) - while other ships, other navies were inclined to some other citrus fruit perhaps one more readily available to them than lime, in their own grog.

Actually, "Kraut" and "Limey" make perfect sense. "Kraut", short for "Sauerkraut", and "Limey" from the days in the British Navy when much of the grog rationed out to a ship's crew was made primarily of rum and lime juice, lime being at the time the least expensive variety of citrus juice available (the citrus was to ward off scurvy) - while other ships, other navies were inclined to some other citrus fruit perhaps one more readily available to them than lime, in their own grog.

I know, it doesn't make sense to see someone as inferior because they eat pickled cabbage or drink lime juice....

It's not about inferiority, it's about something you say. You just call them that to separate yourself from them.

Ethnic insults make more sense than "normal" insults. What is a fuckwad? Am I the wad that is being fucked, or am I the wad doing the fucking? Does this have anything to do with that guy in Shrek?