Is "uppity"

[.Shane.]

I'm still baffled as to why people like who think they know so much about southern culture yet still get it wrong. Maybe if you weren't so uppity you'd get it. And since I'm an actual southerner using that word its not being used in your north/west racist way.

"People like you" (I'm assuming the 'who' typo = 'you'). Glad you know me so well. Do you have any idea of where I've lived? My family background? Relations? etc... no, you don't.

See, the problem is you just make these blanket assumptions and stereotypes rather than start from a standpoint of having a discussion.

Where in any of my posts on this topic have said anything specifically about southerners?

In spite of your stereotyping of me, I will tell you that as I thought about this more I came to agree w/ you to a point. That said, when I reflected more about my time in the presence of people who've used this word and the context therein, I agree that it had more to do w/ issues of class than race, per se. BUT, very often, those very things intersect very harshly and this can confuse things.

I will apologize for saying "blah blah blah", but, frankly, I said it because, I find your style of lumping all people into such broad and over-general categories to be insulting (to both of us). Even with in the "south" there are a lot of distinctions between who the real southerners are. That was something taught to me very clearly when I was living in Texas. I lived in Ft. Worth and it cracked me up how they talked about people from Dallas as not being true Texans, etc.. etc... I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

 

[Bugfatty300]

"Uppity" used to refer to blacks who didn't know their place, especially in the South during the Civil Rights movement.

Uppity was used to refer to anyone who didn't know there place including errant wives. Lot's of adjectives were used by opponents of equal rights. This one just happened to be word used mostly in the south and that is why it stands out. No such "racist history" exists other than it happens to be a southern word.

But it does have that racist pedigree. Every news report that has covered the "story" has acknowledged the word's alternative meaning

To steal the argument from Patroklos, if he had used the word "niggardly" every news agency would be reporting it also. Doesn't mean much.

The media would have had to crafted a conspiracy, reported in lockstep, to fabricate an all-new interpretation of a word and push the story. That's Lyndon LaRouche-level conspiracy theorizing, there.

No. All they have to do is play on stereotypes, gossip and election year sensationalism. As far as I know this is the first big news story on the word "uppity." There are loads of them for other words however.

 

[Trajan12]

You mean ability to generalize, to think in categories and to think abstractively is beyond silly?

To think in categories regarding objects or anything other than humans maybe not. But human beings are dynamic and unique enough to warrant their own chance to prove themselves as individuals.

Of course the generalization and prejudice against people to reduce cognitive load can be quite useful to the more simple minded. So generalize away!

 

[Patroklos]

Germans speak German! /simple minded mode

 

[GenMarshall]

What in the world is "uppity"?! Is it a funky weird verb that I never heard about?!

 

[I'm Cleo!]

To steal the argument from Patroklos, if he had used the word "niggardly" every news agency would be reporting it also. Doesn't mean much.

But they all acknowledged, in the stories, that the word has that additional meaning. If you read the stories to which I linked, you'd have seen that they all said something along the lines of, "Rep. Westmoreland called Obama 'uppity,' which has a history of racist use. . . ." (emphasis added)

I'm not arguing that Westmoreland's use of the word was meaningful. I have no idea what he meant by it (and I don't care). I've used scarequotes around the word "story" because I think this is just a stupid distraction from the important stories of the campaign -- how each candidate's policies will actually affect voters' lives. But the word "uppity" does have the racist pedigree that the news organizations have noted in their stories. It's like the difference between arguing whether sending the U.S. Army to Iraq was a good idea, and arguing whether the U.S. Army exists.

Cleo

 

[Trajan12]

Germans speak German! /simple minded mode

Had you been following the argument, you would know that isn't the type of generalization I was referring to. I would hope you would be able to understand the difference between what you stated, which can be substantiated, and what he stated which is clearly unsubstantiated and clearly anecdotal.

 

[Marsden]

I thought uppity meant about the same as hoity toity or hi falutin.

 

[Bugfatty300]

But they all acknowledged, in the stories, that the word has that additional meaning. If you read the stories to which I linked, you'd have seen that they all said something along the lines of, "Rep. Westmoreland called Obama 'uppity,' which has a history of racist use. . . ." (emphasis added)

But that "additional meaning" is bogus IMO.

It's like the difference between arguing whether sending the U.S. Army to Iraq was a good idea, and arguing whether the U.S. Army exists.

No it's not. The US army has a concrete existence. Uppity is an abstract term.

 

[skadistic]

"People like you" (I'm assuming the 'who' typo = 'you'). Glad you know me so well. Do you have any idea of where I've lived? My family background? Relations? etc... no, you don't.

See, the problem is you just make these blanket assumptions and stereotypes rather than start from a standpoint of having a discussion.

Where in any of my posts on this topic have said anything specifically about southerners?

In spite of your stereotyping of me, I will tell you that as I thought about this more I came to agree w/ you to a point. That said, when I reflected more about my time in the presence of people who've used this word and the context therein, I agree that it had more to do w/ issues of class than race, per se. BUT, very often, those very things intersect very harshly and this can confuse things.

I will apologize for saying "blah blah blah", but, frankly, I said it because, I find your style of lumping all people into such broad and over-general categories to be insulting (to both of us). Even with in the "south" there are a lot of distinctions between who the real southerners are. That was something taught to me very clearly when I was living in Texas. I lived in Ft. Worth and it cracked me up how they talked about people from Dallas as not being true Texans, etc.. etc... I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

I still love you.

 

[Virote_Considon]

What in the world is "uppity"?! Is it a funky weird verb that I never heard about?!

Have a read of this, and it should be made obvious*

Mr. Uppity

*(That goes to everyone else, too)

 

[MobBoss]

To be perfectly honest, I think the only real time I have ever heard this used in the context of it being a racial slur was in "Blazing Saddles".

I seem to recall that its use was something along the lines of "look there, its that uppity NXXXXX that done hit me on the hed'.....

 

[Bugfatty300]

Never seen Blazing Saddles but I've never heard uppity used in a racial context outside someone doing a bad impersonation of a "southern racist." I've heard it used more in sexist contexts but whatever...

There is no doubt in my mind that uppity was used to describe blacks in an unflattering way but so where lots of ugly English adjectives. The term "rabble-rouser" was commonly used to describe black Civil Rights advocates. So why doesn't it have the same connotations?

 

[skadistic]

So why doesn't it have the same connotations?

Because the people who declare what is and isn't racist , the north/west enlightened, don't want it to. Being from the "wrong side of the tracks" refers to blacks in NJ during that states race riots. But that term isn't racist. And it started out as a racist term unlike uppity.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Because the people who declare what is and isn't racist , the north/west enlightened, don't want it to. Being from the "wrong side of the tracks" refers to blacks in NJ during that states race riots. But that term isn't racist. And it started out as a racist term unlike uppity.

I think its due to uppity being primarily used by southerners where as other more wide spread adjectives are ignored.

But I think this whole Westmoreland/Obama thing is due to Obama election erections and nothing more. Nobody seemed to care about the connotations of uppity before....how odd.

 

[JollyRoger]

I am part Irish. Dont preach to me about a history of abuse. Again, GET OVER IT ALREADY.

What history of abuse have you personally experienced for being part-Irish? It surely can't be more abuse than you take for being part-Cretin*.

* Obtuse for those insisting on giving a word its most innocent connotations.

 

[JollyRoger]

Even the Young Republicans are becoming PC police:

The leader of a statewide group of college Republicans has been forced to resign after posting racially insensitive comments about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on the Internet.

Adam LaDuca, 21, the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, wrote on his Facebook page in late July that Obama has "a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)"

LaDuca, who previously had called Martin Luther King Jr. a "pariah" and a "fraud," also wrote: "And man, if sayin' someone has large lips is a racial slur, then we're ALL in trouble."

The College Republicans asked LaDuca to resign after his remarks were publicized by the Pennsylvania Progressive, a blog written by a Democratic committeeman from Berks County. The group announced LaDuca's resignation on its Web site Friday.

"The comments were completely uncalled for and very offensive," said Anthony Pugliese, 22, a senior at West Chester University and chairman of the College Republicans, an umbrella group with more than 50 chapters statewide. "The P-A College Republicans do not accept or tolerate racism in any way."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080908/ap_on_el_pr/college_republicans_obama

Guess he should have toe tapped in an airport restroom or worn a diaper to a prostitute if he wanted to keep his leadership post.

 

[Mark1031]

"a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)"

Wow what is this country coming to. I have never heard talking about the size of someones lips being racist. Where I come from when we talk about the size of someones lips we are usually talking about a woman and whether she had silicon injections.

I can;t believe this crap and a fine hardworking young man had to lose his position over THIS. Well maybe McCain can make him head of the EEOC. Or head of Iraqi infrastructure so he can be with kids his own age.

 

[Yeekim]

To think in categories regarding objects or anything other than humans maybe not. But human beings are dynamic and unique enough to warrant their own chance to prove themselves as individuals.

True. But before they have had this chance to prove themselves, you MUST have some opinions or expectations of your own, based on what you know (or what you think you know) about them. You don't have to clutch to it with nails and teeth, but it most certainly is there.

Had you been following the argument, you would know that isn't the type of generalization I was referring to. I would hope you would be able to understand the difference between what you stated, which can be substantiated, and what he stated which is clearly unsubstantiated and clearly anecdotal.

Meh? I basically said that I'd rather avoid black guys, since it seems that, should I, God forbid, ever have to make a not-so-pleasing comment about them, some nutjob of whatever color might please to call me "racist"... EDIT: At least in America. So probably I've myself become a little racist now... ? In some sense of the word?

Which backs my original idea which point obviously was not as clear as it should have been: I hate people, who scream baseless or near-baseless accusations like "Racist!" or "Nazi!" This, on one hand, kind of downplays the seriousness of such accusations and on the other hand undermines the position of those who fight against such things. A devoted idiot can cause great harm as he discredits the cause he thinks to be fighting for.

 

[MobBoss]

Never seen Blazing Saddles

You need to fix this. Its one of the funniest movies of all time.