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OK. I've been avoiding "telling" not "showing" ever since miss wonderstar raised hir concerns in the "Racism?" thread, because I thought the ensuing conversation was VERY revealing and hope people would be able to work it all out themselves using "text, intent, and context". Please note, I also repeatedly asked people exactly why they felt uncomforatble, but nobody could give me a clear answer that didn't involve the assumption that I was using Jamaican patois, which was a false assumption. Indeed, as an aside, it seems odd that people forget that not all Jamaicans are black, but that's an issue for another thread, later. Racism?
However, (even despite my previous, long, patient, and exhaustive comments and also those of redtara's in the "Racism?" thread) I fear that some people just aren't going to make the semiotic leap without a nudge. Therefore:
It was UK "youthspeak". It's a register used by many young people up and down the country. Like any "youthspeak" it pisses off the adults, who can't get their heads round it. And I like that. And before you say it, I also have no ageist-type issues either, because I realise that prejudice is something we are taught from birth, and that this isn't cured easily at a stroke, it's requires constant attention and reassesment, no matter what "demographic" you like to put yourself in or how liberal you like to think you are.
Haus, I don't know what your social spheres are like. I have close friends of different ages, classes, religions, nationalities, sexualities, etc; whom I love dearly. It's something I've done on purpose, consciously. And I borrow their cultural lingo all the time; as they borrow from others themselves. e.g. I use "non?", but I'm not French; "I use "y'all" but I'm not from the South of the US.
IMHO, it's ironic that the complete use of an UK urban register provokes such confusion on this board, a board that frowns on (e.g) text-speak and encourages what I'd losely call "academia-speech" -- I use that register when I'm on this board, because I feel I would be metaphorically torn to shreds without doing so.
But the minute I let that veil drop...
So, back on the initial topic in hand: is using "Jesus Christ!" as an act of anger, disdain, despair, disrespectful to Christians and Christianity if one isn't a Christian? |
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