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In reply to the discussion: Virginia lawmaker uses "tar baby" in speech about Medicaid debate [View all]Igel
(35,486 posts)When you're using it wrt a person, it's racist.
When you're using it wrt a situation, it's not. In fact, it's using the word more or less as the blacks that told Harris the tale in the 1880s and 1890s used it. Perhaps the Southern blacks were racists? Let's not go there.
Its the way we deal with a lot of words. I don't take personal offense if somebody says, "Step over the piece of shit on the sidewalk." I do take personal offense if somebody says, "You're a piece of shit." If I say, "My kid has a rash on his dick" that's one thing; if I say, "My kid is a rash dick" it's quite another thing.
Since very few people refer to situations as a person, there's little chance of confusion provided we first understand what's said before jumping to some conclusion and shutting down the language-processing and reasoning portions of our brains.
"The entire situation with Medicare is an African-American that I wish to insult" makes no sense; "The entire situation with Medicare is a sticky mess, once you grab it you have trouble getting rid of it" does. Yet those who claim it's entirely a racist term are forced to somehow say how it *does* make sense to refer to a situation as a person, or they have to say that they're offended not by a meaning, or a usage, but by a series of sounds emanating from a white person's lips. One gets the impression that they really didn't try to understand, they just flew off the handle.