jake_lex: This reminds me of a situation in Kentucky maybe 25 years ago when former governor "Happy" Chandler remarked at a UK Board of Trustees meeting "Zimbabwe's all [n-word] now."  The defense people made for him was "Well, Happy's old, and he grew up using that word, so you can't really hold it against him."

Which leads to the counter argument: if he's gotten so senile that he doesn't know that that word hasn't been acceptable for years, what is he doing in an important political position?  Same deal with this guy.

I used to cringe at every UK seniors' day game when Happy would sing "My Old Kentucky Home," with the ORIGINAL lyrics.

serial_crusher: You're supposed to say "jerry rig", but mumble it enough so people think you're saying "jury"

CPT Ethanolic: "Indian style"

A teacher acquaintance of mine told me they're not allowed to say that anymore.  I believe it's "chris cross applesauce" now.  People with bad tastes in music but good tastes in food are evidently not a large enough minority to worry about offending them.

We (well, the school district I was in) stopped calling it "Indian style" when I was in grade school - 20 years ago. It was "Cross-legged" instead.

I admit to using this term 30 years ago when I lived in the sticks.  Everyone did.

Of course, it's not 30 years ago and this is not a child.  Still, it's Kansas so I guess that's 1 out of 3?

That is actually legitimately a common colloquialism.

However, motherfarker still should have known better, given that it's a colloquialism explicitly tying black people to poverty and stupidity.  Whereas "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built" reference the solutions being temporary/short-term and don't bring race into it at all.

//Today the internet taught me that "jury-rig" was originally Naval slang for a temporary mast set in place when a permanent mast was broken.  Learn something new every day.

Rapmaster2000: I admit to using this term 30 years ago when I lived in the sticks.  Everyone did.

Of course, it's not 30 years ago and this is not a child.  Still, it's Kansas so I guess that's 1 out of 3?

I haven't heard that term in a coon's age.

OMG! Old racist honkie in rural Kansas county says old racist things! Outrage-O-Meter to 11!

No, he couldn't have said all that. No, i have some faith left in humanity. No one can be that dense and racist at the same tim....

*reads story*

Whelp, it's 5 PM somewhere, time to start drinking. No use having any kind of sense today anymore.

FTA: I am not a prejudiced person," Gile told the Salina Journal. "I have built Habitat homes for colored people."


Lol. Oh, you poor, dumb motherf¤cker.

Idiot. Everybody knows you say "socialist-rigged" now.

What an absolute dumbass.

Jim_Callahan: That is actually legitimately a common colloquialism.

However, motherfarker still should have known better, given that it's a colloquialism explicitly tying black people to poverty and stupidity.  Whereas "jury-rigged" and "jerry-built" reference the solutions being temporary/short-term and don't bring race into it at all.

//Today the internet taught me that "jury-rig" was originally Naval slang for a temporary mast set in place when a permanent mast was broken.  Learn something new every day.

I've replaced all of them with "halfass job".  It's socioeconomically neutral.  People across all races and socioeconomic backgrounds regularly do a halfass job.  Doctors, lawyers, politicians - all of them them regularly perform halfass work.

Heh... The GOP is really going out of their way to change the perception they're nothing but a bunch of backwards, bigoted, racist old white men, aren't they?

scottydoesntknow: He also insisted that he is not racist, noting that a friend he considers a sister is black.

Ohhh shiat, he actually went there. I didn't think he'd go there, but he totally did. He doesn't keep going, does he?

"Sister" or "Sistah"?

"I have built Habitat homes for colored people."

Protip: When apologizing for using an offensive term for a minority group, do not use an archaic term for that same minority group.

White men! White women! The swastika is calling you. The sacred and ancient symbol of your race, since the beginning of time. The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You are going to join with us. The members of the American Socialist White Peoples' Party. An organization of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you!

I meant to say "jury-rigged".

Yeah. It's just that n*gger comes out naturally?

Eh, he should've known better and is rightly being castigated for it. Demanding he resign over a poor choice of words is a bit much though. He's not a freakin' ambassador to a foreign country with an unstable political climate. People should be allowed to make one off minor mistakes without worrying about losing their job over it.

 Not even 10,000 chinamen could make this old racist honky change his attitude towards jigaboos.

WTF Indeed: OMG! Old racist honkie in rural Kansas county says old racist things! Outrage-O-Meter to 11!

The internet has changed the way news is delivered in such a way that local issues are now made available to people all over a state, country or even the entire world.

My favorite is when racists use the excuse of "well, it was okay to be racist when I grew up".  Makes so much sense.

CPT Ethanolic: I don't really consider this any more offensive than saying something is "gay" or sitting "Indian style" or even "Redskins".  He wasn't referring to a person and it's a term that has existed for a very long time.  People taking issue with this are looking to be offended.

Saying something is "gay" if you're calling it bad... is actually pretty offensive.

The other two aren't negative, though, sure.  Albeit if you tell someone born after 1985 or so to sit "indian style" they're going to have to use the internet to figure out what the fark you're talking about... the last people that watched the cowboy serials from which the term originated are the current 20-30 year olds' grandparents and great-grandparents, the rest of us just say "cross-legged", or maybe half-lotus if we're feeling pretentious.

Kaiku: Eh, he should've known better and is rightly being castigated for it. Demanding he resign over a poor choice of words is a bit much though. He's not a freakin' ambassador to a foreign country with an unstable political climate. People should be allowed to make one off minor mistakes without worrying about losing their job over it.

His "apology" is damned near as offensive as the original incident.

Jake Havechek: White men! White women! The swastika is calling you. The sacred and ancient symbol of your race, since the beginning of time. The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You are going to join with us. The members of the American Socialist White Peoples' Party. An organization of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you!

I hate Illinois Nazis.

Reminds me of a lot of the friends and family I grew up with who justified using the word n*gger as a non-racist term that simply referred to a "low-class person".  It was always used to describe a black person, but that wasn't the point.

I guess you have to justify being a willingly racist idiot somehow.

skozlaw: The internet has changed the way news is delivered in such a way that local issues are now made available to people all over a state, country or even the entire world.

And you're on a website that lambasts what local stories the media chooses to highlight on a daily basis.