Is this perceived as inherently racist?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

Okay, I'm Australian too, but here's my seven cents worth thanks to the low Oz dollar...

You're creating a problem when any attempt at political correctness, or even a genuine desire not to offend people or perpetuate unpleasant language, diminishes the realism of your characters and their dialogue. In fact, you're possibly doing a disservice by denying such language existed — regardless of any argument about its origins. Imagine someone young reading a novel set in the South circa 19th Century and it didn't contain any of the cruel and racist language used in the day? Would that be right?


If your writing involves perhaps a one-off instance of possible offence, then yeah ... why poke the bear? But if several, even frequent phrases can be offensive, but have genuine historical context — even if that context is to accurately portray a character of the era with their language (remembering, by the way, that many, many people use profanity without having a clue what the words mean) and to maintain the realism of the period, then the best idea would be a brief, heartfelt acknowledgement at the front of the book explaining that you don't condone at all the use of such phrases today, if ever, and that their inclusion is for the sake of authenticity and accuracy.


Acknowledging and identifying any offensive language, and authentically portraying its cruel use, is a lot more powerful message towards removing it today, than pretending it didn't happen.

[boba1823]

Isn't this phrase something that Bugs Bunny, or maybe Elmer Fudd, or one of those Loony Toons characters would say? Maybe I'm remembering it from something else, but I'm fairly sure it was one of those old cartoons.
But my first impression is just that it's a goofy (small-g) and cartoonish phrase. No one else has mentioned it, so.. maybe this isn't a common association, ha!
... also, hooray for the new board being up :D

[LilyBLily]

Several years ago a Washington DC city official used the word niggardly and anyone who didn't bother to educate themselves about the meaning of the word or bother to look in a dictionary, lost their collective minds. But when the NAACP's own chairman responded, it wasn't to criticize the official, but those who took offense to word and demanded others be offended as well, "You hate to think you have to censor your language to meet other people's lack of understanding".

As writers, we should never have to censor our words to compensate for a lack of understanding. The onus shouldn't be on writers to use neutral words, but on the readers to actually look outside themselves and realize that books should be filled with different characters from different worlds with different experiences. But then the reader wouldn't be offended nearly as much and might have to question their current world view; something that is understandably a frightening thought.

That man was forced to resign because of the ignorance of the person who heard him use the word (who mistook it for a word white people aren't supposed to say anymore, but nonwhite people apparently do use). If you google "niggardly incident" you come across numerous examples of ignorant people with limited vocabularies getting up in arms or upset over the word. Many people jumped to his defense, and he was offered his job back, but accepted a different one. He said he'd learned he had to be more sensitive in his use of language. It wasn't what he said, but what was heard. (I'm paraphrasing, not quoting.)

If something feels offensive and hurtful, that's your truth.

Our words do have power, and their use in specific situations can inflame any word we use. Often we're not in control of those situations. Still, we can't all write as if every character we invent is thoughtful, PC, etc. Lee Child's often vicious criminals never use the f-word in his books; that's his choice. I just deleted a romantic comedy from my Kindle because the author used the f-word in hers; that's my choice.

I've learned a lot from this discussion.
 

[guest14]

'Call a spade a spade'... Now, are we going to make that racist?

[Jake]

I have a Southern character who said "cotton picking" in a line of dialogue today, and I'm just curious if the phrase is tainted by racist connotations in the eyes of the general public. Does it bother you, or think it would others?

I don't think the word is tainted, I wouldn't think twice about it if I read it in a book. Some people WOULD possibly think that a character who talked like that who also had certain other attributes might be a racist, even if it's not stated outright in the story. This isn't a political correctness issue, it comes down to how you want your character perceived.