If you go to nitax's link it is not a whale it's a slur.
wait, what? I can't go to her link, work has it blocked as hate related for fairly obvious reasons. Are you being serious?
Somebody please tell me that we have not had a running family joke about calling people "big belugas" for the past 29 years and it's actually a slur.
LAWD. I posted and said SOME ARE OBVIOUS, some are not and you should use with care. I don't think a kid calling her brother a beluga whale is the same. I used that database because it does have more obscure items that you may not have heard, but also, realize not each thing is overtly a slur and depending on the context, it wouldn't have that effect.
ALSO I AM PRESSING PAUSE ON THIS ENTIRE THREAD.
Jiggaboo, Sambo, Aunt Jemima, Mammy and Uncle Tom are all derived around the same era when it comes to slurs. Those are somewhat obvious slurs. Just like when Sarah Palin was using tarbaby in the same sentence with Obama. These are things you do not do.
Next, the ladies in that photo are old enough to know better. 20 year old? I'll give you leeway. 40+ - You'se a dayum lie that you didn't know. And you're old enough to know better. You don't hear jiggaboo in casual conversation and it ain't anyone's mascot for a reason.
Baluga with an "a" can be used as an ethnic slur. Why? Because it's the Filipino equivalent of the n-word.
A beluga with an "e" is a whale.
You are right when I get insulted and called a big beluga I stop and say was that an a or e, I should know if you are calling me fat or something worse.
I was telling you were wrong because you obviously didn't read the link that you so pointedly referred to when you replied to wawa. I don't know what your problem is, but I'm finding you obnoxious.
You are right when I get insulted and called a big beluga I stop and say was that an a or e, I should know if you are calling me fat or something worse.
I was telling you were wrong because you obviously didn't read the link that you so pointedly referred to when you replied to wawa. I don't know what you're problem is, but I'm finding you obnoxious.
I was telling you were wrong because you obviously didn't read the link that you so pointedly referred to when you replied to wawa. I don't know what you're problem is, but I'm finding you obnoxious.
Some people don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Not a teacher who decided to use this word for her classroom nickname and required her students to recite it every day. Regardless of what that nickname is, the teacher better know what it means. Ignorance is not an excuse.
And, this isn't about how you as an individual give everyone the benefit of the doubt. It's how our society gives white people the benefit of the doubt, time after time after time on issues like this. Either the teacher is a racist pig or she has chosen not to educate herself on the history that affects 60% of her students. Neither is acceptable.
To be fair on the recitation thing, some districts make you do dumbshit like that, there might even be a script. Even if it was Mrs. ____'s Dream Team, reciting stuff like that is creepy, IMO. I have giant idiotic posters I have to keep in my room, thankfully, no recitations.
That's another issue, too. Don't teachers name their classes (when they name their classes, I mean ... I was never in a class with a group name) aspirationally? AKA The HEB High-Achievers/Mrs. Smith's Dream Team/etc. That the teacher here has such a low bar is telling.
wait, what? I can't go to her link, work has it blocked as hate related for fairly obvious reasons. Are you being serious?
Somebody please tell me that we have not had a running family joke about calling people "big belugas" for the past 29 years and it's actually a slur.
LAWD. I posted and said SOME ARE OBVIOUS, some are not and you should use with care. I don't think a kid calling her brother a beluga whale is the same. I used that database because it does have more obscure items that you may not have heard, but also, realize not each thing is overtly a slur and depending on the context, it wouldn't have that effect.
ALSO I AM PRESSING PAUSE ON THIS ENTIRE THREAD.
Jiggaboo, Sambo, Aunt Jemima, Mammy and Uncle Tom are all derived around the same era when it comes to slurs. Those are somewhat obvious slurs. Just like when Sarah Palin was using tarbaby in the same sentence with Obama. These are things you do not do.
Next, the ladies in that photo are old enough to know better. 20 year old? I'll give you leeway. 40+ - You'se a dayum lie that you didn't know. And you're old enough to know better. You don't hear jiggaboo in casual conversation and it ain't anyone's mascot for a reason.
well now that I can google the correct spelling and have a decent guess at correct pronunciation in Tagalog - I am comforted that nobody was likely overhearing us say this to each other and laughing all these years and thinking we are terrible people. Since it's pretty wildly unlikely that anybody would assume we meant a filipino racial slur rather than the whale. Context! yay!
Of all the ridiculous racism defenses I've heard over the years (and read here), "but I thought they were talking about clowns" is definitely a new one.
Why don't you look up Insane Clown Posse and see how similar the words are before you start slinging shit. So fuck off with your racism defenses.
"I have a right to ignorantly use the work jigaboo because I don't know what it means" seems like a really fucking stupid hill to die on. And still, here you are. What's up with that?
Post by Miss Phryne Fisher on Sept 2, 2016 13:28:06 GMT -5
There is a Raffi song called Baby Beluga I planned on using this year...should this be out? It is about a baby whale but I don't even like the hint that I could be offending someone unknowingly. I will not use eeny-meeny-miney-mo no matter how much the lyrics are changed.
Can someone who has kids a bit older than mine tell me at what age you would be OK with a teacher discussing Strange Fruit with their class? I wonder if I can even a) get through a lesson like that without tears because even the wiki page makes me cry and b) if I can even do it justice. I can't just have them listen to it without telling them what it is about. (Memory was jogged after reading NitawX's link...will be bookmarking that)
(I know I ask a lot of music questions, I have taught instrumental for 15 years, now going to general is a whole different ball of wax and it is basically all I think of right now)
There is a Raffi song called Baby Beluga I planned on using this year...should this be out? It is about a baby whale but I don't even like the hint that I could be offending someone unknowingly. I will not use eeny-meeny-miney-mo no matter how much the lyrics are changed.
Can someone who has kids a bit older than mine tell me at what age you would be OK with a teacher discussing Strange Fruit with their class? I wonder if I can even a) get through a lesson like that without tears because even the wiki page makes me cry and b) if I can even do it justice. I can't just have them listen to it without telling them what it is about. (Memory was jogged after reading NitawX's link...will be bookmarking that)
(I know I ask a lot of music questions, I have taught instrumental for 15 years, now going to general is a whole different ball of wax and it is basically all I think of right now)
Baby Beluga- context matters, it is a song about a baby whale and if you are teaching the song the lyrics make that clear, it's fine.
Strange Fruit: I want to say late middle school, we learned about the holocaust via the diary of Anne Frank (book, movie and play) and other holocaust lit in 8th and survived. However, depending on your district waiting until high school might go over better.
ETA: it would be different if beluga was a common slur like the others mentioned above, obviously no context makes them OK but I think literally singing about a baby whale is fine,