The Alley is Dead. Let's get things rolling.

OK, I just heard about this. Dog went on a rant while talking to his son about a Woman of African Descent. I'm of two minds on this topic, both as it relates to Dog and how it relates to the world in general. I'll lay out how I feel:

1: Using the "N" word shows a total lack of class. I avoid using it.

2: However, I dislike several aspects of how we react to this word. Persons of African Descent use the word frequently with few penalties. Whites are pilloried if they use it. IMHO if double standards are wrong, they should be wrong all the time, not just when the politically correct decide.

3: Just because a person uses a slur does not mean that they are 100% evil. What a person says in what he believes to be private should not become public domain and should not be used to destroy his life.

4: Dog was, AFAIK, unaware he was being taped when he spouted off. It's not like he was saying this deliberately on National television. Even public figures deserve privacy.

5: Should he feel ashamed of what he said? Absolutely. Should he lose everything he's worked so hard for just because he has serious character flaws? I don't think so.

Anyhow, I read only one article about this -- perhaps there's more I don't know. Let me know what you guys know and what you think.

Can you link to that? It doesn't really mean much as you say it.

Anyway, on the N-slurs, and some others, it's something a bit deeper. Yes, there is a double standard: any group, not just African-americans, is much less touchy about insults being used between members. One of the reasons is familiarity: - I, and probably everyone else, would allow myself to be called names by friends that we would not allow strangers to call us. I had two friends who routinely called each other as...le, and for them it was completely normal. That does not mean, by the way, they would allow others to call them thus.

There is a second reason, related to the first: members of the same group know or at least expect that they do not mean the negative connotation. Chances are, if two African Americans (is it okay to just call them blacks, btw?) call each other "n....r", they most likely don't insult each other's shared background, or at least actually know what they are talking about. It's similar with criticizing/insulting other groups such as ethnicities, nationalities, etc - it's always easier to take when it's from another member of your group.

Apart from all that, though, there should be a limit to how much such trials cost. Yes, such language is very inappropriate, but imo you should not be ground in the dust for a single bad choice of words. Not unless you make a living by public speaking, at least.

OK, I feel officially stupid now -- this was on my Sympatico page when I logged out of Hotmail, so I thought it was recent. I couldn't find that particular article, so I found this:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/436956/dog_the_bounty_hunter_gets_caught_saying.html

I'm not that hot at linking, apologies my friends. Anyhow, it looks like this happened quite a while ago (as in the latter part of 2007), so you all have MY politically correct apologies for putting something old in here. You can all take a swing at me later.