I am hearing a backstory that the mom has been giving interviews saying that his favorite food was chicken and so the reporter was trying to reiterate that, and that it wasn't said with malice or anything. But who knows? I'm socially conscious enough to know how it might have come across before I said it, so I wouldn't have done it. Maybe this reporter is just naive. (Or stupid.)
That new swell of activism has left Trayvon’s mom, 46, criss-crossing the state talking about her slain son. She met with Miami Herald reporters and editors Thursday.
He was six-three, 140 pounds, and eating everything in sight, including his favorite fried chicken with french fries and large drink. He suffered from the death of an older mentor four years ago, and on the day he died he wore a button in remembrance of him.
“He has never been in trouble. He has never been arrested,” Fulton said. “He has never been in a fight that I know of.”
So maybe the reporter is innocent and just stupid. To me this is like using "niggardly" in speech or writing. Why do it? At this point you've got to know that dumb people will accuse you of being racist, and smart people will accuse you of using it so that you can trick dumb people into accusing you of being racist. Just use a different word.
It's hard to know what's going on without the context. It doesn't sound malevolent to me, especially since she had expressed he liked fried chicken. It sounds like the reporter was trying to build a rapport by relating a fact she already knew about the boy. But, I'm not a mind reader, so who knows.
Also, with words like niggardly or attempted iterations like re-nig, I'm going to just assume that when someone trots out a term not in common usage since the 19th century they are being malicious.
Your assumption of "not in common usage" is a bit off.
Having said that, I did see plenty of comments using the word after the incident occurred that were clearly trying to make use of the sound overlap, one of them a fairly obnoxious I-have-a-degree-so-you're-an-idiot type.
Niggardly comes from Old Norse and is in no way related to "Nigger"...
Although looking through some more on this word it seems it does have a history of being misinterpreted as a racist word in the US, so one would probably be best to avoid it.
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politicartoons2012-03-22 12:47 pm
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So maybe the reporter is innocent and just stupid. To me this is like using "niggardly" in speech or writing. Why do it? At this point you've got to know that dumb people will accuse you of being racist, and smart people will accuse you of using it so that you can trick dumb people into accusing you of being racist. Just use a different word.
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I assign it to malice
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Having said that, I did see plenty of comments using the word after the incident occurred that were clearly trying to make use of the sound overlap, one of them a fairly obnoxious I-have-a-degree-so-you're-an-idiot type.
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That is the stupidest thing I have heard in a good while.
I'm guessing 'snigger' is the same?
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Although looking through some more on this word it seems it does have a history of being misinterpreted as a racist word in the US, so one would probably be best to avoid it.
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...HoodTube?
Really...?
Oh, and the guy who killed Travon needs to be in jailed and charged with murder.
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