[PEN-L:1896] Re: Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Vicious Holiday Silliness

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wrote: >> I was wondering: is the word "philistine" a version of the word
 "Palestine"? (That's why I put this negative term in quotation marks.)<

Jim Craven's >Response: Indeed it--the term "Philistine"--is the origin of
the modern
>Palestinian just as the ancient Philistines are considered descendants of the
>modern Palestinians who stood versus Caananites in various Biblical accounts.
>The perjorative aspects of the term "philistine" and the slurs associated
with
>the term to the point that the term "philistine" itself became a slur
>embodying--as a kind of shorthand--a set of other slurs (mercenary,
pecuniary,
>lacking in good taste and graces, crass materialistic etc) go way back. But
>suffice to say that many Palestinians--and non-Palestinians--know the popular
>or vulgar use and know that most who use it are unaware of the ethnic
>orgins/implications, but nonetheless feel that it can be likened to terms
like
>"Jewing down", "Gypping or Gypped",
>etc. After all, no one says "Caananite capitalists" or "The Pawnbroker
'Anglo-
>Saxoned me down from the price I should have got.

This is a good point, though it can go too far. Someone objected to the
phrase "paddy wagons" (referring to prisoner transportation vehicles)
because it was an ethnic slur against the Irish, who had either been
carried in such wagons or, as a major component of many urban police forces
had used them to carry others. As a person of somewhat Irish descent, I see
nothing wrong with the phrase. For me, it symbolizes the generally
successful effort by the Irish immigrants to attain upward mobility via the
police force (and political machines).

I also heard that the phrase "bubba" is racist -- against poor white folks.
(Nash Bridges, call your office!)

We have to be sane in our use of "politically correct" language. More
important than such terms is how people are actually treated.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html