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2024 Guinness Six Nations
[2016 RBS Six Nations] Round 4: England vs. Wales (12/03/2016)
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<blockquote data-quote="j&#039;nuh" data-source="post: 789395" data-attributes="member: 55446"><p>Sometimes, it depends on the context.</p><p></p><p>Offensive language doesn't inherently harm people in the way e.g. physical attacks do. Physically harming someone because of their race is inherently racist, regardless of the races of victim and aggressor. There isn't a great deal of context that can explain it away as being anything other than racism. Language isn't as tangibly harmful; the same word or phrase can be both empowering and offensive dependent on a variety of factors. It's like swearing. Hard to define, but you know it when you see/hear it.</p><p></p><p>I think there is at least a good starting point for determining when language is offensive though. Where the language can be perceived to be divisive, contributing to an "us and them" ideology, I would class that as offensive. White people have an inherent "belonging" to the U.K., so it makes it hard to make them feel like an outsider within the U.K. Pom is so weakly offensive, even in Australia, because anti-British feelings are so exceptional in countries such as Australia.</p><p></p><p>Take being English in Wales. If someone points it out on the streets, it's hardly going to make me feel put out. If I walk into a deeply Welsh country pub, dragons everywhere, only leek-based dishes on the menu, 30 burly Welsh men shouting <em>"Gwlad...!"</em>, dartboard with darts through Martin Johnson's face, everyone eyeballing me as I order my drink, bartender tells me "we don't take kindly...", I may then perceive the language to be racist!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="j'nuh, post: 789395, member: 55446"] Sometimes, it depends on the context. Offensive language doesn't inherently harm people in the way e.g. physical attacks do. Physically harming someone because of their race is inherently racist, regardless of the races of victim and aggressor. There isn't a great deal of context that can explain it away as being anything other than racism. Language isn't as tangibly harmful; the same word or phrase can be both empowering and offensive dependent on a variety of factors. It's like swearing. Hard to define, but you know it when you see/hear it. I think there is at least a good starting point for determining when language is offensive though. Where the language can be perceived to be divisive, contributing to an "us and them" ideology, I would class that as offensive. White people have an inherent "belonging" to the U.K., so it makes it hard to make them feel like an outsider within the U.K. Pom is so weakly offensive, even in Australia, because anti-British feelings are so exceptional in countries such as Australia. Take being English in Wales. If someone points it out on the streets, it's hardly going to make me feel put out. If I walk into a deeply Welsh country pub, dragons everywhere, only leek-based dishes on the menu, 30 burly Welsh men shouting [I]"Gwlad...!"[/I], dartboard with darts through Martin Johnson's face, everyone eyeballing me as I order my drink, bartender tells me "we don't take kindly...", I may then perceive the language to be racist! [/QUOTE]
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2024 Guinness Six Nations
[2016 RBS Six Nations] Round 4: England vs. Wales (12/03/2016)
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