Re: Amerind an offensive term (was: Early Amerind assimilation

Joel and Lynn Gazis-Sax (gazissax@best.com)
Mon, 12 Aug 1996 15:36:18 -0800

I think it is time to ask Ms. Cockcroft, in all fairness, to explain
what she meant by this:

> > > Toby Cockcroft wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Furthermore, I don't see this as an isolated instance of naming. Blacks,
> > > > women and the disabled (probably all politically incorrect terms) have all
> > > > fought for control and escape from anglo male culture.
> > >

But it is clear to me that Mr. Barnard doesn't understand any humor which is
not racist in nature. The term politically correct began as a bit of self-humor
among Leftists who caricaturized themselves for their occassional boycotts
and attentativeness to wording. In rereading this yet again, I see Ms. Cockcroft
echoing the same insider's joke, a dangerous thing because there are plenty of
humorless, agenda-laden people who happilly convert this into a conspiracy of
some kind.

I didn't see Ms. Cockcroft's original post either, so I suspect that Mr. Barnard
has done some careful re-editing to make his position seem reasonable. He
certainly took some liberties with me in presenting what I actually said.

> There is something very peculiar going on in this newsgroup. In the past week I've
> been misquoted, assigned attributions for things I never wrote, and am now accused of
> something I'm obviously not guilty of (bringing up "politically incorrect"). Is this
> the way that anthropologists normally act?
>
> Steve Barnard

I never accused you of bringing up politically incorrect. I accused you of
misunderstanding what Ms. Cockcroft meant, which in the light of this lengthy,
defensive response of yours, I entertain more firmly as the most likely
possibility. But again, I will defer to Ms. Cockcroft in explaining what
she meant. Again, it looks like feeble, Leftist humor to me.

Regards,

Joel

-- 

        ___ ___ 

       /\ _|_ /\      Joel and Lynn GAzis-SAx

      / /\_|_/\ \     gazissax@best.com

     / / /\|/\ \ \    http://www.best.com/~gazissax/

 ----------o----------------------------------------------------------

     \ \ \/|\/ / /    "If we try to flee from our human condition into  

      \ \/_|_\/ /     the computer, we only meet ourselves there."

       \/__|__\/                        William Barrett