It may depend more on the sound of the word rather than the actual object Frenchie. When I came to Germany I couldn't understand why one river could be masculine and another feminine - eg. der Rhein and die Elbe, and die Donau (Danube) - but then realized that, in that case, it had to do with the number of syllables.
This is true Fez.. Mme Yorkie had a document that outlined each designation and how the person liked to be denoted.. Eg not she or he..
Don't doubt it for a nanosecond. Our position is that we really don't care about their gender or sexuality: we'll call them by their preferred name or pronoun as they wish... however odd it might be to us, none of our business.
It's down to how it sounds OFH. When a new word appears, people just associate a pronoun with it and when it sticks, the Academy Francaise (or one of those government bodies, can't remember which one) adds it to the French language. It happens a lot with English words that start to be used in day-to-day conversation, or new technology. I find it very interesting.
1) I don't know any examples of that happening? A recent example would be homosexuality becoming more accepted, only 15-20 years ago some of the jokes or comments made would never be acceptable nowadays, but I can't remember anyone getting punished for it? 2) Not really, but I doubt that's done in a racist way, and there is far less historical evidence of black people being racist towards white people... 3) There's a difference between what people do in their own home and displaying Gollywogs in their front window or arguing that it's not a racist representation of black people. Also the number of cases like the one you suggest would be minimal. 4) No, not at all. Sometimes you need to force changes through in society, and once they become mainstream people see the errors of their ways. Discrimination, especially against minorities, is cowardly and disgusting. 5) Between them? Fine. On Twitter? No. I wasn't trying to make it political, but it's very much a certain section of society that hold these views. I won't delve into it further.
PC is centrally concerned with the use of language but what of non verbal examples of stereotyping of groups of people ? Surely these can be even more damaging. Just a light example - go into a cafe with a woman and order a cappucino and an espresso. In about 95% of cases the waiter/waitress /waitperson? will place the espresso in front of you and the cappucino will go to your lady friend - why ? In a more serious tone if a young boy of Afro Caribbean origins announces at school that he wants to be a football star or singer then it will receive more encouragement than if he says he wants to become a chess grandmaster.
Tory candidate ex bbc presenter.. Who said women should keep their knickers on... Is now beings pillared by labour spokesman.. Another good example... When it is not OK to say what you think be a it may I be pc.. We have problems
I think the problem here is the "look but don't touch" ethic that he doesn't seem to want to follow. Maybe he feels unable to... says more about him. There's a reason why in some places a woman is forced to wear a burqa and it's not to save the woman from herself. I don't really care how the woman dresses. Her body, her rules. Not mine to touch so I don't touch. Not difficult for a truly civilised man to understand or do.
No it isn't fair. It says 'insulting by reference to race, colour and ethnic origin' but if it is without malicious intent, did not mention race in a derogatory way, and was accepted by the recipient, then it is the end of the story as far as I am concerned. Can I make no reference to race whatsoever ? If I say to my friend from Ghana ''Sorry I didn't see you in the dark'' is that racist ?
If you say to your friend........................... If you say it to your friend face to face he has the choice of laughing, or ending the friendship. Say it on any form of social media and you are asking for it to be made into an issue.
That's fair enough Frenchie but there are a lot of grey areas here. Was what he said any worse than some of the things that our current Prime Minister has said in the past ? There is also the issue of cabaret in Germany which appears immune to PC, and freedom of the press as in Charlie Hebdo in France which often produced negative charicatures of Arabic or Semitic peoples, including Mohammed. This should be right across the board - is every joke which starts with Paddy and Mick suddenly punishable ? Even though the teller of it was in no way anti Irish. I do not think every reference to ethnic origins is wrong, it depends on the emotion behind it. Also some ethnic groups are better protected than others - negative words for Germans, French etc. appear to be ignored, just as the Roma are subjected to forms of abuse which, if directed to Jews, would cause a storm.
Personally I feel that context needs to taken into account they are friends, and team mates and Mendy took no offence to it. No harm, no foul! IMHO
I had an Asian friend at Uni (who lived in Watford no less) and we always had a bit of banter, he was chocolate drop and I snow flake and it was taken in good humour. We have lost this along the way somewhere.
Over 30 years ago as young Surveyor I was talking to a black foreman in the site huts on a day when work had been rained of At one point we somehow got to race relations and he said there could never be racial harmony in this country until I could call him a black.**** and he could call be a white **** without either of us being offended He then said if I wasn't already married he would be perfectly happy with me dating his daughter but, would not want us to have children because both blood lines would be diluted We have moved on a great deal on his second point but nowhere on his first