People have been fired for saying that word. There was a case of a city employee in Philadelphia a couple decades ago, who said that word in a mixed race meeting and the people in the meeting complained. He was either fired or severely disciplined. He protested that he was really being disciplined because he was gay.
I bet Morgan & Morgan & Morgan & Morgan would take the case. Who would prevail in a civil case would depend upon the jury. I could see the guy losing in Orange, Hillsborough, Broward, Leon, and Dade counties.
You are overreacting to and defending the wrong thing. BigCypress was challenging your post about your father supposedly getting a written apology for using that other word, not where you went to middle school. I agree. I am well aware of what the word means and it would not be used in my office. It is far to easy to confuse it with another word and there are plenty of alternatives that would express the thought more clearly and with far less chance of it being misheard or misconstrued. Sure it has a non-racial meaning, but why potentially create an issue, even one you can diffuse relatively quckly? Use of that word brings to mind kids saying Shih Tsu at school instead of shit thinking they are cleverly getting away with cursing when they're not. Using the word where people of color are going to hear/read it is either oblivious, insensitive or just being a smart ass seeing what you can get away with. The person using that word in my office is getting called in and they are not walking out with an apology...maybe one less page in their Word a Day Calendar, but definitely not an apology.
Thank goodness our society has moved away from accepting that type of bigotry and then wanting an apology.
Or you could look at it another way where one would ask; what does it say about our society when adjectives are banned because they are 50% similar to a word that is a racial slur used as a noun. Niggardly was a common term for people in his era. If you’ve ever read older literature or even some of Eisenhower’s letters to Marshall you will find it used quite often. I believe that it can be found in the Bible as well. I’m fine with anyone being disgusted by the N word, but to ban a word like niggardly, that sounds similar, even though they cannot even be used in any manner that would correlate with an unacceptable word is ridiculous.
You are correct on your first paragraph. My bad. I have to disagree with you on your second point. I would not use the niggardly word myself today. It’s not worth the trouble. But I should be able to. What does it say about our culture intellectually to ban formerly common words, that had been used for decades, if not centuries based on the fact that an offensive word sounds similar? Next you propose that we should accept playing the lottery as an acceptable retirement strategy just because the foolish among us choose to use it that way? If we are, then I would want to ban the name Cornhole because it is the exact same word that is now a noun as the name of a game but used to be a verb.
You should def work in a substitute for stingy with a word that sounds like you’re either 120 years old or racist. Pro tip.
You should just use Sack Toss. Unless you also commonly use that as a verb, which I humbly suggest is prime material for a new TH thread. NTTIAWWT.
So you are saying his dad, who you don’t know, was a bigot, because he used the word niggardly, maybe 50 years ago, which is a word that has nothing to do with race and it’s derivations existed long before the racial slur? I’d expand my thoughts on your post further but it undoubtedly would get me banned.
SCHOOL PLAN ASSAILED; Democrat Calls White House Aid Proposal 'Niggardly' (Published 1958) Here is the word in the 1958 NY times, as quoted of a Democratic congressman from NY.
I believe it's one of the Ten Commandments:"Thou shalt not use the word niggardly." I think Moses explained to the children of Israel, "It soundeth like something else." BTW I've always found it odd that Moses and others back then spoke in Elizabethan English.
No, I purposely did not say he is a bigot I just called out that instance. Yes all understand Webster’s definition.
Show what’s racist about the word and then you can call it out all you want. To claim that it’s use is racist has no fundamental basis. Here’s an article that addresses this topic from a different perspective: No, ‘Niggardly’ Isn’t the N-Word BTW, don’t “count” the words.
Anyone under the age of 30 likely has no idea what it means and there's a high probability of just causing a misunderstanding or a fight. For anyone who still has it in their vocabulary, just use a synonym. There are countless words that have fallen out of everyday vernacular. If i heard anyone using it in conversation my initial reaction would be to think that person is using it as a loophole or just to illicit a reaction from others - i.e., hoping someone overhears so they can get on their soapbox about why it's perfectly acceptable to use. It's just a very strange hill to die on.
