does this say something about education?

A fantastic post on the origin of the word miscegenation and the world that surrounded both its inception and the laws that used it.

What surprises me vaguely is I remember that being a vocabulary word in high school history class, specifically related to the proliferation of the law after the Civil War.

A link list of posts on the subject. For those who ignored their flist until, er, a few hours ago? witchqueen posts here about her email exchange with daily_deviant regarding the use of miscegenation for their prompt. It's interesting reading.



And missing the point dramatically. The mods, I mean. I get the entire 'do not want to censor or whatever' except I honestly *don't* in this case. This is not a test case for the fucking Supreme Court; no one is rioting, threatening, or trying to restrict your free speech, laws will not be passed or overturned, and surprisingly, I don't think the integrity of hte process will be wrecked. Find a similar-meaning word that isn't likely one of the founding laws of the Ku Klux Klan. Honestly, I think it's fairly--to excuse the saying--black and white. Erase and synomym already. I'm kind of iffy on the concept of interracial anything be considered a kink prompt, to be honest.

At minimum, disregarding its history, and the fact that oh, a thousand fangirls just freaked out publicly and are kind of beyond appalled and moving into pissed, do it for the sheer PR value, okay?

*sighs*

(randomly: this is one of those things that really *do* freak me out due to personal experience; my aunt's second husband was African American, and while he wasn't the type to talk about the problems they had, she did. Not to mention it's surprising what people will say around kids. I never heard that word used against them as a kid; I didn't hear it until high school. What I did hear was just as bad. There's a very knee-jerk response to it of disgust; not only of its existence, but that anyone with any kind of sense would run across it and think it was a good idea to *use* it.)

(second: seriously, when Fandom Wank is staring at this in blank shock....)

Comments

[amireal.livejournal.com]

FWIW it's not even censorship, they're using it wrong. Censorship is the suppression of information by a larger body of people (usually governing). They're not being asked or forced to suppress anything, they're being asked to change their words to mean exactly what they MEANT instead of what their words actually say.

[adannu.livejournal.com]

Help, help, I'm being suppressed!

d&r

But yeah. You said it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

God, don't or I'll have some kind of vaguely government related coronary.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Don't what?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Explain all the ways she manages to completely misuse the concept of censorship or freedom fo speech. It *hurts*.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

Ahh. Yes. *eyetwitch* I feel your pain.

[adannu.livejournal.com]

Jeez, no kidding. When I saw the word come up on my screen, I winced pretty hard.

I had a very similar treatment as you did of the term as something outdated in all that hoohah about Reconstruction and so on, and it was Not To Be Used. And as I got older and learned more about race issues related to various ethnicities, that word got even uglier.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I've honestly never heard it spoken, just used specifically in regard to laws proliferated after the Civil War. I just can't imagine someone seeing it, then reading the definition, and going "oh, that sounds good". It boggles.

[adannu.livejournal.com]

I just prodded m-w.com and here's what it spat back: linky (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/miscegenation). I haven't tried other resources, but wikipedia does have a pretty good entry -- leads right off with the paragraph that notes it's offensive to many people.

So M-W doesn't note that this is a loaded-as-hell term, fair enough, but to maintain that ostrich in the sand attitude after you've been informed, no.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

God, that's what's getting me.

It's not a common word, and honestly, I'm surprised it came up in my high school history book. So they threw it out there. Someone tells them that no, check what it's origin and what it means, history, origin, and just--God, just change the damned word! No foul there. I doubt anyone would have done much more than do a few educational posts on it in general and by tomorrow, probably forgotten completely.

I cannot *fathom* this one. The meaning is *right there*. I don't get keeping it for no better reason than--I seriously havent' yet heard them state a reason that makes sense.

[ltlj.livejournal.com]

That's what gets me, too. How do you stumble on the word outside of its context either from the civil war or the KKK or other white supremacy groups? It doesn't make sense.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's... *boggles*

I admit I didn't know the history of the word until I read some of the posts you linked (thanks for that, btw), but given the only time I have ever come across it before it's being used by characters in films/books who are KKK members or otherwise clearly extremely racist, I've always been clear that it is offensive.

I can understand someone with even less background than me using it by mistake, but to have it pointed out that it has racist connotations that are very offensive and not go "Whoops, sorry," and change it right away seems very odd to me. And that it is apparently being used in the challenge to also cover inter-species sex and bestiality makes me twitch mightily - didn't that ring any alarm bells at the implications they were making?

[monniesgirl-65.livejournal.com]

First of all I guise they have never seen Showboat the musical which has a story line about Miscegenation in it, and second I find the idea offensive that if I as a black woman have sex with a white man it's in some way a kink. Excuse me but WTF is up with that.

[cold-poet.livejournal.com]

That was the first thing that caught my irk. Followed closely by the knowledge that if I clicked on that tag I would be likely to see centaur/human fic = to Dean/Luna fic and wow, if that is so not a good comparison to make...and then I found out what the word actually means and where it comes from and now I feel vaguely ill.

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Your links have been very interesting, thank you.