Thursday, January 07, 2021


Activists are trying to get school board member fired over “crack the whip” phrase

A school board member in the US state of Washington is in danger of losing his job for expressing his worry about low graduation rates by using an idiom in an online meeting that has apparently become politically incorrect.

At least it has for the person behind the initiative to fire Clover Park School District School Board member Paul Wagemann for saying that the board needed to “crack the whip” in dealing with the problem.

But Taniesha Lyons, who ran against Wagemann in the last board election and lost, sees the idiom as racist and now wants Wagemann to resign for his alleged racism and bigotry. According to Lyons, who last month started a petition to this end, the expression has its roots in slavery.

In fact, the expression – as a UK court confirmed last year in a similar case – has to do with using the whip to control a horse, which is the definition Grammarist.com agrees with.

Reports, citing the Suburban Times, say that Wagemann was referring to as many as 10 to 11 percent of students never graduating from school, and explaining that the use of the phrase was meant to ensure the board would do all it can to help reverse the trend and see these students get their diploma.

And although dictionaries bear out his version of the meaning and usage of the phrase – Lyons remains committed to painting Wagemann as a bigot and a racist, whose presence on the board jeopardizes the good name of the Clover Park School District as a place not tolerant of either.

Australia: Aboriginal activist files human rights complaint against Scrabble over racist slurs in game dictionary

A Northern Territory man has filed a formal complaint against the owners of popular board game Scrabble for including racist slurs against Aboriginal people in the game’s dictionary of playable words.

Aboriginal activist Stephen Hagan – formerly of Queensland, who last year forced Coon cheese to change its name – lodged the complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission against international toymaker Mattel for allowing the words “abo”, “coon” and “boong” to be played.

He said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” the company permitted the use of such offensive words.

Although the word coon can be misused, it has legitimate uses as well so does belong in the dictionary. "Coon" is short for "raccoon"

"Abo" is simply an abbreviation. Australians are great abbreviators

"Boong" is always derogatory these days but it was originally simply the name of an Aboriginal tribe, no more offensive than "Boori","Murri", "Koori" etc. So it has legitimate historical uses.


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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don’t you realize by now that anything that comes out of a white persons mouth is racist? Even if they are repeating what a black person says word for word. Even if they repeat what a saw says. Even if they say ok I’m racist. There is nothing a white person can say safely. They just want us to shut up ,give them everything and die. I just wonder who they will blame once all the whites are gone and they’re in charge.