Friday, August 24, 2018
Australian Radio jock uses old-fashioned expression
Being a bit of a tease, I sometimes use the expression. It was common in my youth. These days, however, I say: "African-American in the woodpile" I seem to get away with it
Alan Jones has labelled Matthias Cormann the 'n***** in the woodpile' and vowed 'not to yield' to those who find the 19th century phrase offensive.
The radio host used the term to describe the WA Senator as he discussed the Liberal leadership crisis, while calling on Malcolm Turnbull to resign and advocating Tony Abbott as the next prime minister.
'The n***** in the woodpile here, if I can use that expression, and I'm not going to yield to certain people who tell us that words in the language are forbidden, the person who's playing hard to get is Matthias Cormann,' Jones said.
The term has similarities to the colloquial phrase 'skeleton in the closet' and was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to describe a person who is the cause of a problem.
Jones later apologised.
'I used an old and offensive figure of speech that I regret saying. People should be honest and forthright in their actions and that is not happening in the Liberal Party right now. I will have more to say on this tomorrow.'
Although usage of the phrase has declined dramatically since the early 1900s, Jones has repeatedly used it on live radio.
'N*****' is considered one of the most derogatory terms in the English language and 'is strongly racially offensive', according to the Oxford Dictionary.
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4 comments:
It is only considered offensive because it feeds the victim mentality. Had it instead been embraced and celebrated because of the mighty things that were done under that name it's value to shock and cause outrage would be minimal.
"'N*****' is considered one of the most derogatory terms in the English language...", yet rappers and other Americans of African descent continue to use it, supposedly as a term of endearment, even though their use of the word is anything but endearing. Double standards and hypocrisy abound.
AIB/44
In 1972 George Carlin did a sketch of the 7 words you can't say on television.
Since then the list has completely changed.
ALL of the words on the original list are regularly said on television.
The ones you can't say now are generally to do with race or disability.
The phrase comes from the days of the Freedom Trail when slaves were helped to escape from the South and were sometimes hidden in places such as a woodpile.
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