Sitting in the freezing cold yard under the yellow floodlights, two members of the musical fraternity begin jamming lyrics. It quickly descended into the default cynicism of Lifers:
"Woke up this morning,
My baby was gone.
Fucking social workers..."
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I know it's black humour, but it makes me smile and feel sad at the same time :(
ReplyDeleteSorry Jules, I hate the expression "black" humour why not dark humour? Sort of implies a prejudice which I am sure was not intended.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the sentiment though!! Poignant as ever Ben.
May, no I certainly did not intend any prejudice! I thought in this context black was just another word for dark, slightly sinister etc. Aren't we allowed to say black anymore?
ReplyDeleteIt's no different from saying hope we have a white Christmas, just the word to describe a colour surely!!! If you actually knew me then you would know I have no prejudice according to race, gender, class, age or anything else. Common sense should prevail regarding political correctness, surely! It's not nice to imply that someone is a racist.
Jules, I think you have taken my remarks out of context, I think you will find i said in fact that it was unintended....It is not a case of political correctness but why most negative connotations of colour are black? White Christmas is hardly offensive there is something very pure and nice about that, but black heart, black humour, black mood? I never at any point implied you were racist, just thoughtless perhaps
ReplyDeleteBecause humans have an instinctive fear of dark and instinctive like of light. Therefore it is perfectly logical that we express bad things as dark, and good things as light. As Black is the extreme of dark, and white is the extreme of light, it is perfectly rational to use these terms to describe extreme dark (in the evil sense)and extreme light. The only way it can be construed as racist (intentional or not) is if people being to view words as having single meanings, which places intolerable restrictions on language.
ReplyDeleteTallguy Your intellectual argument seems reasonable, but your attitude borders on the pompous. Of course people view words as having single meanings, they are not usually worrying about the "intolerable restrictions" placed on language. Only that they are understood.
ReplyDeleteOf course words have more than one meaning, and this is a fundamental aspect of the English language. If we said "when you say that word, you mean this and only this" language would stop working. It would mean I could not refer to the conservative party as "right wing" without implying that their position is correct. (not getting in a political argument here, just proving a point)
ReplyDeleteIf words did not change their meaning depending on context, then by saying my car is "cool" would mean that it was cold, rather than just trendy. By saying I was rich I would be saying I would cause you to feel sickly if you are me, rather than saying I have allot of money.
Given that context is the very essence of language, why does it suddenly become insulting to a certain race to use Black as a descriptive word for "very dark," when an insult to a race is in no way implied by the context of the discussion.
Words have different meanings depending on context.If people did not view them as having more than one meaning, our language simply would not function. How could political debate work if by referring to a party as "right wing" you implied that this was the "right" view? How could we distinguish between the actions of a rambler who "saw" a tree and a lumberjack who used a "saw" on a tree?
ReplyDeleteAs the meanings of allot of words in the English Language depend entirely upon context, how is it possible to infer from describing something as "black" as being derogatory to a certain race, when the context of the conversation has absolutely no implied reference to race?
I object to someone using the name May. Why not November? It's patently spring seasonist to use such a name. Disgusting. Why does winter always get such a bad time of it. If anyone else called April or June pops up on this comments stream then I am going to have to end it all. Its just too much...
ReplyDelete@ Robin Horsley
ReplyDeleteWell done...and I stand corrected, humour has a way of winning in the end. As I said in my first post, it is a pet hate of mine, for many reasons I wont go into here. I would much rather have been discussing the reason for this blogs existance.....to encourage debate and reform of our prisons and CJS.
I have realised I didnt express it as a pet hate of mine. If I had maybe the furore caused by the idea of black = negative, white = positive, the sterotypical expressions which my post commented on, by all the "regulars" may have been avoided!
ReplyDeleteAnd I would still rather concentrate on the real reason we are all here. Debate and reform of our prisons and Criminal Justice System.
here here Jules, that's what is wrong with this world, policical correctness gone mad!
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot more wrong with the world than the (ab)use of a mono dynamic language system.
ReplyDeleteWell said Sophie. Just out of interest, what is a "mono dynamic" language system? I Googled it but came up blank.
ReplyDeleteHi Wigarse, I meant to say mono dimensional language, a way to describe political correctness as language that is one sided, but in no way the biggest or even near biggest problem of the world.
ReplyDeleteWigarse you are a pedant, but there is a place for that too!
Hope this clears it up, all the best x
I think you all need to get off your high horses and realise that the issue of thoughtless use of words lead to the perpetuating of the myth that somehow black = negative and white = positive. All the pedantics in the world can not disguise or exscuse this attitude forever. You should all put your intellects to use helping to reform our prisons and CJS, if you do we may get somewhere. I for one agree with the opinion expressed by May. Lets all turn our attention to the debate this site is encouraging.
ReplyDelete'The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night'. Louis Armstrong. Now I'm off for a lovely cup of black coffee, if that's alright with everyone!!
ReplyDeleteYe ye ye, my black knickers look lovely against my olive skin, or is ebony, grey or just a darker shade to lighter pink, pale or ?. I think people need to chill out a little bit. This colour coding of human beings has nothing to do with the colours as we know them. Enjoy your cup of black coffee Jules, I love mine white and sweet! Good day to all who hate racism and injustice. Sophie is spot on - there are big problems out there, racism, poverty, oppression, wars and murder that we need to fight against than political and meaningless correctness.
ReplyDeleteHey! I wasn't being pedantic! I know very little about language and I never refuse an opportunity to learn: I was genuinely curious.
ReplyDelete