[lbo-talk] Ralph: Obama an Uncle Tom

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Nov 6 10:54:17 PST 2008


John Thornton writes:

"Are you joking or clueless? Perhaps as a Brit you don't realize that calling Obama an Uncle Tom is hugely ugly? Maybe it has different social baggage in the UK? Not as bad a ni**er but not too far off either."

Perhaps it is just that I am not victim to the peculiarly American belief that it is words, not sticks and stones that hurt you.

I appreciate that the accepted view on your side of the water is that oppression is an outgrowth of language, but that is your misunderstanding, not mine.

Were Nader's words ugly? Who gives a rat's ass? His meaning was clear enough to anyone who was not waiting to wear his offendedness on his sleeve. As it happens, I don't agree with Ralph, or at least it is not the political point that I would have made, but I really don't care about his language.

Don't be so gay, as we say, over here.



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