Date:  Tue, 28 Oct 1997 12:54:01 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: PC Dictionaries?

At 12:29 PM 10/28/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, p. 19a
>(Explanatory Notes), Order of Senses: "The order of senses within an
>entry is historical: the sense known to have been first used in
>English is entered first."
>
>>From the definition of "nigger": "1: a black person -- usu. taken to
>be offensive 2: a member of any dark-skinned race -- usu. taken to
>be offensive 3: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of
>persons <it's time for somebody to lead all of American's ~s ... all
>the people who feel left out of the political process -- Ron Dellums>
> _usage_ _Nigger_ in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such
>writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles
>Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and
>inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is
>not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it
>is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry."
>

I suspect the problem is that when a group of people has been historically
belittled, some of its members will sometimes come to believe that
belittling is taking place even when, from a more dispassionate perspective,
belittling is not taking place. Sure, racist ideas overt and subtle (of many
groups against many groups, actually) absolutely still exist. But the
lexicographers' argument on this list has been that the MW dictionary entry
in question is not a party to that.

>Don't you get the impression that whoever wrote the NAACP press
>release didn't actually look in the dictionary he or she was
>condemning?
>

Well, this is part of a whole array of modern-day folklore where an
accusation that racism is taking place in goverment or business or other
institutions resonates so much with people on an a priori level (see my
first para. just above) that it is accepted on the face of it, and repeated
till it is widely known and believed, without anyone feeling a need to check
into the actual fabric of the situation. There was a very big rumor a few
years ago that the old three-master ship (or whatever it is) on the Snapple
bottle was a picture of a slave ship. The small-type kosher K on the label
was then taken as a subtle Klan symbol. For that and maybe other reasons,
all the Snapple flavored ice-teas, which were *very* popular among all
groups of younger people in New York City at the time, lost tremendous
market share for several years. Snapple was eventually sold to a private
firm by the conglomerate that had just bought it maybe four years earlier.

Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu