Timothy Birdnow

I remember a big stink when a guy used the word niggardly. Now this:

Cornelius Carroll

"I wrote on Thursday about USC Business School professor Greg Patton (who, among other things, is a specialist on business in China) being taken out of his business communication course, and being replaced by a different professor. Prof. Patton's offense: In a discussion of "filler words," such as "um" and "er," he gave the Mandarin "neige" (literally, "that") as a foreign example—and he pronounced the word, as do many other Mandarin speakers, similarly to "nigger." The word is apparently indeed used, routinely, as a filler word in Mandarin.”

If Employers Believe that Hearing the Mandarin Word "Neige" (Meaning That) "Affects" Black Students "Mental Health"

Anyone remember the David Howard affair? Howard was an aid to D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and was fired for using the word "niggardly" in comments. This may be even more onerous as it uses a CHINESE word that isn't even that close. What's next? Canning someone for mentioning the African nation Niger? Talking about a guy carving out a nice niche for himself? Anybody saying their name is Nigel? This is surreal.

BTW the word Niggardly comes from a completely different root than the racial epithet.

The word Niggardly comes from Middle English Nygard meaning Miser. It probably came from Old Norse hnǫggr. The racist term is a derivation of the word Negro, which itself means black or dark. It came from Spanish and Portuguese. These are completely different words.

But this is even worse; Chinese has zero connection to any European language and nothing whatsoever to do with race.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:54 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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