A cow entered in the dairy competition at the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis had a name that's unacceptable and the exhibitor and the cow itself were banished from the fairgrounds. The episode brings up some interesting issues.
What's the exact process in a word becoming a slur? A certain number of people must use and understand the word's slur characteristic in order for it to be a slur. How many would that be? Some words are argot, used within specific groups and, by design, meaningless to outsiders. Descendants of Sicilian mafioso in the eastern US referred to the old timers as "mustache petes". Maybe it would have been painful to call one of those fellows by that name but it's no longer in use and only those referred to ever cared anyway.
Anglo-Canadians called their French-speaking neighbors "frogs", US people called native Americans "redskins", even using the name for an NFL team until just recently. After making the change to "Commanders" team management has had to deal with outrage on the part of a native group that's upset with being ignored. The Florida State University athletic teams are allowed to be called the Seminoles because the school has paid them for that right.
breitbart.com
A tangled and acrimonious process resulted in the University of North Dakota athletic teams dumping the "Fighting Sioux" moniker in favor of the "Fighting Hawks." Oddly, no individual Dakota native arranged an agreement to serve as a personal Sioux with his own likeness.
The Edmonton team in the Canadian Football League is no longer known as the Eskimos, they're the Elks now. In that particular case the ethnic nickname doesn't seem to fall into the category of a slur, but the residents from north of the Arctic Circle are touchy about the name though it isn't part of their own language, either.
How long does a slur remain verboten after it falls into general disuse because it became a slur? It might take awhile for us to find out. Just the same, don't give your cow a name that might get her kicked off of the fair grounds.
2 comments:
I'm willing to be a pretty good sum that I'm your only follower who actually lived in Hustisford. I'm going back for a visit in early Sept. A classmate of mine married into the family who owns the cow (they are now divorced).
Willing to "bet."
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