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by Rafiki 06/05/2010, 1:10pm PDT |
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The family of an eighth-grader at Stanford Middle School have protested the classroom use of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Students in the class took turns reading passages from the classic novel aloud—an action that Garvey Jackson says forced him to hear a word possibly more offensive to him than any other word. Throughout the novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, characters use the word “nigger.”
With the help of his family, Garvey, who is black, ultimately ended up protesting the use of the book in class. Although the class is still using the widely read novel, the Jackson family said it plans to continue educating the community about what they feel is an offensive book, and eventually formally challenge the use of the book.
If I beat everyone else, will you give me a high-five? You intended this to be a competition, right? I'm playing Mario Galaxy 2 right now, so I need any excuse to fucking fight someone and prove how badass I am.
I was also going to say I listened to that clip about 15 times and still couldn't hear the R, and then make a joke about how maybe "ho" would be more believable and if that made me racist. And then I'd get paranoid and look it up to be sure, but when I did I think one of the dictionary entries ended up being unintentionally funnier:
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition wrote:
hoe definition
and ho
n.
a prostitute; a whore. (Originally black. Streets.) : Get them hoes outa here!
I just love the bluntness of the origin. Especially in contrast to the actual dictionary's more graceful and completely expected "African American Vernacular English." Also, dig the cover of one of this guy's books. This guy knows his audience:
"Hello? Hey, it's me, I was just calling to check up on how things were going back home, ho! Haha, sorry honey, it's a word I overheard a black guy saying downtown. I looked it up in my dictionary and it means prostitute! Haha, oh, come on it was a joke. It was a joke! Come on, you know me. Oh, honey, you know how I ok. Ok. Ok. Ok. Ok. I'm sorr- I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I said I was sorry. I didn't know the housekeeper was there. I didn't know you had it on speaker." |
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