Sure, absolutely no history of slavery and colonialism in the UK. There definitely aren't a dozen Kipling stories where he calls anyone not a WASP by the term.

Baby was much funnier than that purple POS.

JFC

The boys were ready with stones to throw at the locomotive.

They still use "bugger" in the UK, which is basically the same thing but for gay people.

He's actually a gojira but you were close

For years I thought "bugger" just means "to annoy" or something like that, so I would say things like "This buggers me" or "You don't have to get so buggered about it."

Boy am I embarrassed...

Just because you refuse to understand that acceptance of a word, no matter how foul, was entirely dependant on the region it was used doesn't mean Lemmy or anyone else is accepting it. People here just understand that Britain in the 1950s was far different in cultural acceptance than the US in 1950.

Just like the USA using "That's gay" as a casual insult as late as the mid 2000s is now considered inappropriate today. I'm queer and I know Brits who still say "pass me a fag". Guess who isn't upset about hearing that because I'm not a moron.

Setting aside the incorrect notion that there weren't black people in England until the 50s, the story in question was published in 1951 and remained in print into the 1970s.

Yes, and Black soldiers took part in D-Day seven years prior.

Those were exceedingly good stories though!

I've never encountered that word used with a homophobic intent, as far as I could tell. If you wanted to express that thought in my youth, other words beginning with B would be far more common. Naturally I found them as odious then as I would now.

also turned very purple, so maybe lack of oxygen made him an idiot?

Forreal, this clip is completely unwatchable. I took psychic damage ticks for every second I look at that garbage

That's no reason to throw the gamer word at them. Actually, it's more messed up because it was a bunch of lily white English kids chucking rocks. Should've called them crackers as he passed instead.

My extensive research has pointed directly to a high likelihood that Barney would likely have farted at least once. The evidence is rather damning.

While Britain participated in the slave trade, they went out of their way to not do so in Britain; the slaveholders kept their slaves abroad and out of sight, in places where the laws of civilisation which rule such institutions to be obscene are waived. (Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were one such place.) And it was impolite to inquire too hard about the sources of fortunes that built stately homes.

The difference being that when the N-word was uttered in Britain, it was belittling and condescending in an exoticising way, like a colonial-era picture book of funny foreigners in their traditional costumes. In America, however, it had a more immediate edge of aggression and violence, implying an other that’s here rather than far away, and firmly below the speaker in the established racial hierarchy, and who must be kept there using tools including designating them as a (N-word).

Fucking chavs

"relatevily uncommon" != "there weren't"

Ooh, so close. There is a NumPy lib.

I love subtitles, just not the word-by-word ones. Give me full phrases dammit!

"shitwhistle" (it's a slur among sentient trains)

Well, there was one episode of South Park about people who annoy you...

There are things in the world to legitimately be outraged about if you want to be outraged. You don't need to force yourself to be angry at shit like this.

Kind of? Like you could call a child a "little bugger" and that would just be calling them annoying rather than an arse fucker

The garbage eurotrash will spread to pretend they aren't and haven't been virulent racists is pretty amazing.

IT's eXotiCisiNg NoT a ToOl oF oUr RacIaL ImpEriAl HeiRARchY

Meanwhile, at the absolute kindest Br*tish imperial racists are being:

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_burden.htm

Both boomer and gen-z pearlclutchers seem to be equally oblivious in their own ways to the fact that language changes.

You hear that, Bobandy? That shrill sound in the distance? That's a shitwhistle heralding the arrival of the shit train. Carrying countless shitcars each filled with tons and tons of shitcargo. Should be here any moment, Bobandy, but first a little drinky poo!

They really are delusional.

The denial and defense of their racist antics is amazing to see in real time.

Believe it or not, it was not "normal" to use slurs in children's books in 1952.

It heavily depends which books you look in.

So, are George Carlin and Ringo Starr racists?! /s

Probably, they grew up in a time when it was harder to know better but it's still racism when most of society does it.

"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."

or, of course, it could be that you're just so much better than everyone else, right?

You're bringing up fucking Kipling of all people, the one poet everyone knows for being mega into colonialism. That's like me pointing at the Grateful Dead while saying Americans need to lay off the acid.

Are you fucking stupid?

Are you physically incapable of taking your Amerigoggles off for a millisecond?

One of England's favorite poets until public displays of explicit racism were no longer de rigueur.

He's a perfectly valid example of the feelings of the nation at that time.

It's a cherry-picked example if I ever saw one, I could just as well go and point at Wilberforce to underline early 19th century attitudes to slavery and I'd be making the same error as this.

Doesn't matter, the word is rooted in homophobic intent.

language use is gay.

no homo.

Once I used it like that at work, everyone was surprised, and so I looked it up after. I'm actually dead now. This is my ghost typing.

You cannot use the term "cherry-picked" to refer to a man who is such a prominent cultural icon. His art captured the essence of an era.

It's even more valid when taken in light of more recent wars of colonial aggression involving the UK in which the terminology and lies used mirror the justifications of the 19th century. The behavior and attitude of the UK government towards former colonies when it comes to the topic of reparations and the belated return of stolen artifacts is no different now as it was when the enslaved peoples of the West Indies were granted their "freedom"

My god this was probably a real problem in 19th/early 20th century England though. Fucking kids can be fucking assholes lol

Let's not forget that unfortunate Spongebob scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNsWbK4OkZw

Don't even get started with Tintin.

It's hammered into a lot of people's heads that the word is very mean, and not just "insult" but "remember, people like you used to be considered animals and treated like property, subject to difficult to fathom attrocities".
It doesn't need to be directed to be a reminder. While reference is likewise a reminder, it's at least couched in terms that convey the speaker understands it has weight beyond "insult".
Couple that with saying it as a white person can carry significant reputation damage.

Since these lessons are usually imparted in childhood implicitly, and it doesn't come up often enough to drive introspection for most people, it just lingers as "don't say words that hurt people and make everyone dislike you".

Every story in the books was based on an actual event.

One of the favourite English poets amongst a certain grouping of people

Kipling has been subject of debate since the height of his career. it would be inaccurate to claim he represented unchallenged universal attitudes.