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"N-word".com Owned by NAACP
A friend of mine who works for the NAACP (and doesn't want his name used here) sent me this Wired News story about a sad but necessary move his employers have made. It seems that the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups that fight against racial hatred have been quietly registering as many offensive domain names they can get their hands on so that hate groups can't use them. It's sad that civil rights groups have to do this, but (sigh) I suppose it's better than having the government censor domain names.
I disagree with that startegy what is different about the anti-hate groups that they can register domins and not use them...that is BS...We should just ENFORCE thet laws we have and getrid of the HATEGROUPS based on their content and the ideas and actions they advocate...maybe I should register a bunch of daomain just to protect people from themselves...what a joke...I guess there are TOO MANY F'N LAWYERS involved in the anti-hate groups, and I hate that :) To hell with RACE, SEX, RELIGION, AGE etc...let's just KILL ALL THE LAWYERS :)
It is sad that racism exists, but this is a great idea for civil rights groups. This is also a way to target idiots who would look up for example www.chink.com - you can put anti-racist propaganda on the site to try to change their opion (sure, only 1 in a thousand would even read it but hey it's better than 0).
It is sad that racism exists, but this is a great
idea for civil rights groups.
This is also a way to target idiots who would
look up for example www.chink.com - you can put
anti-racist propaganda on the site to try to
change their opion (sure, only 1 in a thousand
would even read it but hey it's better than 0).
p.s. why can' we bring back Plain Old Text as the default?
Bravo...would you consider running for office in the NAACP or ACLU..you'd get my vote over the boneheads we've got there now...
LOL I like you...we call it cafe au latte...would be a gorgeous shade of brown...nice tan :) and as a bonus would provide nice protection against over exposure to the sun :) Keeping freedom free, even in my head
Counter example: rap group: NWA.
Hell yeah! lets mix up those genes people!
I would call this censoring - they are not attempting to grab the domains for valid use, they are grabbing them so that *other people* can't use them. IMHO, they might as well call themselves microsoft and be done with it.
I also think that everybody involved should go out and read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
NAACP-secretly-funds-the-kkk.com sick-of-the-naacps-power-join-the-kkk.com kkk-members-for-gw-bush.com It's stupid. The idea of squatting in cyberspace for the purpose of forwarding your cause at the expense of somebody else's free speech is wrong. Why don't the Satan worshippers squat on all the pro-Christian url variants? That would be just as fair. jesus-was-a-jew.com jesus-visits-with-satan-for-sex.com jesus-only-does-blondes.com god-doesnt-really-love-you.com he-just-wants-your-money.com This is ridiculous and the NAACP should be ashamed of themselves. You know what this is like: walking into a room where others (who are discussing something about which you disagree) and shouting, "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" so they can't talk amongst themselves.
Try whois nigger* I counted 32 domains containing the text nigger and only three of them were owned by the NAACP. Almost all of them looked to be porn sites.
I think that's what you call an interracial child with a chinese father and an Indian mother. That was bad, sorry :) Erik "I don't care what color you are, get out of my way!"
Out of curiosity I just visited http://www.honky.com. ... it's actually digimedia's site (an internet company)...
I couldn't quite figure that one out...
counter-counterpoint: NWA the airlines. Who gets the domain name? Big airline company or a controversial rap group? heh
...go both ways.
about two years ago a latino pac in california was yapping about "california needing laws that force employers to hire by population makeup", that is, all california companies had to have twenty-something percent latino on their payroll or face discrimination charges.
needless to say, it was roundly discarded by most legislators.
There is a country in europe that mandates all federal employees be hired by racial/sex makeup of the population. It takes precedence over all other factors.
I also heard there is a cola company in the US that has a ninety-something percent black payroll.
where does racism begin and end? is the white male always the responsible party, in every case?
there is plenty of case law supporting taking sex/skin as the primary criteria over scholarship and ability here in the us.
Dear Esquire,
Seriously, why did you write this letter to a Slashdot message board? It is basically futile to chase down that particular 'Anonymous Coward'. In addition, I found your letter represents a threat to freedom of expression, something many Slashdot readers are very willing to defend. Besides, is it really necessary to use the court as a weapon to ban and censor Slashdot, and Internet in general, just because some lawyer can't handle a joke?
something i've always wondered about /. are posters purposly putting *** into their negativity or is it done by the software? nigger
ah, just people PCing themselves
Because, it's a great excuse the beat the f*** out of a stupid white boy. Sometimes when I'm standing around doing nothing, getting in a fight can be fun. It's even more fun when it's 4 of you and one of them. The "pretend offense" of using the word is just a great excuse. It's like a license to do wrong, because we know that no one will have a problem with us hurting someone for using the word. Wouldn't you be more likely to break the law, if you knew you had a socially acceptable reason for doing it? Ever wonder why a large group of people will break the law during a riot? It's because they think they can get away with their actions. It's the same way with this "pretend offense."
PS The above only applies to a young person. To my grandfather, who has been called by that name in real contempt, the word is offensive. To us youngsters, it's just another word. We didn't have to sit in the back of the bus, use different bathrooms, or go to horrible black-only schools.
This is internic's own policy. Remember, the laws must apply equally to EVERYONE or they mean nothing.
I gotta agree whole-heartedly, as sad as that sounds. I watched a talk show on tv yesterday, where black women were trying to keep their daughters and sisters from going with black men, and trying to get them to go with white men because they didn't like how black men acted, saying that they were generally lowlife, no good scum that treated them like dirt. Then there were the black men that came on and said they wouldn't go with black women, because of the attitude, they went with white women. See? They don't even like each other. How are we supposed to act then? I have a couple of black friends, and have no problem with it whatsoever, black doesn't factor into the equation, they are just my friends. Then I also know some niggers, who uphold every stereotype that I have ever heard about them. Unfortunately the latter far outnumber the former. For the most part, they expect everything to be given to them on a silver platter, because we "owe them". Whatever. However, it seems that one of their favorite pastimes is shooting each other, so maybe it's a part of the natural selection process. Unfortunately, that part is skewed by the fact of the females of that group continue to breed, and have several of the little ones at home and on welfare, for you and I to support, and to also replace the ones that are shot.
Too bad I already posted this back in the bushsucks.com discussion. Slashdot had the breaking story months ago and the moderators just must not pay attention to the comments that closely.
-Derek
P.S. Why is someone owning a domain name of concern to Slashdot anyway? It's not exactly a techie interest... not to me anyway. I register domain names for clients pretty routinely and it's at best boring.
I would have thought Dick Gregory, if anyone, would have had the rights to that one...since that was the title of his autobiography that he wrote 20-odd years ago. Heard he said to his mother, "next time you hear that word, you know they'll be advertising my book" mark
When I went to www.kkk.com, this is what I saw:
"Welcome to kkk.com. The intent of this website is to become a virtual museum of Ku Klux Klan history and artifacts. KKK.COM does not represent any particular Klan group. We are Klan members who are interested in preserving and relaying the unadulterated truth about the Invisible Empire. "
If this is the NAACP, they're very subtle about it.
See above. ;-) What stops people from coming up with offensive combinations of words? Who gives a shit anyway!? Are we so childish we must be offended when people shout and write those evil dirty words that we don't like? Fuck off NAACP and anyone else who would look to censor our speech. You are NO better than the white shit scum that tried to censor the blacks of the 60's.
Now what do I have to do, censor my DNS lookups as well? ;-) "We noticed here you did a whois query on nigger.com. We're going to have to suspend you without pay for such a flagrant act of racism."
"Horrible black-only schools" have a fine history of preparing black youth... quality black institutions of higher learning...[insults]
Slow down. I wasn't talking about black colleges. I was talking about public schools. How many black men have you met over the age of 50 that went to college? I don't think I have ever met one. The number of students who went to black-only public schools vastly outnumbers the very, very few who went to a black college. You turn my complaint of lack of equal facilities into an insult of black colleges. Interesting attack. The fact is, seperate but equal was almost never equal. In the city where my parents and grandparents went to school, only my mother learned how to read in school. That was because most of their teachers could barely read. The most advanced math class my father could have taken in high school was algebra, not that he even learned how to use fractions or divide until he started working. The white high school offered calculus at that time. Don't let pride in some black college blind you to problems of black education in the past. Sure, stand-up for the tradition of Lane, NC A&T, SC State, etc., but don't let that fool you into thinking they helped more than a very small portion of those hurt by seperate schools.
If you spent more time doing research on black history...
You're right about that. I'm embarrased to say that I got a low C in the last black history class I took. From what little I know of history, the history of the African contentint seems as long and complex as the history of China, and that's saying a lot.
The {n-word}.org domain is, according to my whois query, registered to the same person as the {n-word}.com domain, but: only one name server is listed.
Is it now possible to register a domain with Network Solutions, with only a single name server?
I'm against anything that judges a person based on anything other than WHO they are. We are all human and that's that.
African-American, no. If you're a citizen of this country, damnit you're an American. Being an American doesn't have a thing to do with skin color, race or your ancestors. I'm not "Native-American-German-Irish" just because my ancestors were from those respective places. Lets loose the labels for everyone.
When are people going to wake up and start seeing that the very label "black, white, african-american" *IS* grouping people into classes (for lack of a better word) based on ethnic background. Ethnicity means NOTHING. My god, it's just where the person's family was origionally from, what the HELL does that matter to anyone?
"Black" people were done a horrible injustice by the early settlers of this country. That is true. Race relations are still "ify" at best, that is also true. Until we find mutual respect for one and other and QUIT with all these labels, no one is ever going to get along.
Most people are afraid of anything different, it's totally pathetic.
The only thing I can think of worse than hating a fellow person based on their appearence is organized religion. Those are the two things the human race needs to overcome before we can take the next step to civilization.
"Organized Religion -- The Only Thing Preventing People From Being Civilized."
I have never seen or heard a more true statement than that. Hate in general could be added, but anyone smart enough to understand that statement can read that into it as well.
And if you're going to call someone on their English, you should especially not misspell the word, "grammar."
Besides, why would you want to waste time trying to rectify the regular butchery of English that goes on here at Slashdot? My best friend on Slashdot is an atrocious speller, and I've long ago given up trying to help even just that one guy...
- B.A., English
Well, which organization has been around longer? Even katie can't keep kumming for that long.
Why is this news worthy?
I am half black myself and have been the victum of racism, but trying to register all offensive names smacks of censorship. Exposed racists are better than hidden ones. Show why their arguments are false and make them look like the idiots they are, but dont deny them free speach.
If one owns a domain name they should own it in good faith. As an atheist who feels discriminated against should I register all Christian domain names?
..sarcasm: If we get rid of the "N-word", racism will be gone forever, right? Because only racist white people say "nigger"......... As long as the NAACP worries about stupid things like who owns nigger.com and people are lawn jockeys on Ebay, they don't have to do anything real that could actually affect civil rights. That might actually require some action. Perhaps they know that if they actually fight to solve the heart of the problem of racism they would be out of a job. - Y.T.
point of it was to protect trademarks. Since, AFAIK, "offensive" words can't be used as trademarks,
your point is, uh, pointless.
Then how you explain internic's refusal to register fuck.com? Why is it registered to a California District court? Rules are meaningless unless they apply equally to everyone. Now either the NAACP is a low-life sqatter (as popularly slammed on
ORDERED STATUS QUO ANTE (FUCK14-DOM)
US District Court, Central District of
California
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Domain Name: FUCK.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Network Operations Center (NSOL-NOC) NOC@NETSOL.COM
703-742-4777
Billing Contact:
Accounts Payable (AP5173-ORG) ap@NETSOL.COM
703-742-0400
Record last updated on 02-Jun-99.
Record created on 26-Apr-99.
Database last updated on 21-Sep-99 14:40:22 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.INTERNIC.NET 198.41.0.11
NS.NETSOL.COM 198.41.0.196
NS2.NETSOL.COM 207.159.77.19
Dammit, learn what "censorship" means before you go spouting off about it, idiot! Domain squatting may be unsavory but it certainly is NOT censorship.
---snip--- One of the 125 student's with a higher GPA at my high school complained, and he was suspended from school. ----snip--- Are you serious??? Wow! That's insane. What did the kids parents do??
Yep... Take a look at www.incorporate.com, they will send you a little packet with all the info.
www.chinkspicniggerkikewoppolacknip.com
5. Where did you go to school, community college? I was frequently the only black guy in my classes, when I did meet other blacks
most of them were paying their own way too. I've heard about all these magical freebies for blacks but I haven't seen them. Yeah, I
tried for a free ride but I didn't qualify and neither did anyone I grew up with. All the only blacks I met with free rides were either on
a sports team, they were on the GI bill or a regular academic scholarship, no just because you're black thing. Everyone assumed we
all had some type of financial aid or played sports but no one ever asked. I paid my own way and scored well enough to make it into
school regardless of any quotas.
-----------snip---------
Exactly!!!!!
I couldn't have said it better. I hate to say
this (but I am being honest), you know what
I think when I see a black or minority person on campus??
Did s/he work his/her ass off as hard as I
did to get here, or were they given a free ride??
You know why I think this to myself even though
I logically know it only applies to 1 in 1000(or less)
minority people??? Because it boggles my mind
that someone can get into a school based on the
color of their skin. It's just beyond my
comprehension. I just can't figure it out, so I
keep thinking about it.
This is one of the main reasons I hate affirmative action.
Did anybody read the article about a head U.V.A.
official saying they "had to dip below the
normal academic level to admit minorities" and
the naacp got all mad???... he was only being
honest about the policies that the naacp advocates.
I just don't understand.................
I'm pretty sure that prop 209 that is now in acction in California repealled affirmative action and that that kind of stuff is illegal.
re: no white channels
Have you watched CBN? which is now FAM?
besides BET might claim to be for Blacks, but the values it pushes aren't the values of most Blacks I know. there's a difference between advertised pop culture and real life.
(NT)
Somebody stupid enough to misspell Linux would probably be too stupid to use it. So, whuya care!?
Thanks - you articulated something I have tried to explain to people for years. "Words have no more power than you give them" is what I wish more people would understand.
You can't even be racist anymore. Do you see the pigeons hanging out with the crows? Nope.
nigga you be triflin
Someone else mentioned that non -/.ers might read it, not in context, and raise a stink about it. These people might even be potential employers. Where I work we did a dejanews search on all potential employees before hiring. . . and we had an employee who wrote a slew of very objectionable things. Luckily we examined it further and found he was quoting and countering those statements. You might not be so lucky. If you are in a large application pool a perl script might even eliminate you! I have thought about posting many times to this story, but fear of this happening to me has prevented me from doing so (this is the reason for the AC posting). Just know that the word 'nigger' can damage you in the future, w/o anyone knowing about it. Very sad, but true.
"6. 30+ years of (token) benefits vs. 400+ years of slavery. Nuff said." You were never a slave, you have probably never even talked to or seen a slave. I don't owe you a fucking thing.
A flock of parrots have descended on the slashdot comments; their conditioning is causing mass involuntary squawking. The chorus of ignorance here is not surprising. Yes, I am a white racist. Contrary to popular culture, I am educated, successful, and a free thinker. I am not much different from many of the people here, my evolutionary instincts are just harder to suppress. There has been much said by those who religiously espouse the anti evolutionary doctrine of egalitarianism, universalism, multiculturism, and multiracialism. I suggest to any white person, who is having a hard time suppressing their natural instincts with the perverse religion of political correctness, they read Sir Arthur Keith's works. You will gain a greater understanding of human nature and the forces at work against it. I can send you his books in e-text, email me at witigis@royal.net, if you are interested.
There are many people who speak of destroying racism, simplistically implying it is a force which is merely taught and can be undone with "enlightenment". This is nonsense, it is as foolish as suggesting the birds instinct to fly in flocks or fly south for winter could be untaught. Do you also believe competitiveness, greed, courage, patriotism, strong will, and warlike spirit is taught? These evolutionary mechanisms, along with racism or tribalism will always exist. You are the ones who are going against the grain of the universal laws of nature, this is why I claim you are ignorant.
Now, I will say one more thing before I go. There are many non whites who have been conditioned to believe that they must follow the destructive ideals of egalitarianism, universalism, multiculturism, and multiracialism because otherwise it would be treason against their own people. My question would be, aren't these ideals at war with the survival of your people? Do you not value your race and culture? Why must your race and culture be sacrificed to suit these ideals?
Exactly.
BET is a sore thorn in the side of equality.
BET is not for a forgein language.
BET is not for the asians,whites,lations,indians
BET is for pure unstoppable raceism.
BET should be shut down.
Yeah Black people call themselfs niggers
Asians don't call Asians gooks.
Indians don't call themselfs red skins.
Whites dont call themselfs honky.
Latinos don't call themselfs Wetbacks.
Jews don't call themselfs Heffers.
i really wanted www.blacksonblondes.com too, but there's already some damn pRon site on it...
I checked out n****r.com, .org, and .net, and no go, I don't think the NAACP really registered the domain name. Another "urban legend" is born.........
Ok idiot, how can you put money in the same prospective. Many people have died to keep from being called words like Nigger.
Get a grip man
NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER
My Grandfather said Nigger his grandfather did too.
Yet these liberals scare you intodays world from saying Nigger. YOUR A SACK OF SKIN.
These liberals tell you race mixing is ok.
These same liberals have pitty on the Jews
These same liberals force prayer out of school
These same liberals say pledge of aligance to the flag is wrong in school.
These same liberals say gays are ok in boyscouts, sense when is a 13teen yearold gay?(sexual) last time I looked minors haveing sex is illegal. (so no one follows it.. but a 13teen year old boy?)
These same liberals say no to guns.
These same liberals smoke 3 packs a day and then sue the tobacco companys.
These same liberals increase your taxs and then spend it overseas while takeing vacations on thier own islands.
These same liberals give the "minorites" legalized raciesm.
Hell with all of you...
HAVE PRIDE in YOUR RACE FAMILY AND FOLK
White Pride World Wide
Our skin is white, get over it! don't cry.
daisy duke was a woman, and grandpa duke was elderly.
the tarzan movies had too many blacks in them! i'll sue!
there is a posting of official disparaging words, as published by the US Air Force.
I was suprised "Pickaninny" and "Jungle Bunny" weren't listed.
no "Wetback", "Beaner", "Slut"...I guess disparaging is a step down from vulgar or whatever.
I had a black friend in jr. high who would just laugh when you called him a nigger, he didn't care a bit. smart, musician. he thought rascism was a joke, and lived his life that way. great guy.
I have a couple of "hispanic" friends now who are the same way, if you try to say something about their heritage, they laugh and say "look, i'm a beaner! just call me that!" smart, friendly, happy. they don't go for pc stuff at all.
it's cultural -- I worked with a number of highly educated african and jamaican people, and they were as friendly, trustworthy, etc. as any other person I've worked with. But hey found american blacks (generally! there are many great ones!) hostile, stupid and frightening.
a lot of women are the same way, going through their entire life with a chip on their shoulder. it's so sad.
This is a really interesting issue.
I grew up in the South Side of Chicago, and in elementary school I was often the only white kid in the class. (Believe me, racism can and does go both ways, but I digress.)
It's really amazing how the inner-city young black culture has incredible disdain for anyone showing initiative. I remember one of the more popular kids at my school was frequently getting in trouble for all sorts of really stupid rebellious stuff (not to mention never doing any work). Finally, a teacher apparently called up his parents and complained. The next day, he showed up at school with his dad following him around. He was dressed in a suit and tie and was being forced to carry around a leather briefcase filled with bricks (his father was evidently quite the disciplinarian). His father was making every effort to force him to act like a courteous, civil businessman. At lunch, in the cafeteria, his father stood up and gave a loud speech. The essence was "You all say you're Black and Proud, but you're making a fool out of yourself and the race I am proud to be a member of, and nobody's going to take us seriously until you clean up your act."
He was roundly laughed out of the room.
But the whole idea is to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio. A problem with simply skipping over blocks of keywords like that is that their use might actually provide a safe haven for someone with malicious intent. How's the fed to know if any one message using this same block of keywords might contain something of significance?
Yes, I couldn't help searching for offensive domains... One that actually seemed pretty "well organized" was www.kkk.com. I stopped at the portal.
Goto Citizen's Against Government Waste for a list of pork barrel projects.
maybe he was trying to say lunatix?
having a minority in a position in public view (i.e. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who, *by the way, is NOT black*) see: http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Oct1997/970923-A -3569D-001.html are _sometimes_ placed in that position as a "token" minority....... >>those white men who had the jobs for those roles before the NAACP came in. It's too bad that they had to be fired i doubt that anyone actually _lost_ a job as a result of this (T.V. producers care too much about the bottom line e.g. good casting, they probably simply added a few parts) enough speculation, there is too much in your post, but bear in mind that there is STILL racism today
I am so friggin tired of the NAACP and all these pro-black groups. All throught college I saw more blacks getting free rides and perks handed to them only to have 95% of them piss it all down their legs. I am a third generation American and my grandparents sacrificed for my parents and my parents made scarifices for me. We never owned slaves, we never even profitted from the "mans" exploitation of the negro. Its total bullshit.
Blacks have had 30+ years of benefits bestowed on them and granted a few of them have gotten smart and taken advantage of them. But the rest - BAH!
Stupidest thing the U.S. ever did was to import slaves from Africa. You know the most ironic part? It was their fellow africans who sold them into slavery. Yeah go read the textbooks, not the revisionist history ones they have been passing around for the past 5 years. Did you know that shortly before LIncolns assination he was pushing to re-settle all the slaves back to Africa?
Ever wonder what would have happened if the US had not imported slaves. I'll bet anything you want that Africa would still be in the same state it is today. Plus the US would be bereft of many of the race and social problems it has today.
You wanna know why Latinos are beginning to prosper so fast and outpacing blacks in the economy despite even more disadvantages? They work, work hard, and make sacrifices for their familys. Same thing with Asians (who get none of the benefits that either Hispanics or blacks do when it comes to financial aid, trust me I know this first hand). Then you have their main role models: drugged out and violent sports stars; obnoxious, self-serving, ethically lacking rap musicians; and thats about it.
80% of the black race is going down the tubes guarenteed in the next 20 years and it will be all their own doing.
I mean, if internic refuses to allow FUCK.COM to be registered (and derivates thereof), why are they allowing NIGGER.COM to be registered? The latter is far more offensive, IMO. Internic should either become a Censor God Control Freak or just say "anything goes" and be done with it. This case-by-case-what's-our-mood-today-on-this-domain- name policy is unacceptable since I cannot even find out difinitavely what the "policy" is. It's unwritten! WTF?
If I use the word, then I'm labeled a racist. If someone uses the word in the presense of my friends or family, then they are labeled a racist. The NAACP uses the word globally, in the press release and in the domain name, and they are praised? About three years ago, I introduced Jesse Jackson, before he spoke at my local Chamber of Commerce. I've never meet a more racist group of people than his entourage. I've never understood why some forms of racism and hate are not despised as much as others. In fact, some forms of racism seem accepted and encouraged by society. Whether it's the fact that I did half the work in college that my classmates did, but I still passed, or the fact that I got a full scholarship because I had the highest GPA of a minority student at my high school. One of the 125 student's with a higher GPA at my high school complained, and he was suspended from school. Why is that racism not only tolerated, but encouraged by the school for punishing those who complain about it? The NAACP's use of this word should not be tolerated, just as I've never tolerated someone using the word to describe me.
At my school (UCLA) the affirmative action program offers various ethnic groups extra tutoring (fine by me), assistance with finding affordable housing (fine by me) and lets them stay enrolled with a lower GPA that would get those not in the program kicked out (woah! I have aproblem with that). I knew someone who scraped by for three years with a sub 2.0 GPA that would have gotten non-ethnic groups (i.e. white) kicked out after their 1 term probationary period (during which they must get the GPA back up). He finally was kicked out just before his forth year. Sad. This guy sucked up a space at the university for three whole years and didn't even graduate. This space could've went to someone else who was academically talented enough to make it through and graduate but who was denied because some enrollment quota meant there wasn't room for him. The AA people say it not about quotas and that it's about giving "historically disadvantged groups" a chance, but when it comes to implementation, we're back to these fscking quotas again.
If you agree with the post, you moderate up.
If you don't agree with the post, you moderate it down.
Since this guy is just complaining, hu must be just a wannabe moderator who agrees with the philosophy of moderation I have stated hede. Therefore he is unworthy of moderator status. Get it?
I think the NAACP is missing the point of exactly what domain names are supposed to accomplish, which is to function as a simple reminder of your server addresses. (People remember names easier than numbers.) - When you tell someone your "internet address" (whether email, web, ftp, or whathaveyou) the point is that using a word is easier to remember than four numbers. Therefore you picked something that's similar to your name (like "IBM.COM", for example.)
DNS isn't supposed to be a substitute for a search engine - so registering "every permutation of every offensive word" isn't going to solve anything (even if it was possible.)
If someone were to go looking for hate groups, are they going to type "www.n-word.com" into their browser location bar? No. They're going to go to Altavista or Yahoo (or some other search engine) and type in a search phrase.
If some white-supremacist is going to register a domain name, would they pick "n-word.com"? Probably not. Can you imagine them exchanging URL's with other idiots, and getting the reaction "Whudya pick that for? You a n*****-lover?" - As a matter of fact, white-supremacists (the ones I've ever met, or seen) are against using that word in public (watch some interviews and documentaries about it if you're interested in the mindset - it's fascinating to see such a deluded mind at work.)
By taking this action, the NAACP is doing exactly what they're trying to prevent, which is to give racists publicity and credibility.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Last time I checked, "colored" was considered offensive, and the last few times I heard it used it was sure hard to take it any other way.
Perhaps the NAACP should change their name before they waste money squatting on domains. Granted, a name change would be a lot more expensive than sitting on a few domains, but anyone who really wants to read racist trash is going to find it no matter what. The name, OTOH, is kind of hard to ignore.
slashdot broke my sig
Then you spelled it wrong :)
At first, I didn't even want to guess what was at bigger.com, but as it turns out it's yet another free mail service!
My Freakin Blog
People don't like to be categorized. Therefore, for every word for someone with dark skin who has parents from Africa that has been used in the US, there is someone objecting to it. Let's look at a few:
:[ ) Back then, it was about as bad as calling someone 'black' is today.
Negroid. Yeah, just about as fun as calling me a 'Caucasian'. No one likes the 'scientific' term for their people.
Nigger. Contraction of the former, originally *not* offensive. If you don't believe me, read Huckleberry Finn, his best friend was a 'nigger'. (Provided it isn't banned yet, for schools that can't teach history.
Black. Some people find this offensive now. Too bad, since I'm 'White'...
African American. Pretty stupid, unless you're from there, and applied for citizenship here. They're as much from Africa as I'm from Europe, which is to say not at all. We're all Native Americans, since we were born on American soil. (Not Indians. Wait... they aren't from India! Aaaahhhhhh!)
Therefore, there are *no* good terms for our races. If you believe the word of one slashdot-reading honkey, that is. Otherwise, ignore me, and use your free software. (or is it Open Source? Shareware? Freeware? Aaaaahhhhh!)
Personally, with the domain names, use it or lose it. Don't refer a bunch of domain names to your page, either. You'll just confuse people, and restrict free speech and easy searching of the internet, which is what America is all about. If you don't like going to 'yahhoo.com' and getting a porn site, you shouldn't like this either, it's more domain abuse, pure and simple.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
... and I'm a member of the white middle-class and really have nothing in my ethnicity that would make me the topic of insults.
It just pisses me off.
It's like last year I had a class and the teacher was asking what everyone was(e.g. German, Irish, Italian, etc.). I guess I have some French, German, etc. I haven't ever really cared.
I doubt in France they ask you if you're English or German if your ancestors have lived in the country for 200 years.
Do Americans have a problem just being Americans? I can understand people who grew up in another country, or whose parents did saying they're Swedish American or whatever. But if you have ancestors that have fought in the civil war, I think you've been here long enough. You are American, like it or not.
And I agree with the other poster that not all blacks come from Africa, and if you come from Jamaica you probably wouldn't like being called African American. And if you are a white from South Africa, you wouldn't be called African American.
So basically it's just YA way of describing someone who's skin is a dark brown to black color. So why not just say black? And I really wish whoever the hell chooses these things(probably our friends at the NAACP) would settle on one.
I mean, what was so bad with "Negro"? Now it sounds like some dirty word, but AFAIK it just means black in some other language(I know it does in Spanish). MLK called blacks Negros in his speeches. But no, now it's demeaning.
But now no one will ever be able to use that word again. So why don't they just find one they like and say this is the pc term now, and keep it.
Fighting for our rights to get Affirmative Action on TV. You know, all those poor minorities watch TV and they get so depressed(at least according to Jesse Jackson) because there are no people of their race in starring roles.
So what do we do? Threaten to sue. Threaten a boycott. Good work guys, TV companies really don't have the right to put out the shows they want.
You know there was this article a few days back about the show "The West Wing" and the producer or whatever was so happy that they got blacks and other minorities in some parts(at the last minute because of NAACP pressure).
It was hysterical, the guy was like "You don't see any blacks yet, but guess what? You haven't met the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and you haven't met the National Security Adviser, and you haven't met etc. etc. Guess what? They're almost all minorities!"
I was like, too bad for those white men who had the jobs for those roles before the NAACP came in. It's too bad that they had to be fired, but I guess they deserved it since they're white and male.
If you made White Entertainment TV, or a White Student Union(like in school), or tried to get a White History Month, people would be calling you the most racist piece of shit ever.
But when blacks do it it's about pride. What bullshit.
how 'bout www.chinkspicnigger.com ?
Be an equal opportunity bigot!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I said it before, and I'll say it again, all this clumsiness is a direct result of peoples' thinking of domain names as something other than names for a computer sitting in an air conditioned room somewhere.
.org, .com) squatting, other abuses, and it doesn't support a full character-set. It just ain't the right solution.
For corporations, organizations, there needs to be a separate directory service of some kind which can be trademarkable, censorable, and enforceable, the namespace will need to allow for space-characters, and other necessities of corporate identity. Treat it the same as you treat the Yellow Pages today.
When folks want to find Apple Computer's site, they look it up in their directory, and the browser zips them to the proper place. A URL is NOT a good solution for this problem. You get this top-level duplication crap, (.net,
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
They are sitting on sites they NEVER intend on using. If I'm against these being used commerially, could I have squat on these?
www.linux.com
www.freebsd.com
www.eef.com
www.gnu.com
and best of all, can I now go buy and sit on
www.naacp.com?
No, I shouldn't.. Neither should they.
One's persons idea of offensive ISN'T anothers, and they have no legal or ethical reason for sitting on slang terms names.
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Don't say that To loud.. They may hear and fire off the registration of another several thousand domain names.. ;-P
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Ahh.. I never meant to say that it was illegal. I don't technically think squatting is quite illegal at all, yet.. ;-P Sory for misunderstanding your point..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Their logic and reasoning is my problem. They have NO BUISNESS attempting to censor by squating. They DON'T EVEN INDEND on using the sites.. THAT'S what annoys me the most. Not a static page to say why it's wrong for this word to be in a DNS database, they simply want to use the words so no one else can. Squating in general is considered bad. Legal, but bad. So's this.. I guess I was judging based on moral merit vs legal..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Refusing to have hate speach on the net? How in the heck is registering words they find offensive stopping hate speach? Heck, I'd think one of the more popular black rap groups would register n****r.com rather then some white supremisists..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
They registered it, but no IP. They do not intend on actually USING the name for anything..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
If they died simply becouse they didn't want to be called a name, they died for the wrong reason. And I've never heard of anyone die for being called words like sh*thead, yet I'm guessing this is one of the many, MANY names they intend on reserving..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Now wait a second.. It's NOT ok for a company to squat on a name for money, but it's OK for someone else to squat on a name becouse they consider them offensive?
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
You should run the firewall like me. Then you can say whatever you want, eg "Fuck the skull of Jesus"--hey wait a minute, what are you doing in the server room--aaarrgh
+++ATH0
NO CARRIER
The Good:
Anti-hate groups buy up all the defamitory web real estate on the web and all the minorities in this world (minority being a term as politically incorrect as Nigger in my books) are free of having Mr. KKK posting ignorent hate literature on nigger.com, not to mention I don't have to look at it.
The Bad:
These groups are domain camping. The only thing that would make this into a good thing is if they where to educate people about their race via these webpages... right now I get a "this page ain't here". I'm not talking about some redirect to the main site, I'm talking about a legitimate page telling people this is what this word means and this is why its wrong. With maybe a link to the main site.
The Ugly:
These neo-nazi-dweebie-morons can easily make a big stink out of this if something legitimate isn't done with the domains and unfortunately they have as much right to do so as the rest of us.
I firmly believe in free speech, but I also despise hatred or lack of tolerence in any form, and while I believe these dildo's have a right to say what they want to say, I don't think they should be allowed to be in your face at every turn. When it comes to african americans and the KKK/Skinheads yadda yadda bitching about how the "N******" are ruining this country, all I have to say is "Then why did yer great grandpappies take them away from their people and homeland and plop them in the states in the first place" or in the case of my ancestors "Then why the hell did you think you had the right to come into their land and create a government meant to demoralize their way of life". Ain't life just lovely? I'm just happy that I am lucky enough that aside from the odd Jerry Springer episode I'm not exposed to this madness often.
- Xabbu
- Jimbob
i'm no psychologist, so you should really listen to some-one who really knows what they are talking about and skip my post, but i do knowt that there is a certain power in appropriating the names your oppressor applies to you and those like you. when you do this, you rob your oppressor of some bit of power. the terms geek and nerd are perfect examples of this. as everyone knows, at one point, being a "geek" or "nerd" wasn't a good thing. but w/ maturitry and a little thought, we (or those before us) realized that if we appropriated those terms, they couldn't be used to harm us. now we (or I) commonly refer to ourselves as geeks or nerds w/o a second thought.
now I know that the word "nigger" is still a very hatefilled word, and still used to damage people, but it appears that in refering to each other in such a way, it's like your own private "fuck-you" to "the-man" who-ever (s)he may be.
of course, I could be totally wrong, and it may be that in using this term, african-american's are only reinforcing deeply rooted stereotypes, I don't know, and I'm not in anything related to a position of knowledge on this subject.
but like I said, I'm a computer geek, not a psychologist or sociologist.
btw, these opions are mine and are not those of
the people who sign my paychecks..blah blah blah
-Peter
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
It's pretty much already happened. Almost all "black" people living in America have substantial white ancestry (unfortunately mostly due to lecherous slave-owners of the last century). If you grew up in America, you don't fully realize this until you meet black people from Africa, who really are almost literally black. It just goes to show that race is a social concept, not a biological one, and that color has no causal relationship to personality or behavior.
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
I'm a radical-Christian Libertarian who thinks that race is overblown as an issue -- and that the best solution to the issue is to interbreed until we're all a nice chocolate brown.
-- Slashdot sucks.
Consider the following:
Paul said it best. "Love never fails." So stop campaigning and strategizing and all this nonsense and get out there and love each other!-- Slashdot sucks.
And what words would those be?
Classically, it would be something like a direct and dire insult to your mother's character phrased in the rudest possible way which was ultimately untrue and known to be untrue.
-- Slashdot sucks.
First, if I were looking for hate groups I probably wouldn't look at "n-word".com (Urk. Ugly, self-conscious, orwellian phrase -- if I were sure that the companies firewall wouldn't pick up the real thing I would use it). Why not? Because I wouldn't expect to find hate groups, but some kind of inner-city rap group. Think NWA here guys.
But that's beside the point. What occurs to me is that domain names are becoming meaningless. Nowadays, when I need to locate something on the web, I don't go to "www.company.com" because it is not very semantically rich. There are too many companies on the web now for each one to try to be www.whatever.com.
I remember, when I was growing up, there was a clothing store in town called "Sears Betty & Bob". It was entirely unrelated to Sears. Apparently the owners name was "Sears", and so they had a right to use it even though it was a trademark.
But back to the hate groups. This is an unbelievable waste of money. People, when faced with the loss of semantic content in domain names, no longer just type in "www.whatever.com" -- they go to google, type a couple of keywords, hit "I'm feeling lucky" and get to the site. It's not as though you are going to keep people from finding the stuff if they really want to anyway.
If I were a contributor to one of these organizations, I'd be angry at the waste of money. Wouldn't it be better to counter these groups with facts than simply trying to suppress them?
-- Slashdot sucks.
Censorship on this basis (racial opinions) would be so outrageously unconsitutional it wouldn't even be funny. Even THIS supreme court wouldn't allow it. And the "fighting words" doctrine would probably not be applicable -- that is reserved only for those words that are EXCLUSIVELY provocative and devoid of meaning beyond their provocative nature.
Which brings up another question: I, as a Christian Libertarian, will allow you to read any kind of trash you see fit. My only request is that you don't try to slip it in under my radar by disguising it as legitimate material (see www.whitehouse.com or try searching for a lost windows serial number sometime). However, when you deliberately try to decesive me into using material that is not of any redeaming value, it seems to me very injust.
It seems to me that the NAACP and friends are stepping over the line here -- they are trying to slip in their own political philosophy by underhanded means. While I cannot endorse the political philosophies that they are trying to defeat, neither can I entirely tolerate their deliberate abuse of the domain system by registering false and/or misleading domains.
Of course, it's not really relevant -- who uses domains to find stuff anymore? But it seems to me that the ends may well NOT justify the means. At what point is it legitimate to lie to make a point, even if it is worthwhile?
-- Slashdot sucks.
As long as they don't do anything with these domain names, it's nothing more than squatting. The heck of it is, they could be putting these names to productive use. Link 'em all back to anti-hate groups, get the information out there.
You can't destroy a hate group with laws. The reason: laws don't destroy hate. It would be dangerous to even try, because the minute you stifle someone else's voice you jeopardize your own. No, laws aren't the way to combat hate groups. There is only one real way to fight them: with knowledge. Start young, demonstrating the principles of equality. The rule is simple: respect all people, no matter what.
And for crying out loud, why is it that no state has passed a law stating that indoctrinating a child with racism is child abuse? I live not even a hundred yards away from just such a family, and it's truly revolting to watch. Three little girls, the oldest one not yet ten, and already they're spewing hate speech (as far as I know they have yet to graduate to actual slurs, but I also try to avoid this family whenever possible). It's absolutely sickening. There are states which treat failure to teach a child English as child abuse, and if that is than surely planting racism into a young mind is too.
Ahh... the days of ramen noodles.
Launguage is a not a fixed or neutral thing; meanning is disputed and constantly changing. Look how Gay has moved from being an insult to a source of pride. Consider how the examples cited in the article (http://www.faggot.org" and http://www.dyke.com) are carrying over the struggles over langauge fought by the gay community into the on-line world.
As the original article stated, the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation league readily admit that this won't stop hate speach on the net, they are refusing, however, to take it lying down.
Paul M
"There are no innocent bystanders
What where they doing there in the first place"
Paul M
"There are no innocent bystanders. What where they doing there in the first place"
William S Burroughs
jonkatz.com is taken!
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
This is just like when George W Bush registered all the possible insulting domains he could think of (bushsucks.com, etc.). Everyone was pretty quick to point out that bushblowsmonkeys.com and many others that nobody ever thought of would be available. You just can't conceive of them all.
So now they say that all variations including those with hyphens are taken. Here's what register.com says:
www-nigger.com is available www-nigger.net is available www-nigger.org is available
nig-ger.com is available
nig-ger.net is available
nig-ger.org is available
Those just came from the top of my head, I'm sure others can think of more. Anyone check the international (non-USA) domains?
Brian
Witness the stunning number of domains porn sites have come up with - and that without even any use of certain words.
Reminds me of the old joke about the difference between a circus and a whorehouse: a cunning array of stunts versus a stunning...oh, never mind.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
"n-word".com may be taken, but "n-word.com",
"n-word.org" and "n-word.net" are all up for
grabs -- as are "f-word.net" and "f-word.org".
I want all of the power and none of the responsibility.
I have a friend who belongs to a few racist watch groups (groups that monitor the ongoings of the Aryan Nation, KKK, etc.) and at one point she said I should look on the KKK's web site, b/c apparently they have a list of "approved" and "unapproved" muzik for Good White Folk (TM) that was apparently, er, poorly researched. :-) At any rate, not having any idea where to look, I decided to just type in www.kkk.com to see what would happen. Wouldn't you know it, the NAACP web site came up! I couldn't stop laughing. Imagine a white supremecist trolling on the web, looking for the KKK's home page and finding the NAACP staring them in the face. Heh.
Sadly, they don't apparently own the kkk.com domain name any more -- it's now run by some yahoo who wants to create a KKK museum.
Personally, I don't think you can consider the buying of these domain names cybersquatting so long as the URL is redirected to something relevant. I think it's very, very smart for the NAACP and other groups to be doing this.
Of course, at some point someone I don't like will do it to someone I do -- I suppose it's entirely possible that the Republican Right will buy the domain name anarchy.com...
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Don't know what happened, but it wasn't on purpose...
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
I have a friend who belongs to a few racist watch groups (groups that monitor the ongoings of the Aryan Nation, KKK, etc.) and at one point she said I should look on the KKK's web site, b/c apparently they have a list of "approved" and "unapproved" muzik for Good White Folk (TM) that was apparently, er, poorly researched. :-) At any rate, not having any idea where to look, I decided to just type in www.kkk.com to see what would happen. Wouldn't you know it, the NAACP web site came up! I couldn't stop laughing. Imagine a white supremecist trolling on the web, looking for the KKK's home page and finding the NAACP staring them in the face. Heh.
Sadly, they don't apparently own the kkk.com domain name any more -- it's now run by some yahoo who wants to create a KKK museum.
Personally, I don't think you can consider the buying of these domain names cybersquatting so long as the URL is redirected to something relevant. I think it's very, very smart for the NAACP and other groups to be doing this.
Of course, at some point someone I don't like will do it to someone I do -- I suppose it's entirely possible that the Republican Right will buy the domain name anarchy.com...
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
I saw the headline, so just to make sure, I tried going to www.n-word.com, and that didn't work, so then I tried www."n-word".com, and that didn't work either. Then, I did a whois lookup, and it said n-word.com wasn't registered. Then, I thought, aha - the N in NAACP stands for National, so maybe they registered national.com, but no, that's National Semiconductor, Inc. What "N-word" could they be possibly be referring to?
:-)
In all seriousness, I don't see what the big deal is. Some people have said that it's hypocritical for Slashdotters to say squatting is bad yet still let the NAACP register domains that "aren't theirs."
Well, I say hogwash. I, for one don't believe organizations have an inherent right to a domain, for reasons like they own a trademark or a copyright. I don't like domain name squatting for the most part, but do I think we should pass a law to outlaw it? No! True, it's not nice to squat a domain away from someone, but considering what other companies do with domains for profit alone, it's kind of nice to see someone squat for good, rather than evil.
Ross
I think the "Redundant" moderation option, which is relatively useless, should be replaced with the more useful "Totally Missed The Point" rating.
I miss Meept.
Not to dispute your (quite valid) point, but an above poster alluded to the fact that the words we use on Slashdot are not *only* seen by Slashdotters. Between my browser and yours, lies a collection of corporate routers, firewalls, filters and logs, that may not take every word in context. Each staffed by a person, who may or may not do the same. Some of these people may not care, but others just might, and they just might decide to make a stink about it. Just a thought.
I would point out that one need not raid the military budget in order to have money to pay for helping the poor. In fact, the military, having suffered massive cuts these last several years, has planes literally falling apart because of a lack of parts. The military was stretched so thin handling two minor regional conflicts (Kosovo and the no-fly zones of Iraq) that to deal with Kosovo a good many forces were actually diverted from Iraq to Kosovo. The military needs the funds it has been allocated.
However, there are lots of pork barrel projects that could be eliminated in favor of increased spending for the poor. For example, Congress allocated a bunch of extra C-130 cargo planes for the Pentagon, despite the fact that the Pentagon *said it didn't want*. Why? Because the planes are made in the home states of a couple of influential senators. Don't trim the military budget, but don't add on unneeded things either! You can take a lot of the "pet projects" of congressmen and axe them, and have more than enough money for useful social programs.
"'Cause they'll smack ya, down to the street top Black police showin' off for the white cop!" - NWA, Fuck Tha Police
Especially considering the overwhelming mindset of "us" and "the Man."
Fuck Slashdot
Well I've just been to www.kkk.com and there's nothing about naacp there; it is indeed the kkk's homepage.
So how come? If we both look up kkk.com and you get one page and I get another, one or both DNS has to be wrong, right?
'ping www.kkk.com' pought 207.155.252.7 when I tried it. What about you?
By enforcing the NAACP's claim to those names which they have no intent of using, the government (or whoever decides this ultimately) is basically saying that no one can use the names at all!
The lines between censorship and not-censorship are blurry to nonexistent.
When does Political Correctness cross the line and become simply opinion?
It can't be a matter of the number of people holding that opinion, because here the corporates would be entitled to squat.
It can't be a matter of 'majority rules' either, because I don't remember an official poll about what 'derogatory' terms I find offensive...
Just who has the right to decide what is right and wrong in the Domain Name Game?? Eh?
And what about foreign language words? Accidental mis-spellings of possibly derogatory terms? Slang?
Last I checked, there was a country called Niger. www.niger.org can be just as valid for a nationalist web-site as www.israel.org (Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website BTW), www.israel.com and www.israel.net - and these exist...
What about hobbies? Let's pick something semi-offensive first. Should taxidermy.com be 'reserved' by the same folks as vegan.org, just because it's offensive to them? How about model-planes.com?? Maybe we should make that unavailable because some kid somewhere died from sniffing Testors glue?
Yes, it gets ridiculous, but that's exactly the point. There is not definitive bound on 'offensive'. When we start limiting freedom in an authoritarian manner (read absolutist) then we have to do it absolutely, and reduce everything to bland oatmeal that is sure to not offent anyone - I find this alternative offensive. Nyah!
Long Live Harrison Bergeron!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
For someone who's looking for crap like that, how many people are going to sit down at their browser and think of "bushblowsmonkeys.com," as opposed to "bushsucks.com"? Likewise, your average Aryan Nation type will try "niggers.com" right off the bat, but how many are going to try the permutations that you came up with? The answer is zero. It's the reason squatters would love to own a name like "movies.com" but wouldn't give a rat's ass about "aint-it-cool-news.com."
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
It's actually a pretty diabolical plot. And it's a DoS against the NAACP, since they're giving the racist bigot moolah instead of spending it on whatever the NAACP does these days.
My Blog. Sela Ward can sell me long distanc
To be effective, they would have to register practically permutation of such words, otherwise there would still be combinations hate groups could use. Witness the stunning number of domains porn sites have come up with - and that without even any use of certain words.
--
grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
Well, then the Killer Klowns Konsortium, the Keep Kids Klueless foundation, the Katie Komes Kwietly pornshop, and the Krunchy Karrots Korner are all going to be pissed when they find out a bunch of racist cowards in hoods and robes have been trademark-squatting.
---
Have a Sloppy day!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I remember reading somewhere in the last six months or so that lots of domain names were intentionally reserved when DNS was started. For example all the one letter names are reserved, and they also decided to hold traditionally offensive words as well. Later on, names like there were given to organizations like naacp to allow them to protect against their use. The problem is that you're likely to see people register plurals, and variants of offensive words anyway, so not much is solved. (as if domain names were the real problem anyway ;)
-earl
of course it is all things done in the name of Political Correctness, are acceptable in these benighted times now aren't they
use Signature::Witty;
Well yea sorta, but there is a MAJOR problem with that line of though. Because the word nigger means black quite litterly. So using the term nigger to mean a useless person (even if the person is white, and or useless) is essentially making the equation that black=nigger=useless a=b=c so a=c
which in this case is competly FALSE. but that is what your implying.
So why waste their time on DNs, when the most important thing that can be used to stifle the proliferation of hate is unity, knowledge, and that overabused four letter word called LOVE.
I agree. I also think that Seseme Street needs to stop squatting on all the letter of the alphabet and use that money to accually teach us something. But its not gonna happen. (btw Childrens Telivisions Workshop owns everysingle theletterX.com thats 26 domains $1950.00 dollars that could have been spent else where)
They censored nigger in the topic because "n-word" is a lot more accurate. After all, the story was posted here not because of race relations, but because someone was trying to prevent someone else from saying something unPC.
And censorship on the net, or even attempts to censor, are geek news.
I doubt they censored the word to be more PC, but rather to sarcastically take a jab at the NAACP for their uber-PC tactics.
I should have specified... The scanner would skip over that instance of them. All 'naughty' keywords that are all in a block. The rest of the message would then be scanned like normal.
This is what is done with webpages that are keywording. It used to be that comments, black on black text, etc, would be recorded by the search engines. Now they ignore any text that (as best they can determine) won't get printed and simply catalog the rest.
Admittedly, a terrorist could use echelon keywords as code words, 'nuclear = carbomb' etc, and write a coded message in the Echelon block, but then they could just as easily use 'chocolate = carbomb' and not even be noticed.
I don't think they'd miss anything by screening out obvious keyword blocks.
But, I doubt they actually keyword scan this way. I think they'd narrow their target a bit first instead of examining everything on the net.
Right. And I've been around on the net since the 80s and should know that. Brain fade.
But, I'd doubt that many of the companies out there know it. So if they were squatting I doubt they'd throw up any services.
And that was really my point. If you don't use a domain name, except to point it at another, or display a few messages about how it's for sale, or is being held to deny the use to other, then you shouldn't be able to keep it.
Decent (short) domain names are in fairly short supply. The FCC wouldn't let a company reserve part of the spectrum and then not use it, so why should we let people reserve part of our finite resources and then not make use of them? Especially when it's not like they're in process of gearing up to use those resources, but are holding them just to keep someone else from making use of them. How anti-competetive can you get?
You know, if you mark them as Echelon keywords, and use them all in a row like that, any decent scanner will pass right over them. I mean, they would simply ignore any keywords within a few words of "echelon" after the five-hundredth unrelated post made it to human eyes.
And this string of keywords... it's like people used to do to get noticed by search engines. And now all search engines filter out blatant keywording like that.
To really fool them, post a paragraph or so talking about one of those 'forbidden' topics. Write a text generator that makes correct-sounding paragraphs out of sentence snippets, but randomized their order to prevent them filtering out known junk-text. Then rotate your sig all the time.
Only that way will you actually bug some snoop. Assuming they actually bother to keyword scan internet traffic.
There is a better way.
Rather than having a million different DNS servers with slightly different databases, trying to do that a search engine should be doing, leave it to seach engines.
To fix the domain camping problem, simply remove domain names. Or make a much easier way to find a site.
After all, if you could type "Ford motors" into a browser and get to the ford site, or at worst, have a list of matches, then what does it matter if the URL is ford.com or fordmotorswebsite.com?
By implementing something like a cross between white and yellow pages, but globally, we could remove the primary importance from DNs.
It's unfair that there can only be one books.com, like anyone getting a new account now, if they want bob@isp.com, they'll end up with bob231@isp.com. And this will only get worse. Are our children going to thank us when they get bob2.129e17@isp.com?
Mirabilis handles this properly with ICQ.
You can use any name you like, no matter how many other people use it. What distinguishes you is the unique number you get. You can give your friends this number, or they can look you up by providing your nickname and other details to narrow the list if it's too long.
The same thing should work for domain names. There should be a central repository of listings associated with each company registering on the net. They'd get to specify a few keywords, and their name, and maybe an alternate form or two. Then when you look for IBM you don't type ibm.com, or internat(...).com, you simply type "ibm computers". Or you type "computers" and then narrow the yellow-pages listing down to until you find it, etc.
Then, like phone numbers, the actual string that identifies your location becomes mostly unimportant.
...that "Slashdot" isn't an offensive word to anyone, or we might lose our favourite site :-)
Today if you say to a black he is a nigger you will insult him, not that being black is an insult but because so many people have used the word nigger in a degoratory way that it now is a hate-word. You may find a book or a text in which nigger or another deprecative word is used merely to describe somebody's particularity. Will you say this author is racist? No, because he don't use the word with the deprecation.
The GPL have a lot of power too but this power is given by the society, by the copyright laws, not by the word themselves.
It reminds me of the cartoon afterY2k when Lady Ada Byron is visiting Martha Steward she (Martha) tell Ada that she wants to be a geek. Ada imagine a man eating an alive chicken head but if you are on slashdot today being a geek is quite a "quality" (don't find any word to express myself).
Another example would be the use of the word hacker. During the 60's you were proud to be one but today you have to fight not to be mistaken for a script kiddie because it have been deprecated during the 70's. Depending on the context and the way you call somebody a hacker this can be a compliment or an insult.
I hope you see what I mean.
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
Somehow it always seems weird to see a social service organization working within the capitalist system, but this is a growing trend. Gun buyback and guns-for-shoes programs are another good example of the same thing.
I'd hardly call it cybersquatting, even: the 'business' of the NAACP is to advance afro-american causes, and holding onto (or using for some other purpose) n-word.com indisputably achieves their business objectives, much more effectively (and inexpensively) than petitioning the NSI or lobbying congress or waiting for other people to register the name and then suing them.
I'm just curious - but since these domains are not really being used, can't someone that wanted one of them (and that also had a real use - whether I would consider it a valid use is another matter) use the arbitration policy to get the domain released?
When will people realize that words only have the power that we give them? No word is inherently offensive until someone makes the conscious decision to be offended. Words are a way of communicating, and it's silly to be afraid to use the word "nigger" in your speaking for fear of being declared a racist. The use of euphemisms like "the N-word" only perpetuates the power that the word already has... and what's worse, this fear of words does absolutely nothing to advance the real issue--in this case, fighting racism.
The NAACP's buying up of these domains is a reactionary measure that won't change the prejudice of one single person. It's a waste of that organization's resources: an act "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Honestly, does anyone believe that a bigot's inability to reach a hate-group website will somehow change that bigot's opinion?
(Upon reading my sig, which follows, it would appear that I'm trying to make an additional statement about bigotry or about the NAACP or something. Don't read too much into the sig.)
Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
untaken: www.killwhitey.com
.com addresses.
.edu? Probably all those old VAX honkers. yeeesh.
seriously, although I have no problem with domain-grabbing, the broad availability of addresses in other countries TLDs makes it seems like a losing battle. Then again, the average AOLer may not even know there is anything *but*
onjay
"whap or be whapped"
Who put the . in
I thought a while back Internic said they were going to start allowing people to register domains such as fuck.com and shit.com. Am I mistaken, or did this actually happen?
"n-word".com is more interesting than nigger.com. It makes you think. If rob had posted nigger.com I would have immediately dismissed the story (from lack of interest).
-- Virtual Windows Project
Forgive my ignorance about domain registration, but why can't whatever body controls it just refuse to allow offensive names.
I also thought about that when I read the other comments on what a shame it is (and it indeed is!)that an organization like the NAACP must / does spend money on offensive domain names.
However, if you start thinking about it, it's almost impossible to draw the line. It comes down to your cultural, sociological, religious and whatever other background to define 'offensive'. With a worldwide medium like the Internet you can't keep everyone happy.
On another matter - please note that while everybody who accesses slashdot.org probably has a rudimentary understanding of English (at least 'first post' is part of it ;-)), the vocabulary in use should remain of the kind that can be looked up with a dictionary in case of doubt. Frankly, I had no idea what the N-word could be unless I read the linked article. Babelfish can't help here either! I'm sure in the U.S. everybody knows what the N-word means, but don't take it for granted with all of the gazillion slashdot readers from around the world. It is the same with the abbreviation NAACP, but from the introductory text it became at least clear that it is a group that fights against racial hatred and the linked article explained it in detail. So, please remember us readers from abroad when you post any kind of abbreviations or slang language!
Interesting that this comes out 2 days after the NAACP's website got hack ed.
Maybe they should be spending that money on someone who knows how to make their NT server secure first before someone starts broadcasting "hate speech" through their own domain.
Pork is not a verb
er,
s/g\*sh will d\*rn/g\*sh d\*rn/;
:)
Anthony
"I think any time you expose vulnerabilities it's a good thing." -Attorney General Janet Reno
Golly, what could the "n-word" be?
/. Words have no more power than you give them and can not be evaluated out of context. The notion that in and of themselves words can be "good" or "bad" is entirely a creation of your own imagination.
It makes me sad to see my beloved Slashdot censoring itself so childishly and pointlessly. Certainly, I would not advocate the use of the word nigger in a derogatory context, but the notion that replacing the word nigger with "n-word" will either save you from being offensive or confuse me as to what "n-word" means is simply ridiculous.
F*ck: I wonder what that says. Fpck? Ftck? Golly, it's sure a good thing it doesn't say Fuck because *that* would be a"bad word". Sh*t.
I was under the impression that we were a bright bunch here at
Nigger is not a "bad word." Hate to burst your bubble, there's no such thing as a "bad word." If you were to call someone a nigger, then you would be a racist and ignorant piece of sh*t, but the word by itself is just the letters n-i-g-g-e-r in order. The sound of someone saying it is just a vibration in the air. Which waveforms are "wrong" again?
In Context (like, say, a headline) even "bad" words can be fine, or maybe even useful. This is why National Geographic can publish pictures of topless tribal women (and oh how the sight of nipples will scar the children anyway).
"\"N-Word\"" != "nigger"
The NAACP does not own "n-word".com, hell, " isn't even a valid character for a domain name. The NAACP does, however, own nigger.com, and if you can't just come out and say that, then may almighty g*sh will d*rn you all to h*ck.
Anthony
"I think any time you expose vulnerabilities it's a good thing." -Attorney General Janet Reno
So nerd.com is owned by the NAACP? Wow -- I just thought it was owned by some lame squatter.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
look at the string of postings it spawned. evidently thought provoking, wouldn't you say?
dirk
I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.
Heh. :-)
Have you seen Warren Beatty's movie Bulworth?
His suggestion: "We all gotta keep fuckin' each other until we're the same color."
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
And I went to www.rawmen.com looking for noodle recipies...
I can't believe that slashdot can't manage to have a rational disscusion about race. It's nearly a new millenium and the people I like to think of as the best and brightest couldn't raise the level of discussion above "Some of my best friends are black people" and "You can be a nigger without being black".
I really couldn't care less who owns nigger.com. I hope the naacp does something funny with it, makes like a redneck parady site or something.
What concerns me is that people in here vascilate between acting too horrified and shocked at the word nigger that they have to censor it, or you have that charming guy with the "damn spooks" thread that kept getting moderated up and down and his people. Is it impossible to find a sane middle ground?
One thing i'll agree with the above mentioned post on is the revision of history, in some wierd effort to atone for the past historians have painted the civil war and reconstruction into this grand strugle for human rights with lincoln it's saintly leader. The truth is alot more complicated and it's not easy to research, read the full text of lincoln's speechs for a start on him.
What I won't agree with are these blanket indictments against racial groups. It's not my fault if someone gets tied to a bumper and gets dragged to death, it's not everyone the same color as the guy who mugged you's fault when that happens.
Can't we all just get along? I have a bridge where i used to have teeth because nazi's tried to recruit from the local punks and we banded up and told them to leave town. We all had to travel in packs for a summer. At the end their house burned down, and they decided it wasn't real safe to stay. I'm still an active member of the anti-racist action committee. Nazi's and the kkk aren't stopped because the naacp bought nigger.com, they're stopped by people with baseball bats, guns, and knives.
I think I first noticed that about 3 years ago, during a discussion about various possibly-offensive domain names I was having with someone. We did several whois queries and saw that the NAACP had done it, as well as other groups like the Anti-Defamation League.
No doubt in my mind. Whether it's right, wrong, sad or whatever, it was a good idea. They could have just stood on the sidelines, like many other people were doing three years ago, and then hooped and hollared that somebody out there had an offensive site. Instead, they were proactive and grabbed it themselves. I'm no fan of the NAACP, but that was a good idea.
RP
So what happens when they record email addresses from logs? Most people don't have any kind of proxy setup and thus it'll show that joeloser@imracist.net visited the site. Do they then donate this information to the police( there's nothing stopping you from giving the police your logs if wou want to )? If a crime is committed do the police start going through the list to interrogate people even if it was a typo( I meant to go to bigger.com )?
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
This did not suprise me at all. True, this is a form of censorship, but, at what cost? You have to wonder (Specifcly regarding the www.n-word.com prospect ) if they have blocked a genuine site. Beacuse, let's face it, "the N-Word" is accepted (sort-of. Not encouraged.) in the african-american culture. I'm not saying they are wrong in buying this address, so long as it redirects the user to their site.
But what if I were to buy, say, www.nazi.com to do a site to teach people about the Horror of World War II? Am I, by mearly owning a a domain name of that sort a nazi? IMHO I don't have an honest opinion, I'm torn. This is a matter not to be taken lightly because the implictions are that if you find some word offensive you could buy the domiain name to blocl the use of said name. Do you think the Catholic church will buy ww.satan.com or www.wicca.com? And is that right? I can't say, but I imagine someone will . . . and soon. The world gov'ts are begining to fully realize the power of the Web and are bound to start regulating it. But what can we do?
"When I look down I miss all the good stuff, When I look up I trip over things..."-Ani DiFranco
Probably you would refer to American women as, well, "American women". And if you want to refer specifically to "white" people you might say "Caucasion American".
There are plenty of good reasons to have a name for a group besides "crappy categorization".
-
Read it again. Real slow.
You'll get it. Eventually.
The NAACP has just as much right to buy domain names as anyone else. If George W. Bush can buy bushsucks.com, then why can't the NAACP buy racist domains? They aren't squatting if the domains are redirected to the NAACP site. This is perfectly valid. The Internet is not public property, domain names belong to whomever wants to pay for them, and the KKK, or anyone else, has no inalienable right to own .com.
"Forgive my ignorance about domain registration, but why can't whatever body controls it just refuse to allow offensive names. Another post said they initially reserved names with offensive words. "
Who gets to make the decision? What grounds do they make it on?
Refusing "offensive" words is one thing - there are some guidelines as to which are acceptable and which aren't. They can use the famous "seven dirty words" for example.
But it gets way too fuzzy when they start going for more. Where's the line? What's offensive? Is "wiccaissatanic.com" offensive? To some, yes. To others, no. If you start picking and choosing, you soon end up in the middle no matter which way you go. It's safer to just allow practically everything.
---
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
>Is "wiccaissatanic.com" offensive?
Some may find it offensive, mostly practising Wiccans!! Wicca isn't Satanism.
My point exactly. Wiccans would find it offensive. I personally would find a web site like that offensive, and I'm not even Wiccan. (Just like I think www.godhatesfags.com to be utterly offensive, repulsive, and revolting) But would the people responsible for deciding what is offensive and what isn't? There's a good chance that none of them would be Wiccan, and that they wouldn't see a reason to prevent it.
---
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
I believe that was register.com
Cheers,
Rick Kirkland
>Is "wiccaissatanic.com" offensive?
Some may find it offensive, mostly practising Wiccans!! Wicca isn't Satanism. And in response to the earlier comment about Satanists registering anti-christian domain names, they wouldn't do that, they're too busy working in cubicles and living a lifestyle which they are comfortable with to worry about pettybullshit like who has what domain names.
Gnothe se Auton
Well, I never thought I'd get THIS reaction! I'll admit I didn't have the time or patience to read through all the replies. Slashdot is so big that there is just too much info to evaluate; that is, unless you have too much time on your hands. By the way, to reply to Kintanon, I have many friends of VERY dissimilar races. My church is predominantly black, with many of the youth and parents of Jamaican heritage. I have friends who are Koreans, Hispanics, Caucasians, Blacks and we all get along fine. As for the word "nigger" (and though many refer to it as the n-word, i'm gonna keep it real), it is a word I find offensive whether it is used by a Black individual or a non-Black. Based on just the demeaning impression it was crafted in, I won't use it. Sometimes, I believe my upbringing in Jamaica, where Blacks are the majority and not the minority, empowered me with the feeling that I am not lower than any White man. If I am lower than anyone it should be based on my character. That's all I have to say. Dont reply; we don't want to create a slashdot effect, okay? :)
As a young black male, living in the US, to be called a "nigger" by anyone is an affront to me as a human being. I look at the NAACP, and I can see the good the hope to achieve from their actions, but as a believer in the liberty of man's conscience to choose, I am quite disturbed by their purchasing of domain names which they believe promote hate groups.
Unfortunately, this doesn't seem quite all right. I am not saying that we should all run around killing those who don't adhere to the God or gods we worship, who don't listen to the music we listen, or don't have the skin that we have, but the problem of hate cannot be stopped by buying domain names. I'm sure the NAACP knows that. So why waste their time on DNs, when the most important thing that can be used to stifle the proliferation of hate is unity, knowledge, and that overabused four letter word called LOVE. Not only love, but Brotherly Love. I hope one day, each individual will be able to completely say that they have no prejudice, no disdain, no hate for their fellow man. I'm not saying that we must agree with all things. I don't agree with racism or homosexuality religion, but I still love those who espouse ethnic racism (hopefully, they'll see that hate consumes) and my friends that are gay or bisexual.
That's all I have to say. IT might not have been the most insightful piece I've written, but out of my jumbled, hodge-podge heart, these are the feelings that are coming through
-"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him" - Luke 17:3
This (IM...HO) was a stupid thing to do. Whenever you have an organisation that you want to keep an eye on, you want to create an atmosphere that is conducive to monitoring;
in this case, it would be better to have racists and biggots rally around www.nigger.com than some less obvious name, if only because that way, they are easier to monitor.
European governments have figured this out, at least as it applies to drugs. Pot is tolerated, so the masses congregate around that as the major recreational drug, which makes the goverments job much easier. In countries run by idiots and self-righteous fanatics, where all drugs are equally illegal, there is no such rallying effect, so the government's self-appointed war is that much harder to wage.
which reminds me. I need to go buy "the prince"
sad to say, but most would not have even noticed.
-heather
Whatever happened to the first amendment? I think that the use of the word "nigger" is offensive, crude, ignorant, etc., the list goes on. However, just because I find something offensive doesn't mean I -- or anyone -- has the right to inhibit their ability to express their beliefs. Yes, I think it's terrible that somebody would want to register a domain for a hate group. But they have every right to. If we allow them to be censored, whether by the government, the NAACP, your neighbor, whomever, then we begin giving our own freedoms away.
I will leave you with this quote:
In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists but I didn't speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time nobody was left to speak up. --Niemoeller, Martin
Forgive my ignorance about domain registration, but why can't whatever body controls it just refuse to allow offensive names. Another post said they initially reserved names with offensive words.
If I try to register "www.kill-jews.com", isn't there someone who can say, "No, you can't have that name?"
Or are there just too many registration requests to examine them all.
Finally, I almost wouldn't mind if they have their own doman names. I mean, racism, sexism are awful, but I don't plan on surfing to www.kkk.com, and if they are refused offensive names, what is to stop them from registering, say, "www.linuxrocks.com" and posting hate content? At least there is less chance I'll accidently hit their crap.
-Dana
Anybody like to explain why that post merited a four?
"Don't touch the bunny!"
It is interesting how closely this action mirrors one of the fundamental libertarian models of social adjustment; if you want someone to stop doing something, you make it harder for them to do it through peaceful manipulation of civil property. For instance, most (L)ibertarians believe that national forests are exceedingly wasteful; if you want to prevent lumber companies from chopping down yellowstone forest, the best way to do it is to form a large civil organization like the Sierra Club and buy it, placing a restriction on use of that land for lumber.
I am actually quite surprised to see this approach in action, applied liberally to the internet. Especially coming from an organization like the NAACP, for although I admire their resolve to support individual freedom and equality, it seems that most of the time their approach to this lies in spending huge amounts of money lobbying congress and organizing protests in the attempt to pass new laws restricting freedoms.
For those of you who think this is censorship, think again. Censorship requires an act of force. The only force being wielded here is the power vested in the DNS supplier to assign and store domain names. If you oppose this action on the part of the NAACP, your recourse is to fight this escheatment, not to challenge the right of the NAACP to own property. In a free market, which for the most part the internet still is, if you want to own www.kkk.org you have to pay for it. If you can't afford the price your opponent is asking, $100 buys you www.k-k-k.com or something similar, and you can still say whatever you want.
Still, I think this is a futile gesture on the part of the NAACP. People looking for lists of "Approved songs for white folks" will probably use google and find just what they are looking for. Sigh. Well, at worst it is a moral coup, forcing Young Urban Racists to look a little harder for their hate fix; at best it is a victory for all rational people who hate hatred. I'll go ahead and give the NAACP a gold star for effort...
Scudder
... and there is no doubt, that one day he will be
where the eye of his telescope has already been
Of all the places on the net, the semi-progressive
I won't even begin to discuss the double standard of who is allowed to say nigger which is in its own way racist and hypocritical.
I know everyone is going to take this WAY to seriously but . . .
The faggots at faggot.org use MS FrontPage!
Faggots use front page! Haaa.
Okay, I'm better now. Please note that I love everyone, I just find this funny.
Please note further, I mean brotherly love, not carnal love.
I think we need to be very careful about such "censorship" tactics. While the goal of the NAACP et al. is an admirable one, the ends do not necessarily justify the means.
I am speaking not of plainly derrogatory terms, but of questionable ones. The sort of term which means different things depending on where you are. Or terms which may even be spelt the same in different languages but have very different meanings. Should we be banning words on that basis?
Probably a bad example (and not totally related to the above paragraph) but I consider the term "womyn" to be quite offensive. (Don't argue with me about the why's, I am only trying to make a point. And for the wise-asses, I haven't checked to see if it is registered.) Other people don't. Should this term then be banned? Would anybody complain if I registered that domain name so no one else could? It's questionable, but the current movement in society to remove even slightly non-politically correct terms from general use is rather prevalent.
We must be very careful about this sort of censorship. And besides, the people who use the plainly derrogatory terms have proven themselves time and again to be "rebels without a clue." We should just ignore them, or better yet, ridicule their ignorant antics.
some karma... and kinda lukewarm about it.
The USA domains end in .us
Seems most USA registrants were given international domains at the expense of the rest of the world. So much for a global internet...?
p.s. The internet was created by USA? I don't think so. Each country created it's own networks. Only when they joined was the i'net created.
USA gets credit for the protocols though AFAIK.
Where would you draw the line? Would teaching communist values during the USA anti-communist era be child abuse? Many organisations which support the deporting of ethnics (etc..) claim not to be racist. How racist is too racist. Who decides. Thought police?
We don't need laws for this, we need information and discussion. Those girls are getting a poor start in life by our standards. We should try to help them, not lock up their parents.
If you think about it, one of the main points of the PC movement has been to reclaim words and use them as powerful words in the positive sense. You have gays reclaiming "gay", "queer", and "homo", and the same could be said of "nigger", "chink", etc. The NAACP is doing something remarkable here by reclaiming these words on the internet, and if they're smart, they should post informational resources and use these sites as educational tools for the history of the struggle, where the word came from, and misconceptions. I think that would be a great usage of these URL's by the NAACP.
Well, as much as I disagree with the groups that are being kept from obtaining the domain names, I have to say that I thoroughly disagree with the current practice of buying domain names that are anti-[insert whatever group is buy the name here]. It's as if organizations are trying to stifle any word that does not agree with the organzation. As wrong as the words may be, it still shouldn't stop them from being said. Well, I should say shouldn't stop them from being "heard." You can still "say" them, but the inability to obtain the dissident DNS entry makes it difficult for anyone to find. To put this on a mild, hypothetical scale, what if say, the GOP bought the domain name of democrats.org, or something similar? I know this can't happen because the domains are already in existance, and "democrat" is different from "republicanssuck" or something like that, but to me, this oversimplification shows the principle behind the current trend of buying the domain names that are anti-"whatever organization." In essence, this is one group sticking a sock in the mouth of another group. Despite whatever group I agree with, I cannot agree with said group silencing its opposition.
Slashdotters are making up for the lack of real commentary in traditional media, so better believe they won't be getting along. Unless you want us all turning into thin-skinned easily annoyed Microsoft guinea pigs. That said I think it's been dicussed quite well, including the Black Futurist article earlier. As for nasty words. HA! I am a white european immigrant and have managed to get myself called a "nigger". By a nigger of course. About the oddest thing I remember from High School.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
What gets me is that I'll overhear a couple of black people call themselves nigger (e.g "What's up nigger?") yet if I was to call them that I would be racist? What is this world coming to? I bet if I made a tv network called White Entertainment Television (WET) to compete with the cable channel BET (Black Entertainment Television) I would get bitch slapped so hard with lawsuits that I would not even know what hit me.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I've always contended that it would be stupid to outlaw flag-burning for the same reasons.
/[a-z0-9\-]{1,32}/i) That's 4.9e+55 second-level domain names. That doesn't count all the "f*ck.y*r.m*th*r.to" Tonganese and other offshore or forged DNS entries, or all the other creative "we.love.com/mitting-murder/" URLs you could devise.
If you outlaw flag-burning, those who wish to lawfully disrespect government (uh, oxymoron?) would switch to bald-eagle-effigy burning. Then US-map burning. Then any number of other "national symbols."
Whites flaunting the word 'nigger' is a SYMBOL for racial divide. It's not the racial divide itself. The US flag is a SYMBOL of our freedoms that we love and want to uphold. It's not the freedoms themselves.
A domain name element can have, what, 32 characters from a set of at least 37 epsilon? (Geek:
Domain names. Eat all you want, we'll make more. Buy them for love. Buy them for hate. It doesn't really make a difference.
[
I think Bill Cosby bought the rights to the "Dukes of hazard" tv series because he found the show to be racist. When I think about it I can see his point of view. it doesn't contain any minority charaters, and the "general lee" car they drive has a big dixie flag on it. I haven't seen the show for a long time now, and don't know if it plays anywhere? I guess when you have the kind of money to purchase the rights of television media, and/or domain names you can sort of make a diference in an indirect way. Isn't capatalism great!! -Diz
It isn't a lie if you belive it.
However, I live in Mississippi. I have seen this close up in an area where the tension is remarkably high (although maybe not so bad as washington, D.C...:). Exposure of the majority of the public to these ideas tends to give them an "outlet" for their hatred - "it's been said by somebody else, so I can use these observations to justify my hate". They miss the point (relevant link...:) It's not that. At all. :)
The key is compassion. I can point at some numbers and say that those damned niggers don't do nothin' for nobody. Or I can point at it and just take it in.
Because, unfortunately, I don't think there's much on the issue I can accomplish for the positive as Captain White Male (tm). The atmosphere's just too hostile. Most I think I can do is judge people on a per-person basis... like it should be.
Anybody have suggestions on what a well meaning White Male can do to reduce racial tension? :)
I mean, what makes any word a "bad word"? It obviously isn't the defintion of the word. "Fuck" can be replaced by the (almost) universally-acceptable "screw". "Shit" means the same as "crap", but one is censored and the other is only shrugged off. Such synonyms can be used interchangeably, but are never considered to be quite as harsh or distasteful.
It obviously isn't the pronunciation of the word. Every language has their own set of profanity. What effect do they have on people of another nationality? None at all.
So why are they bad words? Because people want them to be.
The only way a word itself can bother you is if you let it. The more you let it, the more it will be used to accomplish that task. Our society perpetuates the idea that these words are inherently bad, and that is the only reason they still are.
"Prejudice is wrong; you should hate everyone the same."
Now I'm not disputing that the NAACP means well by registering these names - racial hatred is a bad thing after all, no matter how you look at it. But just going out and buying up a bunch of offensive domain names certainly won't fix the problem. It's a weak attempt at curing a much deeper problem -- why the racism exists in the first place. I commend their efforts, however I believe that unless they change the mindset of those that create the hate they will ultimately fail.
Whether you believe that registering badword.com will actually help, but IMO it's a waste of time.
How many possible permutations are there ? It'd be impossible to get them all.
What about badword.foo.com ? Assuming some "nasty group of people" got themselves a respectable top-level domain name, they could have whatever subdomains they wanted.
The problem is not domain names. It's not words. It's people.
Steve
So there we are, and I start rapping along to the CD. I say That Word a time or two (rapping along, mind you, exactly what Busta is saying), and my friend tells me that it is offending him because I am white.
It's okay when Busta says it, but not when I say it?!
As Busta would say, "what the dilly, yo?" ;o)
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If we're not supposed to eat cows, why are they made out of steak?
I don't have a lot of opinions about the NAACP squatting Nigger.Com, but the Wired story is factually inaccurate in that it gives the impression that the NAACP thought fast and registered that domain name before any hate group could get to it. In fact another party originally tried to register Nigger.Com back in 1996 or 1997 and Network Solutions told that they wouldn't allow them to register the domain. Then a few weeks later Network Solutions turned around and agreed to sell Nigger.Com to the NAACP. The quote from the ACLU lawyer that it was first come first serve for these controversial domains is complete nonsense.
National Association for the Advancement of African American People? Just doesn't have the same ring to it. Or by colored do they mean all non-white people. In that case I guess it would be the NAANWP. Still doesn't work for me.