Re: External links (Was Re: [tied] Re: oldest places- and watername

--- On Mon, 11/17/08, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

> From: george knysh <gknysh@...>
> Subject: Re: External links (Was Re: [tied] Re: oldest places- and watername in Scandinavia)
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 10:57 AM
> --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Arnaud Fournet <fournet.arnaud@
> wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>
>
> > >
> > > Aryan, as a term, preceded Nazism's noxious
> use of
> > the term. Hamitic is
> > > based on a racist concept --a group cursed by
> God. It
> > also presuuposes a
> > > dichotomoy between Semitic and the rest of the
> family
> > which is not there.
> > > It is an untenable term --like called Romance
> > "Latino-Grenouille" ,
> > >
> > ============
> >
> > No, it's not untenable.
> > This word was never intended as offensive.
> > This word does not have any racist content in French.
> >
> > A.
>
> It has offensive overtones in English, the language of this
> list.
>
> ****GK: Not to me it hasn't. But this is an interesting
> issue. I've always wondered how the various components
> of "political correctness" get started. Could it
> be as simple as this? Somebody somewhere puts forth his or
> her little idea with emphatic certainty. Others yield
> ("Gee I didn't realize...") and another item
> is added to the new decalogue... In my old Webster's of
> 1949 there is not a hint of "Hamitic" being
> objectionable. (p. 373: HAMITIC: "Of or pertaining to
> the Hamites, or the family of languages (HAMITIC languages)
> including ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and various modern
> languages. See LANGUAGE,Table. ----n. Any of the Hamitic
> languages." Any idea as to when and where (after 1949)
> "Hamitic" acquired "offensive overtones"
> and which authority sanctioned this?****

Hamitic refers to Ham, the son of Noah who was cursed. African-American were often referred to by racists as "Children of Ham", especially in the Bible Belt -a term which has become more marginalized in recent years. But the idea of referring to a group by an accursed individual is not a smart thing in any case