My thoughts: this was not an accident. This was testing the waters.

I wonder what the person who absolutely insisted to me yesterday that this wasn’t about black people in general would have to say about this…

  • peopleproblems
    link
    fedilink
    1398 months ago

    If it’s in your regular enough vocabulary to “come out accidentally” you are a racist.

    You also can’t ‘unsay’ a racial slur as much as my ex can’t ‘unfuck’ someone.

    What’s also neat is that it also shows one’s intelligence. If you give him a pass “oh he said he was sorry” you’re a racist AND dumb.

    • @tabarnaski@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      238 months ago

      (…) you’re a racist AND dumb.

      To a large extent you’re racist because you’re dumb.

      For the last few months they’ve traded their dog whistles for blow horns. More and more hatred is being normalized.

    • FundMECFS
      link
      fedilink
      4
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Important caveat. It’s become a common word in some varieties of black-american english and black people aren’t racist for using it.

      • peopleproblems
        link
        fedilink
        188 months ago

        Not really, because he wasn’t a Black guy talking to Black people. He knew what he did.

        It’s a racial slur. That’s it. Don’t use it, don’t think it, don’t think you can say it with your Black friends.

        • FundMECFS
          link
          fedilink
          1
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Obviously it’s fucked up how it was used in the above article.

          And obviously if you’re not black you should never use it. But you’re assuming I’m not black with your comment.

            • FundMECFS
              link
              fedilink
              18 months ago

              They you could have ignored my comment as it was not intended towards you

              • @Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                88 months ago

                Who was it intended toward?

                Someone that hasn’t watched TV since the 1980’s? ChatGPT, for when someone invariably turns it loose on the fediverse?

                It’s not niche as a concept. Your explanation is known worldwide.
                Its inclusion in the discourse is unwarranted.

                Next time you feel the need to add a disclaimer that justifies/explains/adds caveats to racist language: fucking don’t.

      • @USSMojave@startrek.website
        link
        fedilink
        English
        138 months ago

        There’s a reason a distinction is made between how black people use it and when the “hard r” is in the pronunciation

        • @PlantJam@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          108 months ago

          The video also looks like he’s making an M sound (closed lips) than an N sound (open lips). Grammatically, I also don’t think including “Haitian” makes sense if the next word is a slur.

          I’m all for calling out the actual content on the conversation as the absolute nonsense that it is, but this specific headline seems like a bit of a reach.

  • FundMECFS
    link
    fedilink
    378 months ago

    “Guys the party switch is a myth we’re the party that abolished slavery”

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      98 months ago

      Even during the Reconstruction Era, Indiana was both staunchly Republican and full of the KKK. And there was no shortage of racism irrespective of party in Congress during the height of the Civil War. The myth is that the Radical Republicans of the 1860s and 70s represented the party population as a whole, rather than a vocal minority within an ascendant movement that managed to squeeze in a few good reforms before Hayes sold it all down the river.

      Republicans barely abolished slavery even with half the country in Time-Out. And they were crucified for it in elections to come.

    • @Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      28 months ago

      Yeah, sometimes there’s something else outside could have been saying but not here.

      Here it’s clear as day. And the host says nothing at all, which says a ton about her.

  • @MeaanBeaan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    338 months ago

    Even if this was just an “innocent” slip up it’s not like what he said wouldn’t have been racist otherwise. The dude is defending the false claims about Haitian immigrants. It’s still racist.

  • Rentlar
    link
    fedilink
    298 months ago

    Haitian mig-r? Lol. Clearly the man is too used to saying the N word off public broadcast.

  • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    228 months ago

    My thoughts: this was not an accident. This was testing the waters.

    The staff at the National Review have always been neo-confederate trash and I have no trouble believing Lowry simply uses this word on such a routine basis that it slipped out during an interview with another arch-conservative media figure.

    These folks are racists and it shouldn’t be seen as surprising when they show all the symptoms of a bigoted mind.

  • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    158 months ago

    Gonna invoke the hivemind rage and say that, upon listening w headphones, it does kinda sound like he’s saying “migr -” with a short “i” sound.

    Now queue the downvotes, calling me racist, dumb, etc.

    • Flying SquidOP
      link
      fedilink
      238 months ago

      Yes, I often say “mihgr-” instead of “migrants” and then cut myself off. Plausible.

      • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        78 months ago

        I think you’re hearing what you want to hear and getting a hit of the righteous outrage. Misspeaking is a thing, dude. You say “plausible” sarcastically, as if it weren’t actually 100% plausible lol

    • @SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      78 months ago

      Sometimes I hear an m, sometimes an n. Not gonna shit on you. BUT he doesn’t say migr- as if he’s going to say migrants with the short I like he claims he did, he says -IGGER. You have to simultaneously fuck up two different ways to say it that way. It would be mig-rants, not migger-ants.

      • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        2
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Sure. I’d still say that he just fumbled his words, as people do everyday. Importantly, it’s incredibly stupid to hyper focus on someone possibly saying a naughty word when the whole Haitian migrants story is full of real, undeniable, tangible racism. Missing the forest for the trees.

      • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        28 months ago

        Lol ok buddy. Everyone closes their lips when they pronounce an “m”, right? CLEAR AS DAY. keep fighting the good fight, hive mind

          • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            28 months ago

            Did you …watch the video? His lips move together at the consonant in question. Lol but sure, you’re not just hearing what you want to hear.

              • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                2
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                Honestly I think it’s incredibly pathetic that you’re so dug in on this stranger saying a naughty word that you won’t even look at it objectively. In response to my detailed, objective breakdown, your only rebuttal was “gaslighter”. K. The embedded video player in the link above has a playback speed option, feel free to use it to slow the video down and see the truth of his mouth shape. Compare it to the “n” shape he uses when he says “in” several times. Or keep sticking your head in the sand and yelling “NUH UH GASLIGHTER”, idc. I think we’re clearly done here.

                Edit:.honestly the slowed playback pretty much proves it’s an “m” in both sound and mouth shape.

                • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  3
                  edit-2
                  8 months ago

                  I have looked at it. Multiple times. His mouth does do the m thing. After he says the N word. That’s how you can tell it’s different.

                  Your detailed breakdown is just a bunch of bullshit designed to make people doubt themselves. Which is gaslighting. It’s the exact definition of gaslighting.

          • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            18 months ago

            Wow you really got me there. Lol the comment is at a positive ratio. The people downvoting me are the willfully ignorant, such as yourself, who would ignore any and all evidence contrary to your notion that a practiced media presence said the n-word live in front of cameras, lol, super smart deduction there buddy. Also ignore the sentence structure and how much more sense “migrant” makes following the word “Haitian”, ignore that he was actually defending the Haitian migrants in his comments, ignore how the consonant sounds slightly more like an “m” than an “n”, and ignore that his lips move together when making the “m” sound, which wouldn’t happen with an “n”. Did I miss anything?

                • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  2
                  edit-2
                  8 months ago

                  Cognitive dissonance is the feeling when your actions don’t line up with what you’re thinking. Is that how you meant to use that? or were you just looking for impressive words to make me doubt myself or feel confusion?

    • @Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      58 months ago

      Your headphones suck because he definitely lead with the “n” and not the “m”. I know the difference in sound between n and m and it was an n. In fact around the 0:35 mark he said, “complaining about Haitian nigge-mngr-migrants”. I don’t know how to spell him correcting himself.

      • @Organichedgehog@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        4
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Nah man, you’re hearing what you want to hear. Just look at his lips - they come together as they would with an “m” sound. The exact same way they come together shortly thereafter to say “migrants” properly.

        Compare his mouth movement to when he says “in”, his lips do not move together.

        Or keep hearing what you want to hear, I don’t care. Nothing I say will change your mind.

    • @ripcord@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      38 months ago

      No. I assumed it was actually something like thag. Then listened to it a bunch of times. I don’t find that plausible at all.

    • @catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      28 months ago

      Yeah, I’m not 100% convinced either. It doesn’t sound like he used the n-word, nor that he caught himself halfway through saying it. People screw up speaking all the time, and on rare occasions it can sound like something offensive.

  • @UmeU@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    138 months ago

    Really sounds like it starts with an N and not an M so I don’t buy the mispronunciation story.

    Also there is the fact that neither immigrants nor migrants ends in ‘gger’

    He prolly had a bet with a friend that he would slip in an N word.

    • @WoahWoah@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      5
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      It seems seems dubious to me too. But the ‘gr’ in migrants would sound roughly the same as ‘gger.’ The problem is… well. He seems to start it with an ‘n’ and then also mis-inflects the ‘i’?

      It would be like trying to say ‘clickable’ and instead saying ‘slacker.’

      Mad sus.

      • @wjrii@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        158 months ago

        I was all but bending over backwards trying to hear how it might have been just a slip, bringing to bear the fact that both words have a nasal consonant and hard ‘g’ sounds, but… nope. He enunciates an ‘n’ again, clearly after he’s done saying “Haitian” and therefore where it doesn’t belong, and then he gets all the way to the hard ‘-er’, a “murmur diphthong” that simply doesn’t exist in ‘immigrant’ or ‘migrant’. The most charitable explanation with any plausibility whatsoever is that the n-word is a part of his spoken vocabulary and he failed to censor himself quickly enough.

        Fuckin’ gross.

      • Encephalotrocity
        link
        fedilink
        English
        98 months ago

        Yeah I have Threads in my uBlock filters. Watched the clip and, yeah, that’s a hard N if I’ve ever heard one.

      • Encephalotrocity
        link
        fedilink
        English
        2
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Having it clearly explained to you but still not letting it go. Clearly the example Lemmy mods should be aspiring to.

        Edit: The point is that a resurrected MLK jr. could have said the same thing Trump said about Kamala and still had it refuted. Racism is besides the point and requires a whole bunch of supporting evidence regarding past statements, policies, and associations for any undecideds that haven’t already made up their mind.

        • Flying SquidOP
          link
          fedilink
          118 months ago

          So was this man racist when he said the N-word or is your whole principle of charity thing demanding (your word last time) that we give the best possible interpretation here and say it was all an accident and he never meant to be racist?

          • Encephalotrocity
            link
            fedilink
            English
            48 months ago

            Declaring it an accident actually makes the argument ‘dude is racist’ stronger. If the N-word is used so often in your speech you utter it on camera by accident… yeah, that’s racist. I cannot see a charitable version implying the argument ‘dude is not racist for uttering the N-word, accidentally or not’, but I would entertain attempts in the interest of rational argumentation.

            • Flying SquidOP
              link
              fedilink
              98 months ago

              As the article says, his claim was that he “began to mispronounce the word ‘migrants’ and caught myself halfway through.”

              Based on your whole ‘principle of charity’ idea, isn’t it your duty to believe him?

              • Encephalotrocity
                link
                fedilink
                English
                28 months ago

                Based on your whole ‘principle of charity’ idea, isn’t it your duty to believe him?

                No. The duty is to argue against the best version of his argument. For example: “Uttering the N-word in a racist manner is evidence I am a racist, I didn’t say the N-word, so this is not evidence I am a racist” fairly (side note: this may not be the best version of the argument so if someone concocts a better one I would attack that instead).

                In this example I would (and already did elsewhere) say “I listened to the tape and heard a hard-N so the premise ‘I didn’t say the N-word’ is false” so the rest of the argument collapses and the argument concludes “he said the N-word, so this IS evidence he is racist”.

                • Flying SquidOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  108 months ago

                  Ah, I see, the “principle of charity” includes “I know when to be charitable and it’s when I feel like it.”

                  Interesting how you didn’t argue against the “best version” of “she became black.”