Black trio barred from Coachella because of racist name

We don't normally do "entertainment news" because that's an oxymoron, isn't it. However, the lickspittle media have buried reports of a controversy at the Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival, so it's up to us to bring it to the attention of those concerned that not enough has been done to ensure that the popular festival is fully DEI.

We have it on good authority that the three girl singers of the Black persuasion were kept off the stage because of the name they chose for themselves. We're told that when they were discussing what to call themselves, the conversation went something like this:

Velveeta: How about "the Pointer Sisters"?

Vizine: That name's already taken!

Vakeesha: What about "Andrews Sisters"?

Vizine: There's already "Andrews Sisters", and dey's white!

Velveeta: You so smart, you come up wid something!

Vizine: I got it! "The Three Niggers!"

Vakeesha: What's the matter wid you? That's racist! Why you want us to use a name like dat?

Vizine: Hey, dat's what they's gonna call us anyway!

"Gypsy moth" to get new, politically correct name

Wendy Mesley retired a few days ago. [Who she? Ed.] Glad you asked. At one time Ms Mesley was a star in the News and Public Affairs section of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration, the state-owned broadcaster of Canuckistan. 

When the Corpse chose a new anchor to replace the venerable Peter Mansbridge on the National newcast, she was passed over in favour of Liberal arse-licker Rosie O'Donnell. [Ed. Please check that. Might have been another Rosie.]

Ms Mesley was banished to the Siberia of Sunday morning TV, where she hosted The Weakly, a talk show about media, politics, and technology, until last June, when the show and Wendy got cancelled. Why? Because, in a staff meeting which included a couple of vizmins, she dared to utter the N-word. 

She was not referring to POC (Persons of Colour), but to White Niggers of America, the title of the English translation of Nègres blancs d'Amérique, a 1968 book by pseudo-Marxist Québécois journalist Pierre Vallières, who was banging the drum for the separation of la Belle Province from the rest of Canada.

Context doesn't matter to the PC police at the CBC. Wendy Mesley said the N-word out loud. Nya-nya-na-na-na. So she was seen and heard no more.

In our "woke" society, the N-word is, apparently, the very worst word one can utter, a "racial slur" (as it's referred to now), even more shocking and offensive than George Carlin's "Seven words you can't say on TV", which nowadays are heard on TV all the time.

But there is another "racial slur" which is almost as bad, one that you will never hear on the CBC or NPR, or read in the Times or Wapo. It refers to a tribe of people, mostly from central Europe, who have been discriminated against -- not without reason -- for centuries, in both Euroope and North America. The PC word for those people is "Roma".

[Roma? Who they? Ed.] Glad you asked. They used to be called Gypsies. The singular is Gypsy. I can remember my mother warning me that if I wasn't careful about talking to strangers and wandering too far from home, the Gypsies would steal me. (At other times she said I wasn't her child, that Gypsies had left me on her doorstep!)

So... the second-worst racial slur  you can use nowadays is the G-word. Which brings us [at last! Ed.] to the subject of today's headline: Lymantria dispar (or L. dispar), heretofore known as the gypsy moth.

It is not the gypsy moths, actually, but their larvae -- caterpillars -- which are causing incredible damage to trees and other greenery in areas around the Great Lakes, as reported by Agent 2 who says the buggers aren't just harmful but icky.

Indeed, the gypsy moth and the lesser-known gypsy ants have bad names for their destructive eating habits. But the experts at the Entomological Society of America, which oversees the common names of bugs, thinks they don't deserve a common name which is also an "ethnic slur...that's been rejected by the Romani people a long time ago." So says society president Michelle S. Smith, adding that "nobody wants to be associated with a harmful invasive pest." 

The society seems to have time and resources to spare, so is taking a hard look at some 2000 common insect names to remove those which are now deemed geographically inaccurate or "derogatory" (read: politically incorrect). 

University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum, a past ESA president, said the moths likely got their name because as larvae they have hair with small air pockets that act like balloons allowing them to float for kilometres, wandering like the group of people they were named after. Another theory is that male adult moths have a tan colour that could be similar to Romani people. 

The Entomological Society is now on the hunt for a new common name, a process that will take months. Ms Berenbaum, who has written about weirdly named plants and animals -- e.g. the "jewfish", now known as "goliath grouper" -- said that given the moths' destructiveness, she and other would have some ideas for a descriptive new name. But, she said, "You're not allowed to use obscenities, so that's out."

Footnote: The same woke reasoning explains why the meeja no longer calls the "Indian variant" of the Covid virus by that name. It's now the "Delta variant". Mustn't stigmatize anyone or anything, you know!

Calgary school principal in hot water for using N-word in discussion with... errr... black students

Apparently the word "nigger", which has been systematically erased not just from the meeja but from our memories, is not totally proscribed after all. Seems it depends who uses it.

A school principal in Calgary -- Canada's ghost-town version of Dallas -- found that out the hard way, having been denounced as a racist etc etc for daring to ask a group of black students why they use the N-word when talking to each other, but get in a frizzy [tizzy? Ed.] if it's used by a person of non-colour.

The meeting between Lianne Anderson, Principal of Saint Michael's Catholic School, and the students was secretly recorded by one of the students. A small portion of it was "shared" with other students and posted online. The students have been suspended for contravening the Calgary Catholic School District code of conduct policy that prohibits recording without consent.

According to CTV News, Ms Anderson can be heard saying, "So how come it's okay for you to say the word 'nigger' in a conversation directed at a group of students of colour?" 

A spokesthingy for the school board said Ms Anderson's comments were made in an attempt to have a "teaching moment" with the schoolchildren about diversity, and the comment was taken out of context.

In the ritual apology and Statement of Wokeness, the spokesperson added, "We have a zero tolerance policy for any racial or discriminatory actions or words that is not tolerated by staff or students." [Eh? Not an English major, I guess. Ed.]  Ms Anderson has been directed to issue her own personal apology and wash her mouth out with soap, but no further disciplinary action will be taken. 

But what about Ms Anderson's question? Why is it OK for black people to call each other "nigger" or (as in Pulp Fiction) "nigga"? Leaders with the Black Lives Matter YYC say the word is harmful only if spoken by the "oppressors". Said Adora Nowfor, who CTV calls the "president of the local iterationof the global movement", "It is never a privileged person’s place to educate or police an oppressed person in their own oppression." Understand, now?

I think we persons of non-colour really should make a greater effort to understand the differences between the way we talk and the way people of colour talk. Here is a guide which I hope you will find helpful. 

Exotic citrus fruit latest target of PC police

In case you didn't recognize it -- and why would you -- this is a Kaffir lime, a variety of the citrus fruit commonly found in parts of Africa and Asia. The origin of the name is obscure, but might just have something to do with the knobby skin, which may have reminded someone of the appearance of the head of a "kaffir".

"Kaffir?", you say. Yes. Dictionary.com tells us that "kafir" was originally an Arabic word, used by Muslims in referring to an infidel or unbeliever. Back in the 19th century there was a large region of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan known as "Kafiristan", the setting for Rudyard Kipling's fine short story The Man Who Would Be King.

The word was carried by Arabs and by British colonizers into Africa, where, for well over a century, it referred to black people of the Xhosa tribe (of South Africa), and later any black person. When Walt lived in that region, around the time "majority rule" came to South Africa, the word was falling into disuse -- spoken in a whisper rather than a shout -- because it was considered "racist". Now we are told that "in South Africa the use of this word is nowadays completely taboo, and is indeed actionable in the courts. It is also advisable not to use the word in any of the compounds to which it gave rise."

Which brings us back to Kaffir limes. As if making the use of the N-word [except by N's! Ed.] an even greater sin than using the C-word in polite company, the progressive thinkers and forces for racial equality are now commanding us -- even those of us a long way from South Africa -- to find another name for the innocent citrus fruit.

Veronica Vinje is a student in British Columbia, doing her master's degree in "Intercultural and International Communications". And CBC News quotes her with approval, which tells you all you need to know about where this nonsense is coming from. "Kaffir," she says, is "deeply racist". Right. Not just "racist", but "deeply racist". Why...it's like using the N-word to describe black people.

Ms Vinje has taken to Twitter [naturally. Ed.] in an effort to change the name to "makrut" lime, which is the common name in much of South Asia, which is (Walt suspects), where she comes from. South Asia and the Middle East also happen to be parts of the world in which "kaffir" is still used as a derogatory term for non-Muslims. And, despite the urgings of Ms Vinje and the usual suspects in the meeja, celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray and Gordon Ramsay still call them, errr, "Kaffir limes".

Major victory for freedom of speech in Canada. (Americans, take note!)

Those who, like Walt, believe in freedom of speech can rejoice this weekend. At least in Canada, that is. [Paula D. writes: "Only in Canada, you say? Pity!"] The infamous Section 13 of Canada's Human Right Act, long criticized by free-speech advocates as overly restrictive and tantamount to censorship, has at last been repealed.

A private member's bill sponsored by Conservative Member of Parliament Brian Storseth was passed by the House of Commons recently, in spite of not having received the official endorsement of Steve "Stephen" Harper's Tory government. It duly worked its way through the Senate which passed it before going on holiday this week.

Thus Section 13, which allowed [encouraged, surely! Ed.] complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for "the communication of hate messages by telephone or on the Internet" gets tossed into the dustbin of history... and not a moment too soon!

Mr. Storseth called the law a "flawed piece of legislation" and characterized the human rights tribunal as "a quasi-judicial, secretive body that takes away your natural rights as a Canadian."

"[Section 13] had actually stopped being used as a shield, as I think it was intended, to protect civil liberties, and started being used as a sword against Canadians, and it's because it was a poorly-written piece of legislation in the first place," he said.

Chief wielder of the "sword" was a champion of political correctness fittingly named Richard Warman. The barking mad human rights zealot who, since 2001, brought no fewer than 16 complaints under Section 13. Warman's frivolous and vexatious accusations were all funded by Canadian taxpayers, since the CHRC covers the costs of the complainant, even if the complaint is dismissed.

One person who found this out the hard way, as Agent 9 reminds us, is Father Alphonse de Valk, CSB, the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. In 2006 he got dragged into the war against the excesses of human rights commissions when the CHRC charged him with hate speech after a complaint (from "guess who?") about some writings critical of homosexual behaviour. He was eventually cleared of all charges but still had to pay 1000s of dollars in legal bills.

Producing and disseminating "hate speech" remains a crime in Canada, but regulating it will be left to the courts (as it was previously), not to human rights tribunals. But while anyone -- even a raving loony -- could file a human rights complaint, charges of "hate crimes" under the Criminal Code of Canada require the approval of the Attorney-General.

Also pleased with this unexpected victory for free speech and common sense should be Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, who have been demonized for writing the truth as they see it. In "How 9/11 killed Canadians' appetite for human-rights speech codes", National Post columnist Jonathan Kay says that "confronting the human rights industry...wasn't just a matter of free-speech principle but a matter of civilizational self-protection. The average Canadian may not give a hoot about his freedom to use the N-word. But he'll be damned if he's going to let the government prevent him from saying what he things about burkas [sic] and terrorists."  

Further reading: "Father de Valk winner of CCRL award". The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) assists in creating conditions within which Catholic teachings can be better understood, cooperates with other organizations in defending civil rights and opposes defamation and discrimination against Catholics on the basis of their beliefs.

N-bomb explodes, kills Twain

In a display of political correctness rare even for American "educators", the N-word -- NIGGER -- will be replaced by "slave" in new editions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, to be published later this year.

The Bowdlerization of the books is supposed to boost their "acceptance". Since only millions of copies of Twain's classics have been sold in the century-plus since he wrote them, this move is clearly needed.

The new editions are to be published by an outfit calling itself "NewSouth Books". The argument is that Huck and Tom don't represent the "new south", in which all folks are equal, anyone can ride in the front of the bus if they want to, and there are no more niggers.

While they're at it, NewSouth Books should update the settings -- how about downtown Atlanta -- and make the lead characters 21st-century dudes, southern-fried Beavis and Butthead types.

In case it's not clear, my point is that Twain was writing about the south as it was in his time. Are we really trying to pretend, now, that the Old South never existed? Not only is America (as a whole) not racist now, it never was so! Not even in the 19th century. Next thing you know, the PC police will be doing a remake of Gone With The Wind, and rewriting the history books to assure us that the Civil War was only a dream.

Footnote: Mark Twain always chose his words very carefully. "The difference between the right word and the almost right word," he wrote, "is the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug."

Readers write

Walt's been hors de combat for a couple of days, so was delighted to find a couple of comments waiting to be moderated.

Gisela Corinne von Boetticher left a comment on "Dr. Laura learns a lesson in PC":

I found your site, while trying to delineate between the hijab and burka.

Thanks! I think you're funny/honest/insightful. You remind me of an old, brilliant (libertarian) economics professor I once had in the States. He never won any elections, unfortunately. :)

Gosh, Gisela Corrine, you're making old Walt blush. And you hit the nail on the head as regards my political philosophy, to the extent that I have one. I never won any elections either because I had the disconcerting habit of saying what I truly thought.

Anonymous posted a comment on "Help Kids Canada - a scam or only half a scam?":

Guess I wasn't the only one who was scammed! Never wanting to assume a kid would lie about raising money to help someone out I doled out $5 for the half empty box of chocolate covered nuts -- $4 but I said keep the change.

Deep down I was suspicious and thought this may be another charity where the "executive" on top is taking home a 6 figure income. As the girl and her friend continued down the street asking other neighbours I did see a "white" van come shortly after to pick up the girls. I did catch the name of the charity so I could check online if it was a scam or not ....and I guess I should have gone with my instincts!!!

Yep, they're still out there. In my neighbourhood they've been positioning scruffy-looking waifs outside of banks and supermarkets. Maybe going door to door doesn't work any more.

Agent 3 refers me to Ignore the Door, from which you can get big red signs to hang or stick on your front door telling canvassers to bugger off. (Well, the one I got says "At this house we ignore the door!") Maybe they'll keep the JWs and scruffy kids and energy bullies away. Worth a try.

Your comments and feedback are always welcome. Use the comments feature here or e-mail walt.whiteman@yahoo.com.

What DO they want to be called?

Had some quick (and sharp) reaction to this afternoon's post. A reader asks me if I really mean to defend the casual use of the N-word.

Before I answer, let me say that I can think of six worse epithets that I've heard hurled at people of the coloured persuasion. For a list, send a self-addressed stamped envelope. I can also think of "bad words" used to describe people of virtually every race, ethnicity and religion. One could compile a pretty large dictionary of such slang or derogatory terms. But that doesn't mean those words should be absolutely proscribed.

The question is whether a word like "nigger" can or should be used in public speech. It seems that depends on who's using it, and in what context. I didn't hear Dr. Laura's radio show, but understand she was asking why it's OK for black people to use the N-word talking to or about each other, but not OK for whites to so refer to blacks.

I understand that. A dentist of Italian extraction [Have mercy! ed.] told me he didn't mind if another Italian called him a "wop", but he wouldn't be responsible for any damage to my teeth if I did it.

So I accept that it would be impolite for someone of my hue to utter the N-word from a public platform. That would include a radio program, except perhaps in the context of an etymological discussion. Even George Wallace learned that lesson, and by 1968 had forced himself to say "nigrah".

But now I ask, if the N-word is truly politically incorrect, is there a politically correct term that I can use to speak of...errrr...persons of colour? Over the years, the following words and phrases have all been held up to me as acceptable:

Negro, coloured (or "colored", if you like), black, African, Afro-American (or "Afro-Canadian"), African-American (presumably someone who immigrated from Africa), and, yes, person (especially woman) of colour.

I've also been told that the same words and phrases are not (or are no longer) acceptable.

Yes, yes, I know that in an ideal world we should never have any reason to describe people with reference to their colour or lack thereof. (Hello, fellow paleface!) The brotherhood of man and all that...

But this is not an ideal world. So if anyone can enlighten me [Please!!! No more!!! ed.] as to what's OK this month, I promise to use that term and only that term...until the fashion changes again.

Dr. Laura learns a lesson in PC

"Some of my best friends are n______", says Dr. Laura

The forces of Goodness and Political Correctness have won again. Dr. Laura Schlessinger's 30-year career in talk radio is ending in December, all because she used the Forbidden Word on the air recently.

Forbidden word? Wat dat? We're talking about a word even worse than the F-word -- everyone uses that now -- and the C-word, used occasionally (even in print) in Britain. We are talking about a word which is so powerful, so offensive, so evil, that it can't be said and can't be printed, even in quotes...unless you're black. Then it's OK.

I refer, of course, to the dreaded "N-word", now referred to obliquely as "a racial slur". Only people of colour can say that, in an affectionate way, about each other. I remember a line near the end of Blazing Saddles in which one character calls the black hero "Yo shifty niggah!"

We should have seen this coming. I also remember dialogue from M*A*S*H (the movie, not the TV show) in which a black football player says to his teammate, "He [a white guy] called me a nigger!"
His buddy says, "Well, you call him one right back!"
"Call him a nigger?!"
"Noooo... say something bad to him."
(I'm quoting from memory. Please don't e-mail me if I don't have it down pat.)

The point is, white folks can't talk about black folks like that. The word has become unspeakable, literally. And the First Amendment be damned. So watch yo mouf, honky!