Offensive place names. In this day and age I can't believe they are still named as such!

[4channel]

Offensive place names. I this day and age I can't believe they are still named as such!

I saw the post below from the discussion that has now been locked. Wow! I didn't even know about this place. We're in the 21st century and there are still places named like this. What's wrong with Australia?????

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Re: Coon cheese's name to be changed over racism concerns [ Edited ]
Options
@rogespeed wrote:
in reply to zanadoo_56

47 minutes ago - last edited 43 minutes ago

I suppose they will want to change Mount Niggerhead's name next.

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Community-Spirit/Coon-cheese-s-name-to-be-changed-over-racism-conce...

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So I did a search on  the Internet and this came up.

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An Aboriginal group plans to sue the Victorian Government for ignoring its heritage in the renaming of Mt Niggerhead, a mountain in the Alpine National Park.

November 17, 2008 — 11.02am

For decades, the 1846-metre Mount Niggerhead in the state's north-east has been at the centre of a heated debate about its name.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/aboriginal-group-outraged-over-naming-of-mountain-20081117-68gq.html

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Why Niggerhead Rock and Suicide Bay need Tasmanian Aboriginal names

By Rhiannon Shine

Posted SatSaturday 6 MayMay 2017 at 11:58am, updated SatSaturday 6 MayMay 2017 at 2:57pm

 

Niggerhead Rock 'pretty damn offensive'

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-06/offensive-tasmanian-place-names-replaced-with-aboriginal-word...

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**bleep** Head Facts for Kids - Kiddle encyclopedia

kids.kiddle.co › Nigger_Head

May 22, 2020 - **bleep** Head is a small island in the northern part of Shelburne Bay in far north Queensland, Australia about 30 km north of Cape Grenville, ...

https://kids.kiddle.co/Nigger_Head

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So there are three places in Australia with this name. Again, this is 2020, something very wrong with our history and society. Very wrong. If they can bring Uluru back, then why not get rid of these disgusting names? They were named in a time when the people who had the power to name them as such because certain races were deemed to be inferior.

I haven't had a look at all of them to see if any of the names have been changed. I hope one has.

BTW: Kudos to Mr. Hagan for getting the offensive  name of that sports oval changed.

[*kazumi*]

It's interesting how words that were not considered offensive are now.  People are surprised to find that in official dog show catalogues you have "dogs" and "**b.i.t.c.h.es".  Back in 19th century it used to be dogs& sluts, then somebody decided that "**s.l.u.t**" is offencive and so it was changed to "**b.i.t.c.h**".  Now, on some boards "**bleep**" gets bleepped out.

Show in 1872

[joztamps]

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@domino-710 wrote:

 So - is chocolate now a - no, no. 

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Only dark chocolate

[springyzone]

I am a bit on the fence with this one. 

I do think some names are a bit offensive in this day & age and a name change would be the way to go. Niggerhead is one of them.

I also don't like Suicide bay, although the word suicide is not in itself offensive. But I'd change that too.

On the other hand, I also think some groups look for offence where none is meant. eg baa baa black sheep. I can see no earthly reason why that should be changed to rainbow sheep.

The trouble in this world is (I think) that too many people take descriptive words in themselves to be offensive, rather than the context. And context is almost everything.

In almost every academic area, attention to detail is important. Being able to finely differentiate between things is a skill. Those searching for a vaccine for covid19, for instance, have to be able to differentiate it from other coronaviruses.

Yet in language, we are going the opposite way, with some people saying we should no longer use terms such as boy/girl. Those terms (to me) are not offensive, they are identifying markers that are a little more exact than eg child. And child is a little more descriptive than human.

It's a funny world, where the 4 letter words F & C are often freely used in movies, but the word black can send people into a spin.

[the_great_she_elephant]

 Springyzone wrote: It's a funny world, where the 4 letter words F & C are often freely used in movies, but the word black can send people into a spin

The difference, I think, is that the F and C words are ubiquitous insults that do not differentiate between colour, race, religion or politics unless accompanied  by a defining adjective.

Black, on the other hand is not only descriptive of skin colour but is also used to evoke a sense of the sinister or unpleasant, e.g. Black Mark, Black Sheep,  Black Friday, Black Market, Black Magic. 

[myoclon1cjerk]

That old black magic has me in a spin.

[*kazumi*]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

 Springyzone wrote: It's a funny world, where the 4 letter words F & C are often freely used in movies, but the word black can send people into a spin

The difference, I think, is that the F and C words are ubiquitous insults that do not differentiate between colour, race, religion or politics unless accompanied  by a defining adjective.

Black, on the other hand is not only descriptive of skin colour but is also used to evoke a sense of the sinister or unpleasant, e.g. Black Mark, Black Sheep,  Black Friday, Black Market, Black Magic. 

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Not always; Black Forest Cake and I am rather fond of black dogs.  🙂 

The thing is that to say "bloody" 50 years ago was unforgivable in decent society, and to use the F word was unthinkable.  I remember back in 1960s, when an European lady who only recently arrived to Australia and had very limited English, asked at presence of number of people what does "f..k" means, the whole room froze, we kids struggled not to burst out laughing, and amused ourselves for some time to come remembering the faces of people present at that moment.  Apparently a man on the train kept telling her  that he wants to "f" and she she kept asking him "f" what. 

I actually have objection to the use of the "c" word as an insult, especially by women; I mean why should the worst of insults be the word for female anatomy?  It's misogynous. 

[domino-710]

I have been known - to be wordy at times - but I can quite honestly say - I have never used the C word.

Never.

[4channel]

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@*kazumi* wrote:

It's interesting how words that were not considered offensive are now.  People are surprised to find that in official dog show catalogues you have "dogs" and "**b.i.t.c.h.es".  Back in 19th century it used to be dogs& sluts, then somebody decided that "**s.l.u.t**" is offencive and so it was changed to "**b.i.t.c.h**".  Now, on some boards "**bleep**" gets bleepped out.

Yes, strange that those terms back then were more  accepted. Well, b.i.t.c.h is still used by dog breeders. Obviously somewhere it was changed in use to label women that were mean as such. The term "Black Widow Spider" was used in days gone by. I guess it's easier to use a single word.  Interesting too, I had a look and saw that elsewhere as well where s.l.u.t. was used in dog races etc.

BTW: Thanks to you and springyzone for restoring the subject.

[4channel]

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@springyzone wrote:

I am a bit on the fence with this one. 

I do think some names are a bit offensive in this day & age and a name change would be the way to go. Niggerhead is one of them.

I also don't like Suicide bay, although the word suicide is not in itself offensive. But I'd change that too.

On the other hand, I also think some groups look for offence where none is meant. eg baa baa black sheep. I can see no earthly reason why that should be changed to rainbow sheep.

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 With Suicide it doesn't demonise a people as such but I suppose for peeople who have lost a loved one, yes in that case possibly change it. With the changing of black sheep to rainbow sheep, I don't know if there are any hidden deliberate meanings in the original poem. I know some child nursery rhymes are actually sinister in their origin. But the black thing , yes sometimes people go waaaaayyyy to far in their looking for offence. Oneday someone will want to change Black Bean Sauce to sonething else. Imagine asking for  Beef Chow Mein with soya beans that have been fermented and preserved with salt!

Hmm, the rainbow sheep I have heard folks say is part of a whole different thing. An agenda to make kids gender neutral. Gosh if so, what next?

In reference to Indigenous Australians I never use the term black. That was a generic term placed on them. I prefer to use Indigenous Australian or Koori / Murri etc depending on who I'm referring to.

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@springyzone wrote:

The trouble in this world is (I think) that too many people take descriptive words in themselves to be offensive, rather than the context. And context is almost everything.

In almost every academic area, attention to detail is important. Being able to finely differentiate between things is a skill. Those searching for a vaccine for covid19, for instance, have to be able to differentiate it from other coronaviruses.

Yet in language, we are going the opposite way, with some people saying we should no longer use terms such as boy/girl. Those terms (to me) are not offensive, they are identifying markers that are a little more exact than eg child. And child is a little more descriptive than human.

It's a funny world, where the 4 letter words F & C are often freely used in movies, but the word black can send people into a spin.

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Yes context is what it's all about. With the N word, it can hardly be used in any other context except for current affairs / media or historical quotation. Other words can be and the people who are looking for offence in other things like "BlacK"  are possibly having their strings pulled. If there's an actual movement behind this to get rid of gender titles, I would say at some stages there are close parallels with the Gaia pagan movement which is embraced by some Greenies.

[davidc4430]

the renaming of places and locations that under todays political correctness are no longer deemed ok is a job that will take forever

the list is long and getting longer every day as another group decides something upsets them

not saying there arnt plenty of bad names out there but sadly they are part of history

you can't just wipe out history because you dont like it

much better to educate why places were named

i remember a few years ago some wanted and got the name of a football grand satand renamed because it was called 'blackies' stand or something like that

it was named after a local footballer whos name was 'blackie'