"Just Sayin" Eliminated from ISU Daily
- Thread starter CyFan61
- Start date
We always called them pocket gophers - I then had to learn that they were also ground squirrels - finally I had to learn they were squinties - now I hear that it actually should be squinnies - but that isn't PC so I should just exterminate them so we don't have to talk about them.
Because when I think "attention-hungry people," I think of Asians.
I also have never heard of this term. I can understand the perception, and it's probably a poor choice in retrospect, but I can also assume that the guy who used the term assumed that everyone else knew it because he did.
Not really even referring to Asians when I posted that. Was more talking about the people clammoring that racism is running rampant at ISU (Like the girl in the discussion article about racism being brought to light or whatever).
I would have no way of knowing whether an Asian person would take offense to that term or not. I just feel, the way it was used was not meant to be deragatory and there are people out there who have an agenda to get noticed and use any means necessary to do that. If it offended people of Asian descent, I have no problem with them bringing that up to the people at the Daily, and changes to be made. But for other people to jump in on it and make it out like a mistake in editing suddenly means ISU is full of intolerant racists, makes me think they are attention-hungry
Like a previous poster said, how is a country ever supposed to move on from what happened in the past if there's constantly folks trying to drag us back to that by claiming an innocent term like "squinneys" is somehow a blatent display of racism?
I feel like the editor really dropped the ball here. I'm sure ISD gets plenty of inappropriate comments every day - they should be able to tell what is suitable for the paper.
I remember them being called "ditch tigers" in North Iowa.
Could have just been my uncle though.
Could have just been my uncle though.
Yeah, I'm with you there.
In all seriousness though, just like the Lin thing, it's poor editing more so than content. Seems like an overreaction to can the section.
Huh.. we always called stray cats wandering around "ditch tigers" in Northeast Iowa.
"Just had a staring contest with a ground squirrel. They're fearless."
That makes more sense than if the quote was referencing a person? Having a staring contest with a ground squirrel seems pretty stupid to me.
"Saw a ground squirrel in the building. The invasion has begun."
This one actually makes sense. But it makes just as much sense if it were referencing a person who's not from here.
I haven't read the full story, so those two quotes may make more sense in context. But stand-alone, they still make sense if they were referring to a person.
C
CyBer
Guest
Reminds me of a funny ISU Daily error when I was in school. There was apparently a long standing joke between the writers and editors of the daily where they put funny things in the captions for the editors to catch. One morning I opened up the daily to see a picture of a guy I knew on the front page sitting at a computer with the following caption...
John Smith (name changed) stalks twelve year girls over the internet from a Carver computer lab.
Apparently the editors were supposed to catch that one, but it slipped through.
John Smith (name changed) stalks twelve year girls over the internet from a Carver computer lab.
Apparently the editors were supposed to catch that one, but it slipped through.
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Have you ever seen a ground squirrel? If not then I can maybe understand. It's a silly quote but one that any student should be able to relate to...assuming that student has ever walked across campus.
This is just dumb imo. The only people that are offended are showing their ignorance. Not saying that they are ignorant but we are championing their lack of understanding...while bashing OUR apparent lack of understanding (false imo). I'm going to go watch Idiocracy and see how close we are to fulfilling that destiny. And that is a movie...don't want anyone mis-interpreting this. and by this I mean the term Idiocracy...which is a movie.
I don't remember calling them anything but "ground squirrels" (except when we were talking about chipmunks, but that's another issue altogether) until one of my friends in high school called them "grinnies." I had to ask what she said several times, and then what she meant.
This and the the fact that someone unfamiliar with the term altogether may interpret squintey as squint eye. No offense intened but non local (alot) of people / students could see that as a racist comment if they are unfamiliar with the ground squirrel "sqinney", with is ironically a smaller version of the squirrel family, which could also be found offensive too. Sorry, I just didn't know if some of you were seeing that relation.
I see the relation, but considering the actual meaning is harmless (squirrels/chipmunks), the real issue is that the complaining students/faculty assumed the real meaning was derogatory and took offense at it, causing this whole uproar.
So, it's not that students are racist towards Asians. It's that those students/faculty don't know/understand midwestern terms and can't live with them.
So, it's not that students are racist towards Asians. It's that those students/faculty don't know/understand midwestern terms and can't live with them.
Racial slurs in Daily reveal racism at Iowa State - Iowa State Daily: News
If people are seriously that upset about that, they must live a pretty sheltered life.
K
KFitzy87
Guest
Pardon me, but how is this so bad? If a caucasian male/female got called a "cracker", I'd say 97% or more would just shrug it off. I'm completely against discrimination, but sticks, stones, words and you get the idea
Think of it more as how everyone acts around cacaus when some people get offended when some national new's guy says Iowa sucks (I'm paraphrashing of course). You could probably search CF and find a few threads about this bothering people.
