Political Correctness

[Rev. Rye]

Here's yet another example of when political correctness can become counterproductive: the word "niggardly."

Before I explain things: The word "Niggardly" means "stingy." Despite its similar sound to the word "nigger", it has an entirely different etymology to that word with roots in different languages and is several centuries older than that word. And, knowing that racist stereotypes can run at cross purposes, miserliness is not one I know of. In fact, the one n-word related phrase I know that's related to spending habits runs entirely counter to the word "niggardly."

Of course, it's an archaic word that's been superseded by other words that can convey the same nuance without sounding anywhere near as racially dodgy, it probably would have died a natural death, but then, one day in 1999, David Howard, aide to Washington DC's mayor Anthony A. Williams, used the word to describe a budget. Unfortunately, a black colleague took it as a racial insult, and Howard was eventually forced to resign. This resulted in a major fracas, uniting both left-wingers and right-wing idealogues concluding that this might have been a bit much that led to him being rehired, and even the head of the NAACP at the time saying . "David Howard should not have quit. Mayor Williams should bring him back—and order dictionaries issued to all staff who need them."

And thanks to this controversy and another one where a University of Wisconsin - Madison student was offended at the use of the word in a lecture on Chaucer, this archaic and probably obsolete word managed to develop a new lease on life, giving racists an excuse to use the word and claim some level of plausible deniability because, after all, the word has no racial meaning.




And as a direct result of this offense, the racist shitheads can easily create a situation where they have new weapons and the outrage in the PC culture gives them permission to use them. And this shit is still fucking happening. And like a ship full of concentration camp prisoners painted to look like a warship, it's shockingly easy for our outrage culture to lead to shit like this.