In fact, white (usually male) “progressives” have taken the term “bitch slap” entirely out of its originally limited underclass context and usage and are using it instead as a generally applicable synonym for “to castigate” and “to put in one’s place.” In so doing, they are celebrating violence against and subjugation of women, particularly Black women.
Now, Michael Bouldin of Culture Kitchen has visited one of my diaries there to accuse me of diary “pimping.” Merriams defines “pimping” as “solicit[ing] clients for a prostitute.” Merriams (Certainly, Michael does not intend to literally accuse me selling women’s flesh for profit.) But, is it not unacceptably and intentionally offensive for a white man to falsely accuse a Black lawyer of “pimping”? I’ll let readers be the judge of that. Blacks and many women will generally say it IS unacceptably offensive, while white men who regularly use the terms “bitch slap” and “diary pimping” (or simply “pimping”) will vociferously insist that they mean no color-aroused offense by these inherently linguistically color-bound insults.
But, what is it about the terms “bitch slap” and “pimping” that so fascinate white male “progressives” and make these terms nearly ubiquitous at white “progressive’s” blogs? Many blogs that have precious little Black membership nonetheless overflow with offensive pseudo-Black underclass slang directly related to an illegal sex-for-money trade.
As the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings case shows, historically, the same white men who once enslaved Black women and would not consort with a Black woman publicly nonetheless were fascinated with Black women and secretly coveted Black women’s bodies for their own sexual gratification.
The results of [a] study established that an individual carrying the male [Thomas] Jefferson Y chromosome fathered [Black] Eston Hemings (born 1808), the last known child born to Sally Hemings. . . . the weight of all known evidence – from the DNA study, original documents, written and oral historical accounts, and statistical data – indicated a high probability that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, and that he was perhaps the father of all six of Sally Hemings’ children listed in Monticello records . . . Monticello.Org
200 years later, the ominpresent use of the terms “bitch-slap” and “pimping” shows that white male “progressive” are still fascinated with imaginging Black women in the role of subjugated sex objects. What the terms “bitch slap” and “pimping” have in common is that they are both references to a sex industry that allows men, including white men, with no pre-existing relationship to Black women, to secretively access Black women’s flesh. That commonality between the terms “bitch slap” and “pimping” may partially explain why white “progressive” men are fascinated with using these words in otherwise linguistically inappropriate contexts.
In linguistics, a register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, an English speaker may adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal (e.g. “walking”, not “walkin'”) and refrain from using the word “ain’t” when speaking in a formal setting, but the same person could violate all of these prescriptions in an informal setting. Wikipedia: register
Whites who use the term “pimping” as a synonym for “advertising” seem to be wifully ignorant of the fact that “pimping” is a vulgar word whose use is inappropriate in formal, civilized company just as offensive words for genitals are inappropriate in such company, whether Black or white.
I perceive other reasons why some white progressive men love to use these vulgar pseudo-ghetto terms. Just as Karl Rove intended to demean Blacks by “rapping” at the recent Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner, white progressives intend to demean, defame and denigrate Blacks by making constant reference to the worst stereotypes of illegality associated with Black people in the minds of whites. Whites use the terms “bitch slap” and “pimping” precisely because they can no longer use the “N” word to achieve the same derogatory purpose and effect.
The omnipresent and constant use of words that stigmatize Black people is also an effective way of discouraging Black blogger participation without explicitly barring Black people’s membership in a blog, which might well be unlawful.
Unfortunately, when white men decide to act pseudo-ghetto, that bad behavior gains much greater currency in the society at large. There are so many more whites than Blacks in America that the linguistic “salience” (number of uses) of an offensive term increases exponentially when it makes the jump from offensive underclass street slang to white “progressive” fashion linguistic fashion accessory. By popularizing through print, movies, music and television what was once relatively isolated usages of bad underclass ghetto words, whites are able to malign an entire group of people ubiquitously with an agile shorthand.
35% of Blacks attend church at least once weekly (compare to 25% of whites). Anyone who has spent time among the majority of respectable Black people knows that you can spend a year in such company without ever hearing anyone use the terms “bitch slap” or “pimping”. We consider these words to be just as offensive as other words that cannot be used on television or in print.
Ironically, Blacks like myself, who do not live in a ghetto, do not participate in an illegal underclass culture of violence against women and may never hear these words used by other Blacks, are nonetheless hearing these words constantly used by “progressive” whites. What is “progressive” about that?
But white people with little or no contact with Black people except through movies and television may imagine that Blacks use these offensive terms “all the time.” We don’t. We don’t use these terms because they are just as offensive to Blacks and women as are the other words that are considered unspeakable filthy at white “progressive” blogs.
Because this is America, people who use the term “pimping” as a wildly offensive synonym for “advertising” have a Constitutional right to do so, because they have a right to free speech. And some people do revel in color-aroused puerile chauvinistically offensive speech. However, I, for one, don’t ever want to see the words “bitch slap” or “pimping” used again at “progressive” blogs.
by bothering to say “progressives” when you could just say “white males”. haha!
<
p>
Secondly, mayhaps instead of giving blue and white collar white males bologna over saying “pimp” you’d better use your energy on attacking the ilk that caused this. P.I.M.P. WARNING, NUDITY, EXPLICIT!. You can’t expect to hold white males to a standard of not using that word when mainstream black culture worships people like Fiddy and Snoop.
<
p>
I go to a university with reasonable black population, and if you can’t say to me that this culture doesn’t seep in to the average black male, because it does. I live next store to a black kid who deals a lot of drugs and keeps me up at night with his rap music and subwoofers. He also affectionately calls me “playa”, which I take as a compliment. Of course I know very intelligent and articulate black men and women, but it just seems like the culture is intent on holding them down, which greatly depresses me. The standard for acceptable behavior in public is different too, which is a story I would love to tell, but I feel it would have people blindly calling me a racist.
<
p>
Black culture is changing at hurricane speed. It’s not just the repetetive musical icons who have no respect for the law or women, it’s everything. Here’s another example of the changing culture. The article speaks for itself.
<
p>
Thirdly, the word “pimp” predates Black American culture, and the fact that it’s heavy usage by black communities causing an influx of usage of the word by white communities is showing that there is a better relationship between the races in our age group. This, at least, we can take a pro rather than a con.
<
p>
Francis, I don’t know how old you are. My mom said that when she went to school after MLKjr was killed, the black people were different, which is understandable considering what had happened to the leader of their rights movement. Similarly, I’ve watched the culture change since when I was much younger to what it has become today. Attacking white male bloggers over our use of words that you claim are racial epithets and whatnot doesn’t get anything done. Of course its despicable that these words have become the norm for my age group and the people a lil older than myself, but you do nothing more than bail out the ship without plugging the leak.
<
p>
I’m sorry if you think I’m just an ignorant white kid, but this is what I see and have seen in my life. I’m just calling it like I’ve seen it.
“You can’t expect to hold white males to a standard of not using that word when mainstream black culture worships people like Fiddy and Snoop.”
<
p>
Joe, this is the classsic “well, he did it first argument”. One groups behavior doesn’t excuse another’s behavior.
<
p>
And I have to thank you, Joe, for doing the yeoman’s work of watching that 50 Cent video and linking it here to point out just how mysogynistic certain rap videos are, lol. Sir, I salute you! (I’m not sure I grasped the depth of degradation on the first watch. If you’ll excuse me, I am going to watch that video again, and again, and again until I get it!) [I’m just teasing, here]
I am merely holding others to the standard of common decency to which I hold myself.
<
p>
There are subsets of people everywhere who use many, many other vulgar words of which we all are aware. Does the fact that those words are used in those discreet subcultures give me the authority to use all of those words here at BlueMassGroup? Simply because someone somewhere else is also using them?
<
p>
Or individuals and group establish standards based on their own consciences, without attempting to assign blame to others for what we ourselves are doing?
<
p>
The question is not whether circumstances have given me the moral permission to use color-aroused epithets that insult others. The question is, “Why would I would want to use such epithets in the first place,” knowing that they are insulting to many people. That’s the question that progressive bloggers need to address about the term diary “pimping”.
I don’t spend any time with Republican males, so I wouldn’t know what they say. I just know that I don’t use the word “pimping”; I’ve never seen it used on any of the Blackosphere blogs that I link to which my blog is linked; my family doesn’t use the word; and I never heard anyone at my church never used the word. The only place I have seen this word used over the last year is at white “progressive” blogs.
<
p>
Black people did not invent the phrase “diary pimping.” This is a new usage that I, for one, have only seen at white “progressive” blogs. But then, I don’t visit Republican blogs, so I wouldn’t know whether they use this term or not.
<
p>
Even assuming that this word is used, if you called someone in you family an epithet, would that give me permission to adopt that epithet and refer to them in the same way? Why would I do that unless I felt the same antipathy toward your family member that you expressed when you used the word?
<
p>
Doesn’t an intentionally insulting epithet remain an epithet no matter how many times it is used, based upon its linguistic function? Clearly, when people using the phrase diary “pimping” this is not meant to be complimentary.
<
p>
Why not just acknowledge that the word is a color-aassociated epithet and simply stop using it, substituting the synonym “hawking” instead? Clearly those who insist on using the word “pimping” prefer to use a vulgar color-associated epithet. Certainly, it was offensive for the Republican senator to use the word “macacca.” But, the fact that “progressives” refuse to stop using the term “diary pimping” shows that color-associated epithets cross party lines.
It’s not a color associated epithet. It is used by whites and blacks. The reason it’s mainstream now is because of black media, but that doesn’t mean that its only directed usage is towards blacks or referring to them. Such thinking is fallacy.
…too long and rambling.
<
p>
But I’d like to point out that the concept of prostituting and pimping as applied to economy, specifically the sexual division of domestic labor, has been used in Marxist literature since the 1800’s. Perhaps the word pimp is used more often in polite culture becuase of the now frequent occurence in popular media, but the concepts of commerce and pimping have been intertwined for ages.
If we acknowledge that calling someone a “pimp” is a color-loaded way to discourage them from posting links at blogs, then why not just use the word “hawk” instead, unless the intention is to evoke skin-color stereotypes?
whereas pimping implies exploitation.
<
p>
i used to have a state hawkers license to sell goods from a cart around fenway park.
so can you then go over to ashburton place, and ask reception which office you need to go to in order to apply for a pimping license?
<
p>
the negativity of the phrase comes from the act of exploitation.
<
p>
i agree with the others who are telling you that this is not a race-based expression. it ‘s been in circulation long before the sugar hill gang.
…”hawk” is something you do to loosen up throaty phlege and boost it into the back of to your mouth just prior to a productive spit. As in “hawk, spit”, sometimes pronounced “huck, spit”. Either way, it isn’t at all an appropriate synonym for whoring, as in blogwhoring.
but you probably figured that out…
Why not use a word that is less ambiguous and less-offensive, like “hawking” which only offends birds? The inescapable inference that arises from the continued use of terms like “diary pimping” and “blog whoring” is that the people who use these words KNOW that they are references to an illicit sex trade; they KNOW that these words are therefore just as offensives as words that refer to male and female genitalia; but they insist on using these words because they WANT to offend others.
<
p>
(These two terms ARE used as negative epithets, after all, so people who use them can hardly claim that they are not intended to be offensive.)
<
p>
I suggest that people who do not want to willfully offend Blacks and women by constant reference to the selling of sex should just refrain from using the above terms, preferring instead the term “hawking”. What’s wrong with that solution?
with the black people thing. okay, its willfully offending women, its bad, but for the love of all that’s good, selling sex is not exclusively black.
This is reminiscient of a previous comment of publicola’s that “masshole” was used entirely within a political context. Is Xhibit a progressive blogger? Are some of my 13-year old students progressive bloggers? I had no idea.
<
p>
Hey, I find the term objectionable, because I lived for a while in a neighborhood where you could see pimping in action. It’s ugly. That said, replace the word “pimping” with “hot rod”, and you could have a conversation at a 1950s era sewing club. The history of mainstram culture adapting African-American slang that has shady roots is older that the Internet.
the meaning of words change. The question of whether a word or phrase is appropriate depends on who is speaking and what they mean. Ignorant people will be ignorant regardless of whether they are speaking “properly.”
<
p>
Usually when people are offended they are taking things a little too seriously. Eliminating a word/phrase from popular vocabulary is not going to erase the history that created the word, nor change the way men view women or how we percieve reality.
<
p>
Are we to stop using the word “bitch” as well? I dont think so, because it really doesnt have anything to do with gender anymore (thanks to such popular use of the word). As far as know, when someone says she OR HE needs to be bitch slapped, they arent really saying that that person needs to be assaulted. I never use the phrase myself, but i dont think any phrase should be blamed for how we act.
<
p>
It really depends who is speaking and what they mean, and just because a word/phrase has become popular it doesnt mean it’s okay for anyone to say at any time.