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Marcus Gee: Councillor Impulsive, always ready for action

City councillors suffer from an acute inferiority complex. Though they govern a metropolis of 2 1/2 million souls, they get no respect. Theirs is a junior level of government, a little brother to the feds and province, and many voters write them off as little more than pothole fillers.

To compensate, they sometimes attempt to do something grand, like save the planet, and end up wildly overreaching themselves. So it was with last week's surprise vote to ban the sale of plastic bags by Toronto retailers.

Councillors forged ahead regardless, supported by little more than a self-satisfied sense that they were doing “the right thing.” It is far from the first time.
 
cdr108 said:
IMO that even applies to black people using n***** amongst themselves.
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I would actually disagree with this. There has been a lot of focus in academia on the co-opting of slurs, and it's widely viewed as something that can be positive/empowering within that community and people should feel that they can self-label as they please.
 
Automation Gallery has been added to my Ignore List. Please refrain from quoting his posts henceforth as this circumvents the Ignore List feature. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
 
Automation Gallery said:
Gee, pardon my ignorance but i didnt know that calling a polish person a "Pollack" was any different than calling a canadian a "Canuck" or an american a "Yankee"or even a Australian/New Zealander a "Ozzie/Kiwi".......its the way people interpret it,
many of my polish friends dont mind it, and sure like it more than being called a "Pole"
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I have never used the term myself, but I will freely admit I was never quite aware how negative it was either. I grew up in an area with a lot of caucasians of eastern european descent, and it seemed at the time the term wasn't as negative amongst them. I see from Wikipedia that the Ukranian "polyak" is considered neutral, and not offensive. I wonder if this has anything to do with it how I perceived the term.

Looking back, it almost reminded me of shiksa and shaygitz, which I learned later, having dated a Jewish woman. Negative connotations, but I don't think I've ever actually met anyone that was truly offended by those terms.

Still, like I said, I personally have never used the term, and only ever used the word "Pole".

EDIT:

I'm not saying one should be given a pass if they used the terms shiksa and shaygitz on air (unless it's a comedian or something), nor am I saying polack is acceptable either. I'm just saying that in some circles it seems that shiksa and shaygitz have taken on a more lighthearted meaning than what the original terms might have meant. I had assumed that polack in some circles might have been considered comparable, but it seems it's probably not the case.
 
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I'm gonna be honest my Polish friends sometimes refer to themselves as "Pollacks" so I, like AG, figured it was a nickname of sorts. Luckily I never used it with someone I didn't know well when I found out they were Polish... Bullet dodged there.
 
Councillor Rob Ford was bashed for using the term Orientals a few years ago, yet there was a large red sign (and it is still there) saying 'Oriental Centre' on a building on the northeast corner of Brimley and Sheppard.

I am just confused as to why certain terms are offensive 'at times' and not 'all of the time'
 
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Juan:

He wasn't bashed for calling anyone Orientals - he was bashed for saying Orientals "work like dogs".

AG:

Yes, once - a generic epithet that you'd hardly be virgin ears to. How many times have the Frauds been caught with terms that are far more loaded in nature? Once is an aberration, a consistent pattern of using them suggest callousness and lack of manners.

AoD
 
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That's most likely because, as someone mentioned earlier, the Polish word for a Polish male is "polak" and it has a neutral connotation in the language. As someone who immigrated from Poland and spoke the language at home, I never actually realized that it was considered a derogatory term until quite recently, and I'm still not sure about the etymology of the slang word. In any case, it is considered offensive for one reason or another, and Doug should know better than to say it on the airwaves.

The_Architect said:
I'm gonna be honest my Polish friends sometimes refer to themselves as "Pollacks" so I, like AG, figured it was a nickname of sorts. Luckily I never used it with someone I didn't know well when I found out they were Polish... Bullet dodged there.
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Electrify said:
As someone with Polish Jew decent, I've never even heard of the word "pollack." Then again, I'm such a mix of various East-Central European backgrounds, it is not as if I wear my Polish background above anything else or anything.

Anyways, carry on.
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I'm wondering how anyone made it through the 70s without hearing at least one "Pollack joke." Although perhaps they weren't as big here as they were in the States? (Or maybe you're a post-70s kid....)
 
FAC33 said:
I'm wondering how anyone made it through the 70s without hearing at least one "Pollack joke." Although perhaps they weren't as big here as they were in the States?
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Thats cause at that time... with all the immigration influence and depending where you lived , there was more "Munchie Cake" jokes going on
 
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