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A comment on FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data and scripts. Parent comment

Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by Normal_gaussian on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @07:28AM (#11813530)
n-word -> nigger and f-word -> fuck I understand, but what is the w-word?

I really don't get this obsession over hiding the existence of these words. They obviously don't exist in isolation and are a symptom of a different problem. Perhaps by hiding them people seek to pretend the world has solved these problems?

On top of that, their usage as negative words is only propagated by these shortenings. Words like nigger had (and still do have) neutral and positive connotations [0].

Language is something I deeply believe in, and try to use accurately. People controlling which words I can and can't say really, really, upsets me at level I can't quite find the words express.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#Etymology_and_history

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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by panglott on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @08:54AM (#11813954)
Um, that link establishes that the word has had very strongly negative connotations since at least the 1850s.

The article states that it had "more neutral" connotations earlier on...in a society that enforced racial human enslavement.

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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by graedus on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @08:29AM (#11813811)
W-word is "wetback", I think. I've never heard anyone use it.
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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by freehunter on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @02:32PM (#11816954)
The only time I've ever heard the word was in discussions surrounding its existence as a racial slur. There are much more common slurs for Hispanic immigrants. But I've never heard it called "the w-word".
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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by thesimpsons1022 on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @10:16PM (#11819906)
I've heard it a few times growing up in southern California. believe it or not people are pretty racist.
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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by Singletoned on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @08:57AM (#11813970)
> what is the w-word?

> I really don't get this obsession over hiding the existence of these words.

You've kind of answered your own question there. If you hide the words, then people who don't know them (eg children), don't learn a new offensive term.

I'm not saying I support the policy; I'm just saying that I understand why people do it.

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Re:FiveThirtyEight has a GitHub repo with story-related data... by headShrinker on Wednesday June 01, 2016 @10:22AM (#11814530)
> children don't learn a new offensive term.

Um, yes, yes they do. Obscuring words is to protect you from the reminder of the terrible history human kind has had toward people that look different from you. It doesn't protect a child's innocence.

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