Rewriting the Dictionary - Anchor Baby now "offensive"

[manifold]

Rewriting the Dictionary - Anchor Baby now "offensive"

A decision by the American Heritage Dictionary to revise its definition of "anchor baby" -- labeling it an offensive and disparaging term -- is an attempt to manipulate the "linguistic landscape" and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.

"Anchor baby" was among roughly 10,000 words -- including "hoodie" and "babydaddy" -- added to the dictionary's fifth edition last month.

Read more: Revised Definition Of 'Anchor Baby' Part Of Leftist Agenda, Critics Say | Fox News

Control language; control thought.

Dictionaries get rewritten every year for a reason.

What amuses me is that you are offended by the fact that 'anchor baby' is now offensive... by definition.

 

[manifold]

This list of thanksgivers validated my decision to scroll past the post.

BluePhantom (Today), daveman (12-10-2011), derk (12-09-2011), The Infidel (12-09-2011), The Professor (Today), Wolfmoon (12-09-2011)

 

[Douger]

They had to. Meskin fisherman started chaining up babies and tossing them overboard.
Next up: Re-defining "getting head".

 

[Ernie S.]

It's always been an offensive slur.

Your parents are Mexican?

 

[Ernie S.]

It is a good thing that we, on USMessageBoard, are not constrained by political correctness,

There is nothing wrong with using babies as anchors in port....with enough lead...

The lead will leach into the groundwater, idiot!

 

[Foxfyre]

Is it "PC" or is it just being a decent person? How has it that good manners become such a political issue?

Terms like ******, cracker, fundie, and yes anchor-baby are slurs designed to insult and hurt. Folks have a right to say them but don't whine and scream about "political thought control" when a dictionary defines them accurately as slurs.

wtf? Fundie is out now too?




who's dictionary is that ? yours? or some partisans that decides that they need to hide or make uncertain the nature of a persons status by using misleading acronyms/words?

Illegal is exactly what they are, not 'undocumented', that's an obfuscatory phrase.

do you agree?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

Slur's aren't defined by "partisans" but by intent. I don't believe anchor-baby has ever been meant as anything but a slur.

It certainly isn't a slur when I use it anymore than thief, robber, criminal, illegal, money laundering, mooching, capitalizing, forger, or jaywalker are slurs. I have people in my family named Chavez, Lujan, Vallejos, and Melendrez and they are all dear to me. And I would not hesitate to use the term 'anchor baby' in front of any one of them. I believe most if not all with Spanish surnames would use the term themselves.

To designate a term like 'anchor baby' as a slur by the PC police is not because it was a slur but is to MAKE it a slur. We are seeing this more and more as the Left continues to try to clean up perceptions of those who break our laws and make them into something acceptable, sympathetic, and make it politically incorrect to accuse or prosecute. It also is to give ammunition with which to accuse those who want the law enforced and our borders secure.

 

[daveman]

Minorities should thank Gaea that they have white liberals to decide for them what they should view as offensive.

 

[Angelhair]

Well, it's not the end of the story because the latter are US citizens, whereas the former are not.

I thought the issue here was whether these words were offensive vs not offensive and not about being a U.S. citizen. Stay focused. The words illegal and anchor babies are what they describe. Whether someone finds it offensive is of no consequence. END OF STORY.

 

[Unkotare]

Well, it's not the end of the story because the latter are US citizens, whereas the former are not.

I thought the issue here was whether these words were offensive vs not offensive and not about being a U.S. citizen. Stay focused. The words illegal and anchor babies are what they describe. Whether someone finds it offensive is of no consequence. END OF STORY.

It's not the "end" of the story for exactly the reason I pointed out. The term cannot be a racial slur since it does not specify a race. It can be used as an epithet, as any casual review of the posts on this site will show. "Offensive" depends on the way in which a term is taken by those to whom it is applied, and that is where the rationality of this whole discussion falls apart. A baby cannot take offense. The biggest problem with such a term (aside from the fact that it gives stupid people something to say rather than think) is that it is directed at the wrong target. No baby made the choice to be born in one country or another. Anger over such a choice should be directed at those with the ability to make that choice. And surely a baby cannot determine the long-accepted interepretation of our Constitution. Anger over that must lie with Judges and legislators. The term points attention in the wrong direction.

 

[Trajan]

Is it "PC" or is it just being a decent person? How has it that good manners become such a political issue?

Terms like ******, cracker, fundie, and yes anchor-baby are slurs designed to insult and hurt. Folks have a right to say them but don't whine and scream about "political thought control" when a dictionary defines them accurately as slurs.

wtf? Fundie is out now too?




who's dictionary is that ? yours? or some partisans that decides that they need to hide or make uncertain the nature of a persons status by using misleading acronyms/words?

Illegal is exactly what they are, not 'undocumented', that's an obfuscatory phrase.

do you agree?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

Slur's aren't defined by "partisans" but by intent. I don't believe anchor-baby has ever been meant as anything but a slur.

so your OPINION is a that it is a slur, so those that feel as you do , will now, wash it out of the lexicon. thank you comrade.

and as far as strawman, you're OPINION that it is a slur, and should be treated as such is a Trojan horse...nothing more. what would you propose btw, what would you call them?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

I just did, you are free to weigh in.

 

[Sunshine]

A decision by the American Heritage Dictionary to revise its definition of "anchor baby" -- labeling it an offensive and disparaging term -- is an attempt to manipulate the "linguistic landscape" and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.

"Anchor baby" was among roughly 10,000 words -- including "hoodie" and "babydaddy" -- added to the dictionary's fifth edition last month.

Read more: Revised Definition Of 'Anchor Baby' Part Of Leftist Agenda, Critics Say | Fox News

Control language; control thought.

There is no such thing as an 'Anchor Baby.' It's like Santa Clause, and the Easter Bunny, a fictional character.

While the child may be an American citizen, the parents who have not naturalized are not American citizens and can be deported. The child does not 'anchor' them here. They have a choice of taking the child with them, leaving the child with friends, or relatives, or child services.

The lexicographers need to read a little law.

 

[Sunshine]

The significant point isn't whether the term is 'offensive' or not. The fact is, barring a Constitutional Amendment or pretty radical reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment by the US Supreme Court (with all the attendant and tricky details that would follow as a consequence) what people are talking about are US citizens. The fact that some people obviously use the term as a pejorative (thus insulting our fellow citizens) does not change that fact.

IF THE GOVERNMENT DID ITS DAMN JOB AND CONTROLLED THE BORDERS THIS WOULD NOT BE MUCH OF AN ISSUE AT ALL and all this agnst would be unnecessary.

Well hey! People are talking about US citizens when they call Kentuckians rednecks and hillbillies, but it is still PC to do that!

 

[Sunshine]

Megyn Kelly made a great analogy on Fox News Wednesday afternoon, December 29, 2010, when criticizing a Society of Professional Journalists column calling for the media to replace the phrase "illegal immigrants" with "undocumented immigrants."

Kelly said, "How far can you take this? You can say that a burglar is an unauthorized visitor. You can say that a rapist is a nonconsensual sex partner, which obviously would be considered offensive to the victims of those crimes. So how far could you take this?"

I would add that calling an illegal alien an undocumented immigrant is like calling a bank robber an undocumented account holder.

Actually, "political correctness" is just another misleading euphemism, a substitute for the more appropriate term of "political dishonesty."

But that is just my humble opinion (OK, I lied about the humble part).

Where I live, a burglar would be a dead visitor.

 

[Sunshine]

Rewriting the Dictionary - Anchor Baby now "offensive"

A decision by the American Heritage Dictionary to revise its definition of "anchor baby" -- labeling it an offensive and disparaging term -- is an attempt to manipulate the "linguistic landscape" and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.

"Anchor baby" was among roughly 10,000 words -- including "hoodie" and "babydaddy" -- added to the dictionary's fifth edition last month.

Read more: Revised Definition Of 'Anchor Baby' Part Of Leftist Agenda, Critics Say | Fox News

Control language; control thought.

Dictionaries get rewritten every year for a reason.

What amuses me is that you are offended by the fact that 'anchor baby' is now offensive... by definition.

I am offended by the fact that 'redneck' and 'hillbilly' are not offensive.

 

[Foxfyre]

A decision by the American Heritage Dictionary to revise its definition of "anchor baby" -- labeling it an offensive and disparaging term -- is an attempt to manipulate the "linguistic landscape" and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.

"Anchor baby" was among roughly 10,000 words -- including "hoodie" and "babydaddy" -- added to the dictionary's fifth edition last month.

Read more: Revised Definition Of 'Anchor Baby' Part Of Leftist Agenda, Critics Say | Fox News

Control language; control thought.

There is no such thing as an 'Anchor Baby.' It's like Santa Clause, and the Easter Bunny, a fictional character.

While the child may be an American citizen, the parents who have not naturalized are not American citizens and can be deported. The child does not 'anchor' them here. They have a choice of taking the child with them, leaving the child with friends, or relatives, or child services.

The lexicographers need to read a little law.

It has already been acknowledged more than once on this thread that the baby does not give the mother immunity from deportation. But Americans being Americans and squeamish about tearing a baby out of the mother's arms and sending he home with it, the anchor baby makes her much less likely to be a target for deportation.

America already has a track record akin to having a huge neon sign over it flashing the message: "Ya'll come, and if you can manage to avoid deportation for a little while, they'll let you stay." That baby is her ticket (i.e. anchor) to make it more likely that she will stay longer and become a 'long timer'. And she has it here for that specific reason.

Of course to somebody like me, giving real or in effect amnesty to those who have been here breaking our laws the longest is akin to giving the guy who commits manslaughter the death penalty while giving the serial killer probation.

Sometimes it is necessary to look beyond the fine points of the law to the social reality.

 

[Sunshine]

Control language; control thought.

There is no such thing as an 'Anchor Baby.' It's like Santa Clause, and the Easter Bunny, a fictional character.

While the child may be an American citizen, the parents who have not naturalized are not American citizens and can be deported. The child does not 'anchor' them here. They have a choice of taking the child with them, leaving the child with friends, or relatives, or child services.

The lexicographers need to read a little law.

It has already been acknowledged more than once on this thread that the baby does not give the mother immunity from deportation. But Americans being Americans and squeamish about tearing a baby out of the mother's arms and sending he home with it, the anchor baby makes her much less likely to be a target for deportation.

America already has a track record akin to having a huge neon sign over it flashing the message: "Ya'll come, and if you can manage to avoid deportation for a little while, they'll let you stay." That baby is her ticket (i.e. anchor) to make it more likely that she will stay longer and become a 'long timer'. And she has it here for that specific reason.

Of course to somebody like me, giving real or in effect amnesty to those who have been here breaking our laws the longest is akin to giving the guy who commits manslaughter the death penalty while giving the serial killer probation.

Sometimes it is necessary to look beyond the fine points of the law to the social reality.

I beg to differ. The choices given have had to be made many times. No one tears any child out of its mother's arms. The deported mother can take the child back with her. It is HER choice to make.

 

[Care4all]

wtf? Fundie is out now too?




who's dictionary is that ? yours? or some partisans that decides that they need to hide or make uncertain the nature of a persons status by using misleading acronyms/words?

Illegal is exactly what they are, not 'undocumented', that's an obfuscatory phrase.

do you agree?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

Slur's aren't defined by "partisans" but by intent. I don't believe anchor-baby has ever been meant as anything but a slur.

so your OPINION is a that it is a slur, so those that feel as you do , will now, wash it out of the lexicon. thank you comrade.

and as far as strawman, you're OPINION that it is a slur, and should be treated as such is a Trojan horse...nothing more. what would you propose btw, what would you call them?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

I just did, you are free to weigh in.

seriously? Just because it is offensive does not mean the word will be wiped out...shoot....the word "fuck, fucker, fucking idiot etc" is very offensive, but the word and derivatives of it is used all the time....nothing stops people from using it.

I'm with coyote on this one, I have never seen the words anchor baby used where it was not meant as a slur towards the illegal parents of the legal child....or on those lines....and that is not necessarily a "bad" thing that the term was used as a "negative" or as an "insult" if there was reason to use the term in that way.....it's not a sin or against the law to be ''offensive'' with our speech...it comes within the realm of free speech, imho.

We won't be banning the term on this site, so no worries about the liberal mods like me here, taking away your free speech....and truly, no one is taking away your or others free speech by one dictionary saying it is meant as an offensive term....I personally think, as I said above, it IS meant to be an offensive term towards the certain illegals here in this country plopping babies out, for the purpose of gaining a backdoor citizenship for their child and themselves....

 

[Ravi]

A decision by the American Heritage Dictionary to revise its definition of "anchor baby" -- labeling it an offensive and disparaging term -- is an attempt to manipulate the "linguistic landscape" and push a leftist agenda, some opponents of illegal immigration say.

"Anchor baby" was among roughly 10,000 words -- including "hoodie" and "babydaddy" -- added to the dictionary's fifth edition last month.

Read more: Revised Definition Of 'Anchor Baby' Part Of Leftist Agenda, Critics Say | Fox News

Control language; control thought.

It's always been offensive. Just like the word bastard.

Where is your outrage over bastard? Or for that matter ******, ****, or WOP?

Oh right, your outrage is selective.

 

[techieny]

any decision on "Santa Baby?"

 

[Trajan]

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

Slur's aren't defined by "partisans" but by intent. I don't believe anchor-baby has ever been meant as anything but a slur.

so your OPINION is a that it is a slur, so those that feel as you do , will now, wash it out of the lexicon. thank you comrade.

and as far as strawman, you're OPINION that it is a slur, and should be treated as such is a Trojan horse...nothing more. what would you propose btw, what would you call them?

We aren't talking about illegal vs undocumented (there's a strawman for you)

I just did, you are free to weigh in.

seriously? Just because it is offensive does not mean the word will be wiped out...shoot....the word "fuck, fucker, fucking idiot etc" is very offensive, but the word and derivatives of it is used all the time....nothing stops people from using it.

I'm with coyote on this one, I have never seen the words anchor baby used where it was not meant as a slur towards the illegal parents of the legal child....or on those lines....and that is not necessarily a "bad" thing that the term was used as a "negative" or as an "insult" if there was reason to use the term in that way.....it's not a sin or against the law to be ''offensive'' with our speech...it comes within the realm of free speech, imho.

We won't be banning the term on this site, so no worries about the liberal mods like me here, taking away your free speech....and truly, no one is taking away your or others free speech by one dictionary saying it is meant as an offensive term....I personally think, as I said above, it IS meant to be an offensive term towards the certain illegals here in this country plopping babies out, for the purpose of gaining a backdoor citizenship for their child and themselves....

its a simple colloquialism. it means what it means, I don't see any negativity attached to the term, it is a simple descriptor....

and as far as it being wiped out, how are we doing on illegal alien? That phrase is not actively being purged? this is no different.

I have never seen the words anchor baby used where it was not meant as a slur towards the illegal parents of the legal child

can you provide me with some examples, please?


and I will ask you then the same Care, what would you call it?