"Tired of the Wet Backs?"

[Parasitic]

I've never heard of this term before, guess you learn something everyday.

Thanks for teaching everyone in public another derogatory racial slur, newspaper editor!

 

[BrownTown]

on an unrelated note I finally get why the time travelers in that South Park episode were called "goo backs", honestly never heard the term "wet back" reffered to Hispanics, what is the origin of it?

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: NFS4
At the risk of getting flamed to hell for this, some people here are hiding behind the "America is too PC" shield to in attempt deny others from calling "foul" when a genuine concern is raised.

There are way too many minorities crying wolf for the rest of us to care anymore.

MotionMan

Why should anyone care about you and what you think if you cannot do the same for them?

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: Steve

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: tfinch2

I am Hispanic and I think it's funny.

Blacks call each other n***r, Jews love Mel Brooks movies that make fun of Jews. I would not doubt that Hispanics call each other "wetbacks".

tfinch2, you are but one man and do not speak for the sensibilities of all your race.

MM, it's all in the tone and context those words are used. Blacks dropping N-bombs on each other in the course of casual conversation are typically being social rather than judgmental. Of course it's seen as racist coming from a white to a black simply because of its history, from the mouths of whites it was judgmental.

That's the ultimate problem with those words.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: MotionMan
All this PC getting offended by everything has run its course with me. All the minorities have used up their "Getting Offended Quota" as far as I am concerned. They need to stop looking for racism where it is not and concentrate on where it actually is.

That being said, however, as I stated before, given the current state of the PC world, the author should have known that he was going to catch hell for the ad (and probably did mean the double meaning).

MotionMan

EDIT: NFS4 was talking about me.

The two bolded sections of your post are incongruous.

One was a general statement about society. The second statement, following the phrase "That being said, however" (acknowledging the incongruency), was more specific to the case at hand.

I do not believe the level of the reaction was warranted in this case.

MotionMan

 

[randay]

If you get wet backs from car seats you need to lose some friggin weight.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: NFS4
At the risk of getting flamed to hell for this, some people here are hiding behind the "America is too PC" shield to in attempt deny others from calling "foul" when a genuine concern is raised.

There are way too many minorities crying wolf for the rest of us to care anymore.

MotionMan

Why should anyone care about you and what you think if you cannot do the same for them?

I do care and when there is truly a need for protection of a race, religion, sexual orientation etc, I am right there, in front, fighting the fight. I just do not see the need for the reactions that we see in today's society - it is all about TV face-time and not equality. It cheapens the real fight being fought for equal housing, employment and treatment of minorities.

MotionMan

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: MotionMan
All this PC getting offended by everything has run its course with me. All the minorities have used up their "Getting Offended Quota" as far as I am concerned. They need to stop looking for racism where it is not and concentrate on where it actually is.

That being said, however, as I stated before, given the current state of the PC world, the author should have known that he was going to catch hell for the ad (and probably did mean the double meaning).

MotionMan

EDIT: NFS4 was talking about me.

The two bolded sections of your post are incongruous.

One was a general statement about society. The second statement, following the phrase "That being said, however" (acknowledging the incongruency), was more specific to the case at hand.

I do not believe the level of the reaction was warranted in this case.

MotionMan

How is the level of reaction unwarranted? Some hispanics recognized it as offensive. They told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about it. Two hispanic leaders met privately with the manager of the dealership. Dealership investigated and fired the guy. That's not a huge overreaction. They didn't file lawsuits. They just brought it to the attention of the manager. The manager did what you'd expect any manager to do in that situation. I wouldn't want someone to work for me after they put a racial slur in an ad.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
Train wreck thread full of morons who think it's OK because:

1) They are acting dumb and claiming to not see the use of Wet Backs is clearly used in the context related to South American immigrants.
2) It's 'OK' to rag on Hispanics.
3) People are closed minded bigots most of the time.

If the car ad was worded properly it should have been, 'Tired of a wet back???'. Using 'The' clearly addresses a group, not an individual or an individual experience, which having a wet back in a car can only ever be.

Twenty blinkered dipshits will disagree with me and nit pick my post after this, but it won't change a thing. It was a deliberate use of a political hot potato to sell cars. Pretty fucking sad.

FTR-I never said it was okay. Just wanted to point that out.

It was really a stupid thing to put in an advertisement.

I keep thinking of the "save the green backs" commercials when I hear this. They were given the nickname because of their illegal entrance in this country right?

I remember when there was talk that the term illegal alien was "offensive" to them. Personally, I don't care if it offends them, they have no constitutional rights in this country if they are not citizens.

 

[Throckmorton]

Hey all you white people complaining about political correctness and how people are too easily offended: I'm going to call every white person I see for the rest of the day "redneck" or "white trash" and get back to you with their responses.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: MotionMan
All this PC getting offended by everything has run its course with me. All the minorities have used up their "Getting Offended Quota" as far as I am concerned. They need to stop looking for racism where it is not and concentrate on where it actually is.

That being said, however, as I stated before, given the current state of the PC world, the author should have known that he was going to catch hell for the ad (and probably did mean the double meaning).

MotionMan

EDIT: NFS4 was talking about me.

The two bolded sections of your post are incongruous.

One was a general statement about society. The second statement, following the phrase "That being said, however" (acknowledging the incongruency), was more specific to the case at hand.

I do not believe the level of the reaction was warranted in this case.

MotionMan

How is the level of reaction unwarranted? Some hispanics recognized it as offensive. They told the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about it. Two hispanic leaders met privately with the manager of the dealership. Dealership investigated and fired the guy. That's not a huge overreaction. They didn't file lawsuits. They just brought it to the attention of the manager. The manager did what you'd expect any manager to do in that situation. I wouldn't want someone to work for me after they put a racial slur in an ad.

The manager got fired but, he is still a racist, right? Instead, they should have demoted him and made him take sensitivity training so he could learn why what he did was wrong. Then he could be a better member of society who knows how to not offend people. Isn't that want we want - people who do not offend others?

Firing him was purely a way to save face with the Hispanic community and the rest of the PC world. It was a useless act that did no one any good. In my opinion, in this case, an overreaction.

MotionMan

 

[Harabec]

I don't even have a normal A\C in my car...

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Hey all you white people complaining about political correctness and how people are too easily offended: I'm going to call every white person I see for the rest of the day "redneck" or "white trash" and get back to you with their responses.

Honestly, I think that most white people could (couldn't?) care less.

MotionMan

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: MrPickins

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
While I agree with you Mosh. I grew up in Texas, and have heard this phrase to refer to Hispanics quite often and always with a degree of prejudice.
To think that no one bothered to consider that the use of the term at all in any manner, especially where there is a fairly large Hispanic population, would offend someone is naive.

QFT.

I grew up in a south TX town with 50% hispanic population. Calling someone a beautiful ray of sunshine there is likely to earn you an ass whoopin'.

FWIW, I'm white.

I agree. It's astounding how many people in this thread are ignorant to this display of ignorance.

exactly. didn't realize ATOT had this many bigoted idiots.

 

[pulse8]

I'm only offended by idiocy in the headline. If wet back wasn't a racial slur the headline still wouldn't make much sense. They needed a better copywriter anyway.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I remember when there was talk that the term illegal alien was "offensive" to them. Personally, I don't care if it offends them, they have no constitutional rights in this country if they are not citizens.

Right, except this term isn't being used to demean illegal citizens only, but an entire race of people legal or not.

 

[ch33zw1z]

LOL @ Ad

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Hey all you white people complaining about political correctness and how people are too easily offended: I'm going to call every white person I see for the rest of the day "redneck" or "white trash" and get back to you with their responses.

You might get smacked for being a dipwad, but not a racist. Remember, whites aren't allowed to be offended by racist remarks.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend
This is fucking ridiculous.

Edit: The 'public outcry,' not the headline.

Almost forgot it's ok to offend Hispanics on AT.

How is this offensive to hispanics? If anything, it's offensive to backs.

I guess you wouldn't understand if you're not Hispanic.

are you Hispanic? if so, enlighten us as to why it's offensive.

Yeah I am.

Wet back refers to people who migrated from Mexico to the US via the Rio Grande. Anyways the term started to be used to identify all Mexicans by white americans (even to those that came here legally). You'll only really here this in the South western states. But like MrPickins said, Wet Back = beloved patriot/N*word/FOB/etc.

I don't see how that word can be compared to beloved patriot/N*bomb. So these people had to swim so their backs got wet. I'm not being cynical here. I just think people LOOK to get offended far too often.

How about the word beloved patriot. Do you want to tackle that one? Do you call white people Gringos from time to time?

nm i see languge filter is back on. but funny Ni**er is filtered but beloved patriot is not. is ATOT racist now too?

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Hey all you white people complaining about political correctness and how people are too easily offended: I'm going to call every white person I see for the rest of the day "redneck" or "white trash" and get back to you with their responses.

Honestly, I think that most white people could (couldn't?) care less.

MotionMan

BS. If I call a southern white guy driving a pickup truck "you fvcking redneck", he WILL be offended, and moreso if I call him a
"piece of white trash".

Anyway, my point is that it's not the same as if I call my white friend a redneck, or if Jeff Foxworthy makes "you might be a redneck" jokes.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Hey all you white people complaining about political correctness and how people are too easily offended: I'm going to call every white person I see for the rest of the day "redneck" or "white trash" and get back to you with their responses.

Honestly, I think that most white people could (couldn't?) care less.

MotionMan

BS. If I call a southern white guy driving a pickup truck "you fvcking redneck", he WILL be offended, and moreso if I call him a
"piece of white trash".

Anyway, my point is that it's not the same as if I call my white friend a redneck, or if Jeff Foxworthy makes "you might be a redneck" jokes.

You could call that southern white guy driving a pickup truck "you fvcking flower pot", he will be offended, too.

If you called him "a great American redneck", he probably would NOT be offended.

On a related note:
Listen to a Country radio station for a while, you will hear the term "redneck" used often and in a positive way.

Do urban stations allow the use of the term n****r by blacks? Why not?

MotionMan

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I remember when there was talk that the term illegal alien was "offensive" to them. Personally, I don't care if it offends them, they have no constitutional rights in this country if they are not citizens.

Right, except this term isn't being used to demean illegal citizens only, but an entire race of people legal or not.

According to its meaning, you are incorrect.

The word "beautiful ray of sunshine" is a relatively new disparaging term for "an illegal Mexican immigrant or worker who crosses the Rio Grande into the United States, sometimes swimming to get across" (Hendrickson, 1997). There is some debate as to when the word was first recorded. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word was in 1929 when Foreign Affairs used it to refer to a peon that walks or swims across and is welcomed by countrymen as a ?beautiful ray of sunshine?. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, the first recorded use was in 1948 when the number of illegal Mexicans swarming the United States increased by a significantly large percentage.

Source

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Citrix

nm i see languge filter is back on. but funny Ni**er is filtered but beloved patriot is not. is ATOT racist now too?

I don't think it has ever been off, they just removed a ton of words from it. So far n*gger is the only one I've noticed that is caught. I think they should take it off the banned word list so it can be used for illustrative purposes. If someone uses it offensively, deal with them however they want to deal with them. No need to let people hide their racism behind 5 asterisks.

Meanwhile Googer replaced n*gger with "nagger" in a context that made clear what his intention was, and I don't think the mods ever did anything about that. What's the point of banning the word if you're going to allow that? The word is just a couple of letters, it's the intention that matters.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I remember when there was talk that the term illegal alien was "offensive" to them. Personally, I don't care if it offends them, they have no constitutional rights in this country if they are not citizens.

Right, except this term isn't being used to demean illegal citizens only, but an entire race of people legal or not.

According to its meaning, you are incorrect.

The word "beautiful ray of sunshine" is a relatively new disparaging term for "an illegal Mexican immigrant or worker who crosses the Rio Grande into the United States, sometimes swimming to get across" (Hendrickson, 1997). There is some debate as to when the word was first recorded. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word was in 1929 when Foreign Affairs used it to refer to a peon that walks or swims across and is welcomed by countrymen as a ?beautiful ray of sunshine?. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, the first recorded use was in 1948 when the number of illegal Mexicans swarming the United States increased by a significantly large percentage.

Source

Except for the fact that I'm Mexican and have had the term used towards myself, my family members and many people I know for decades, I'm correct.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I remember when there was talk that the term illegal alien was "offensive" to them. Personally, I don't care if it offends them, they have no constitutional rights in this country if they are not citizens.

Right, except this term isn't being used to demean illegal citizens only, but an entire race of people legal or not.

According to its meaning, you are incorrect.

The word "beautiful ray of sunshine" is a relatively new disparaging term for "an illegal Mexican immigrant or worker who crosses the Rio Grande into the United States, sometimes swimming to get across" (Hendrickson, 1997). There is some debate as to when the word was first recorded. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word was in 1929 when Foreign Affairs used it to refer to a peon that walks or swims across and is welcomed by countrymen as a ?beautiful ray of sunshine?. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, the first recorded use was in 1948 when the number of illegal Mexicans swarming the United States increased by a significantly large percentage.

Source

Except for the fact that I'm Mexican and have had the term used towards myself, my family members and many people I know for decades, I'm correct.

Why does it bother you is you are not a "wet back" as defined above?

It is like someone calling me a "stupid black woman" - I am not stupid (despite all evidence to the contrary), not black and not a woman. Why would I allow that to offend me?

MotionMan