Let me get this straight, FCC...

[Omega]

Turned on my tele and it was on Cartoon Network, but it's night, so it's on Adult Swim right now. No big deal.

That show "The Boondocks" was on.

Over the course of the five minutes or so until I found something else to watch, they said the N-word three times, uncenscored. Admittedly, it was the abbreviated version (with an a instead of an er at the end), but regardless, the impact still stands.

I'm sure we can all agree that this is, in our day, a societally unacceptable word to be playing on television at any reasonable time of the day. It was only 9pm... most kids I know aren't in bed by then. Stuff like Comedy Central's secret stash is fine with me, because that's completely uncenscored and doesn't come on to midnight anyways, at least.

What really surprised me, though, is how they didn't censor the N word, but they DID censor the S word.

Has the FCC lost it's mind? Not censoring a word that is pretty much accepted as one of the utmost societal taboos in american culture, then censoring a word that's used almost as common as anything else?

I know one could argue the point that the s word (I know people who think Crap and Damn are cuss words, at that) is just as bad as anything else, but that isn't what I'm curious about.

I'm curious as to why the hell the FCC hasn't done anything about the use of the N word. I don't care if it's a term of endearment to a specific clique of people, it's still offensive to me (as an American and somebody who strongly opposes racism), and it has much worse societal ramification than pretty much any other word I can think of right now.

-Omega

p.s. Even though this is a discussion about expletives, keep the language clean. I do not want to issue any infractions if I can help it

[Zeus]

you see, the core issue here is that you expect some type of logic to come from a government organization. This is fundamentally impossible. Once you accept this concept, then you become more understanding of why everything in this country is going belly up.

[Omega]

you see, the core issue here is that you expect some type of logic to come from a government organization. This is fundamentally impossible. Once you accept this concept, then you become more understanding of why everything in this country is going belly up.

I understand that our govt. is whacked, I'm complaining about it.

You can bet your bottom dollar that once I'm 18 I will do everything in my legal power (and probably out of my legal power too) to change this country for the better.

But being under 18 means I have less legal rights (or privileges) in this country, and anyways, I have school I still need to worry about, so.

[Airbozo]

I am quite torn on the issue of the "n" word.

The power of words don't come from the words themselves, rather the people speaking or hearing them. If you give too much power to a word, then that word controls you. While I was in the Navy, the berthing compartment I was in was about 50/50 black and white with one or two latino or asian. I hung mostly with the brothers because they were more interesting and liked doing the things I did (sports, exploring, fine restaurants, etc...). Being white I was chastised for using the "n" word once (and that was a drunken slip up). I was taught by my family to never use that word, but hanging with the crowd I was, it seemed to be a socially acceptable term and not one of them was offended _until_ a white person used the term. That is racism. The more I hung with that crowd the more I was accepted, to the point that after about a year of traveling all over the pacific with them, I was told that it _was_ acceptable for me to call them "my n...s". Which was still taboo considering my upbringing but made me part of the click... (I only used the term a half a dozen times and it always sounded wrong) In fact it was one of my close friends in the crowd that told me about the power of the "N" word in mixed company and even he agreed that coming down on another race for using the word was indeed racism.

I personally feel that the whole issue has been overblown by people who have allowed a word to have too much power over them and that is why it is such a heated debate today. Just like telling your kids that they cannot do something. First chance they get they are going to try that said thing. It can also be an issue of _how_ something is said.

I have never seen the "N" word as inherently as bad as say the "C" word or even the "F" word, but again, it does depend on where/how/who you are being raised. For better or worse that word is NOT on the FCC's censor list so unless the station chooses to censor itself (which could provoke a lawsuit by the shows creator/publisher), it is there to stay.

[.Maleficus.]

The N word is a very strange issue. IIRC, Reverend Jesse Jackson recently called Barrack Obama the N word (and said he wanted to cut his nuts off). That baffled me beyond belief, because wasn't he the man who started the national campaign to "bury the N word"? Being a well respected (maybe not anymore..) man with strong religious beliefs and a very active civil rights leader shouldn't he know better than to talk like that? I don't care if "he's a brother" and his color allows him to have free use of the word, but race exclusive words are just as racist as race exclusive public facilities.

Also, I say IIRC because there's been so many weird people in the news I get confused .

[blueonblack]

Airbozo has got it nailed. The late great George Carlin taught me that more than anyone. There are no bad words. Period. How can a word be bad? Bad thoughts, bad people, bad intentions, but there are no bad words. A word is a word. It's the intent behind it that's the driving force, and so many people now ASSUME an intent that may or may not be there when it's used. In his example, it was fine for the black people to use the word. Why? Intent. They each knew what each one intended when they used it. But it was the same word, wasn't it? Is that word bad, then? Nope. It's the intent, the meaning behind it that matters, and it's society that has labeled it "bad". And yes indeed it is racist to make it out to be a bad word because it came out of the mouth of someone of another race. If it's used in the same WAY, with the same INTENT, it should have the same meaning and effect. I spent a long time in a place that was very strictly segregated among the races, by racial choice rather than compulsion. I've seen this phenomenon over and over again, in its most explosive forms, and it's ridiculous.

More on topic, why did the FCC sensor "the N word", but not "the S word"? Probably because it is not YET considered profane, legally speaking. Give it a while, and it will be, with a great many other words I am afraid. "Don't say Windows, Jimmy, the Mac owners will be offended!"
________
Indian Cooking

[Canadian Eh?]

The FCC is a bunch of F***ing assholes. I do not think the "N" word is bad, I think it is inappropriate. What you can and can't say on TV is hard to figure out. What really confuses me is that watching South Park, some of the "F" words are bleeped out, and others are not. Sometimes **** is, sometimes **** isn't. I don't really think **** should be censored, I hear 6 and 7 year-old's say it all the time.

MuchMusic airs shows in the daytime with Bitch and **** in it, and Futurama has Bitch and Bastard. Kids can easily stay up and watch these shows. Next thing you know you got a school full of second-graders calling each other Bitches and Bastards...

(EDIT: although the kids probably already do that XD )

[PartyLikeARockstar]

honestly... i wish the FCC and all these orginizations would fix the real problem. all these parents want censorship because they don't

a)spend enough time with thier kids on average
b)watch their own language around kids; i mean that's where I heard 99% of the swearing when I was a kid
c)know what their kids are kids are doing, and who they hang out with. Parents here don't take enough role in the upbringing of thier kids on average. It's not that hard to block a program, or teach your kids to listen when you tell them not to watch something.

my $0.02

[Omega]

honestly... i wish the FCC and all these orginizations would fix the real problem. all these parents want censorship because they don't

a)spend enough time with thier kids on average
b)watch their own language around kids; i mean that's where I heard 99% of the swearing when I was a kid
c)know what their kids are kids are doing, and who they hang out with. Parents here don't take enough role in the upbringing of thier kids on average. It's not that hard to block a program, or teach your kids to listen when you tell them not to watch something.

my $0.02

The thing is that the parent's irresponsibilities aren't supposed to be fixed by these organizations, they're counteracted (or at least attempted counteracting).

Parents as a generalization in America are pretty irresponsible. I'll admit that. I'm fortuneate enough to have had parental support and guidance in the times when I really need it. I'm 17 and don't smoke anything, i don't do any drugs, and I don't drink. Sadly, that's a feat in today's society, but I feel that it's a positive representation of the parental responsibility my parents had.

I've only ever been stopped by police once, and even then it was a "you're with him so we're stopping you too" type deal. For the most part, I follow the law (the important ones anyways. I'm not always home by curfew, but I'm not out and about causing trouble), and I take responsibility for my actions.


So yes, I agree that more parents should be responsible. But there's a lot of contributing factors in today's society (most of which are BS imo), so in turn the government makes these organizations and committees to try and counteract a lack of responsibility and essentially dumb down the American public to try and protect it from the real world, because that seems to be the only way our government knows how to ease the blow of real life: Ignoring or censoring it.



Fact of the matter is we're way too deep into these problems now to just say "we can change". Our society has become dependent on these government organizations and committees to help them through life. I think it's complete bull, but what can you do really? We're talking about trying to undo years of damage to the huge majority of Americans. That's not an easy task to take on, especially since most of those Americans will probably reject any idea the rest of us would think is logical.


I always love me a good discussion, man.

[halcyonforever]

From my stint in the television industry, essentially the FCC only enforces the "worst of the worst" and mostly because if they broadened the list it would be nigh un-enforceable.

Television stations also police them selves, most broadcasting companies have their own set of what they will and will not allow on the air. I applied for on-air operator and was given a 2 page list of prohibitied words, I was to attempt to censor them, and report every show that used them which may result in the show being dropped.

The FCC is in about the right place, each individual station needs to take more responsibility for their own content. Personally I don't want to give any government agency a wider net than they already have.