Political correctness

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#1

Political correctness at its absurd “don’t do anything that might offend any oversensitive imbecile” best.

Santa sacked for ho, ho, ho

Gavin King

05Dec07

A 70-year-old man working as Santa Claus says he was sacked from a Cairns department store for saying “ho, ho, ho” and singing Christmas carols.

In a case of political correctness seemingly gone mad, retired entertainer John Oakes says he was fired from his job at Myer for his rendition of Santa’s famous laugh.

His employer, Westaff, last month sparked national outrage when it ordered its Santas to say “ha, ha, ha” instead of “ho, ho, ho” because it could be derogatory to women but denied the words were a factor in Mr Oakes’s case.

The word “ho” is also American slang for a whore.

“They’re trying to kill the spirit of Christmas,” Mr Oakes told The Cairns Post yesterday, just days into his fourth year as Myer’s Santa.

"But after my shift on Monday, I got a call from my manager telling me my services were no longer required.

"I hadn’t done anything wrong so I asked her why, and she said, ‘You said ho, ho, ho and that’s not appropriate’.

"She also said I wasn’t supposed to sing, but I was only singing Jingle Bells to get the kids to laugh for their photo.

“It’s just ridiculous and everything’s changed because of the new rules.”

A Myer spokesman said Mr Oakes was sacked for breaches of company rules, but he declined to outline details of the breaches. The spokesman denied he was sacked for saying “ho, ho, ho”.

Westaff spokesman Bert Jansz said Mr Oakes was fired for having the wrong attitude.

“The candidate was not sacked nor was his use of the term “ho, ho, ho” a factor in our decision,” Mr Jansz said.

"The candidate’s attitude was not in line with the requirements of our client and of their customers.

“Westaff has made a decision not to utilise the candidate in question for any future Santa assignments.”

Westaff’s stance on the traditional term last month prompted some trainee Santas to quit the official training course interstate.

At the time it was claimed ho, ho, hos would frighten children.

But he back-pedalled on the decree yesterday, saying Westaff Santas were not banned from using the term.

Mr Oakes is looking for a new Santa job.

http://www.cairnspost.com.au/article/2007/12/05/4727_news.html

Our previous best down here was a non-Islamic municipal council which banned ham sandwiches at council functions, in case the presence of pork offended the Muslims. Muslim leaders, being more intelligent and balanced than the Anglo idiots responsible for the ban, said they couldn’t care less if ham sandwiches were on the menu, as nobody was forcing them to eat them.

The runner up is Monash University in my home town, which has a college residents’ cafe where students can’t get bacon and eggs or bacon and anything because the cafe has been certified halal by the University’s mosque. It’s not part of some Islamic takeover. It’s just that Australian universities rely on full fee paying foreign students to survive these days, and a lot of them are Muslims, so the unis bend over every opportunity they can to suck up to them.

But it doesn’t always turn out well, although I’d like to know how the victims in the following item knew what pork tasted like to arouse their suspicion about the rolls.

Catering company in trouble over ‘halal’ egg and bacon rolls

Catering company UWS Connect has been sprung trying to sell ‘halal bacon and egg rolls’ to Muslim students at the University of Western Sydney.

Muslims are forbidden to eat any pig products.

Students had been suspicious for months about the authenticity of food labelled ‘halal’ at the univerity’s canteens.

"It’s just the most awful mistake, UWSConnect MG Tony Geange told The Sunday Telegraph on the weekend.

"We are deeply emarrassed and ashamed and we’ve apologised profusely for causing offence, both verbally and in writing.

“It’s our fault and it’s an appalling mistake - it’s unforgiveable.”

He attributed the mistake to human error at the campus canteen and said all halal products sold at the canteens came from halal-friendly suppliers.

But the university’s Muslim Student’s Association said the catering company should have certification form an accredited Muslim halal certifier to sell halal foods.

The university is now seeking to gain the accreditation.
http://www.foodweek.com.au/main-features-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=642

#2

Sorry for the delay…our Legal Department just approved the following Holiday Greeting:

To all my Liberal Democratic friends,

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday™, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secularpersuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all . . . and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “AMERICA” in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion oft he wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual publication of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

To My republican friends,

                                     MERRY CHRISTMAS
#3

Do your Republican friends have a “wide stance” on the ‘down low?’

Cause I think the whole “sexual orientation” thing might apply to them…

:slight_smile:

Political correctness goes both ways, my friend. First of all, certain Churches in the US make a fortune every year by spreading this “War on Christmas” crap, which is largely illusionary and exaggerated.

And can I go tell Christians that the holiday of Christmas is largely a lie? one timed to coincide with the Roman feast holiday of Saturninus and having no logical or historical bearing on the birth of Christ?

Are Jews, Hindus, and Muslims supposed to be wished “Merry Christmas” too? Do they have to conform to your holiday scheduled too?

In any case, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (if the New Year holiday isn’t too pagan for you)…

#4

Nick…why are you so serious all the time… relax, I must have hit a nerve with that one…hahahahaha

#5

#1) That depends on the down low…let me check with snoop dog and see if we are talking the same thing.
#2) I guess you would know about things like that
#3) Who cares…most churches are a scam any ways
#4) You mean Santa is not real??? That is if you believe in Christ
#5) Since I don’t ask some ones religion yes I would. No they don’t…they can work Christmas day if they would like.
#6) Back at ya pard… and remember to vote democrat…millions and millions on welfare depend on you.

#6

Point of clarification, the word “ho” referred to in the store Santa story, is a Black American slang word, not a general american slang word.

#7

Ha thank you RS for both stories.
This is so character for nowadays.
The stoopid correctness that sometimes creats a more problems in our life.
But what have we do?
Could you say for instance the afro-anerican what you really think about their behaviour?
Or could i critisize the some "importain ethnical " minorities that so "suffer from the prejudices in past "without be blaming in fascism and extremism? Even if they act wrong according our common moral rules?

#8

The reason there are no square dances in south central Los Angeles is because every time someone yells Ho Down…they think there sister’s been shot.

#9

The reason there are no square dances in south central Los Angeles is because every time someone yells Ho Down…they think there sister’s been shot.

Hahaha…that was a good laugh, and I dont feel guilty :mrgreen:

#10

Well, LOL, I hope you had a good Christmas…:smiley:

And as long as it’s not corporate welfare…

#11

Can I tell “African-Americans” what I think of “their” behavior?

Well, that depends on how well you know him or here…I’ve certainly told a couple that I thought that they were shit with legs…:smiley:

And I’ve told a couple others that they were amongst the finest human beings I’ve met in my travels…

#12

It’s hard for the rest of us to tell the difference, drowned as we are in American gansta rap music which is all about hos and bitches (or biaatches) and guns and drive bys and bustin a cap in yo face, etc. mouthed by bling ridden spastic mostly blacks in harem pants with hate faces, all under the vast umbrella of motherfuckin this and fuck or kill that motherfucker etc.

It’s reached the point here where quite reputable stores are, I think unwittingly, broadcasting radio stations with this shit across their internal speakers. I didn’t like it when I was looking for a part in a chain auto store with my ten year old daughter and the radio display was blasting out that vileness, and I didn’t like it last week when she was four years older.

I am one of the world’s greatest foulmouths, but (apart from offending PK’s delicate sensibilities :D), I know when not to use foul language.

The only term I cannot abide, and one that everyone around me knows not to use, is motherfucker and it’s derivatives. And every Aussie I know of my generation and the next one has exactly the same attitude.

But it seems to be the basis of all gangsta rap lyrics and what little thought they express, along with ho and bitch and murder and killing cops and general pointless violence by meatheads who are living arguments in favour of abortion and sterilising morons before they can breed, and it’s been taken up by the white bands inside and outside America.

I’d be a bloody sight happier if somebody got upset about the endless encroachment into other cultures of American motherfucking gansta rap shit instead of worrying about ho.

And I have to say that my personal experience is that motherfucker and its derivatives have always come from white adult American men, and that was before gansta rap arrived. It’s always puzzled me why this paradox exists in a culture which reveres Mom in a way not quite equalled in other English speaking cultures, all of which reviled motherfucker etc until the past five or ten years when the younger generations adopted it from the gansta rap lyrics.

#13

The “media” companies, not to be confused with the press, present and market what makes them a great deal of money. Then they heavily lobby and pressure the gov’t/FCC by lobbying and donations…

What’s “politically incorrect” is that they do so with virtual impunity, and that many of these companies have donated far more to the GOP (i.e. Clear Channel) than they have to any Democrats…

Furthermore, what is allowing this situation to take place is the thoughtless march towards deregulation, which means that any sort of critical alternative media is quashed under ever increasing corporationism…

Blame media “deregulation” first…

BTW, the biggest victims of “gansta rap?” African Americans living in the inner cities that have one small faction of their culture marketed and exaggerated continually contributing to an endless cycle of violence…

#14

Marketed, with most of the rights owned, by predominately corporations staffed mostly by white people…

Besides, what is more pure capitalist than gang bangers celebrating their “bling” and pecuniary emulation?

#15

With impeccable timing, this article appeared in this morning’s paper.

I’d love to see the record companies go down on this.

Is there a related precedent where a gun manufacturer was held liable in the US for people being shot with its product(s), or was that just a claim that failed? Or am imagining it?

Victims of violence target US record companies to beat the rap

Ian Munro, New York
December 28, 2007

IF HIS name had remained Trevor Smith, would anyone have heard of gangsta rapper Busta Rhymes, let alone have propelled his 2006 album to number one?

Rap has brought Rhymes fame and a decade-long recording career. But if Bronx lawyer Mark Kressner is right it has also lured him into trouble, fostering a persona that needs violence and confrontation for its authenticity.

Acting for a man who was allegedly assaulted by Rhymes and nine bodyguards, Mr Kressner is suing not just Rhymes and his entourage, but the record companies that he says encourage and reward the rapper’s behaviour.

Mr Kressner is the first but not the only lawyer to do so.

Last week, 26-year-old Remy Ma learned she was being sued, along with her record company, for $US20 million ($A23 million).

The writ stemmed from the shooting of Ma’s friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, in July. Ma was charged with attempted murder after Barnes-Joseph was shot in the abdomen, supposedly after a dispute over money Ma thought was missing from her purse.

As allegations of interfering with witnesses were added to Ma’s charge sheet this month, the victim’s lawyer, Lauren Raysor, echoed Mr Kressner when she said the incident fitted rap’s culture of violence.

It has not been a good year for rappers. In April, presidential candidate Barack Obama attacked rap’s treatment of women and in November a Pew Research Centre survey found that rap was viewed poorly by a majority of black and white Americans.

Busta Rhymes’ recording career appeared to stall after 2002, but in 2005 he cut his dreadlocks, changed record companies and last year released his first studio album in four years. It went straight to number one, selling more than 200,000 copies in a week.

But in that same year he was arrested for possession of a weapon - a machete - and charged with assaulting Kressner’s client, Roberto LeBron. Rhymes, 35, was also arrested for drunk driving and later in the year wanted for assaulting his driver.

Also, one of his bodyguards, Israel Ramirez, was shot dead just metres away from Rhymes at a video shoot.

Mr Kressner said he intended to prove that it was part of Busta Rhymes’ job description to be confrontational and get into trouble. The case he lodged for Mr LeBron argues that the character of Rhymes “was designed for publicity, marketing and profit purposes to be rogue, rude, aggressive (and) misbehaving”.

It claims that the record companies concerned - including Aftermath Entertainment, Universal Music and A&M - encouraged such behaviour for profit.

Contrary to the times when production companies were embarrassed by the excesses of their artists, in rap it was part of the role, Mr Kressner said.

“It’s consistent with the co-operation that exists between the labels and the artist to maintain the personality of Busta Rhymes. Trevor Smith goes to a diner and eats. If Busta Rhymes goes to a diner it’s in his interest to get into trouble,” he said.

Mr Kressner said that recording companies are selling violence. For exhibit one he might be served by a sampling of Busta Rhymes lyrics:

My crew’ll get to blasting ya,
Twelve shot clip, hollow tips, quick to plaster ya,
All over the cement, spread like I’m mashing everything.

Lawyers for the record companies declined to comment, but it is believed they will argue Rhymes is not an employee and not under their control.

Behaving badly
TUPAC SHAKUR

On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Centre.

CHRIS WALLACE (aka Biggie Smalls)

He was a casualty of the intense East Coast-West Coast hip-hop war. The New York-based rapper was shot dead in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, six months after the shooting death of his West Coast rival, Tupac Shakur.

FREAKY TAH

He was an idol in his Queens neighbourhood where he championed hard work and non-violence. He was shot dead in March 1999.
Police said a masked gunman ambushed the entertainer, a member of the popular hip-hop group Lost Boyz, after a party at a hotel a few blocks from his home. The rapper’s birth name was Raymond Rogers.

JAM MASTER JAY

At 37, he was a legendary figure from the early days of rap music and founding member of the platinum-selling group Run-DMC. He was shot in the head and killed inside his recording studio in suburban New York in October 2002.

BIG PUN

This 316-kilogram chart-topper was a giant in life as well as in music. But in the end, the enormous weight that gave the 28-year-old an unmistakable profile in the competitive world of rap videos probably also killed him. The super-sized star, whose real name was Christopher Rios, died suddenly in February 2000 after collapsing in front of his wife, Liza, outside a hotel in White Plains, near New York City.

SNOOP DOGG (real name Calvin Broadus)

He was charged with possession of a deadly weapon in November 2006. Security staff at a California airport found a collapsible baton in his carry-on luggage.

50 CENT

He was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother’s former home in Queens on May 24, 2000. He was shot nine times but survived.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/behaving-badly/2007/12/27/1198345159094.html

#16

Didn’t someone in the US a few years ago either or both raise as a defence in a murder trial or bring a civil suit against a record company or band based on satanic lyrics or something like that being responsible for driving someone to kill, or commit suicide?

#17

I believe AC/DC and Judas Priest have been targeted by law suits.

In fact, I heard a discussion on NPR today regarding the corporate celebration of only the worst aspects of black culture in the US and of the continued hype and marketing of these sorts of groups. I agree it is something extremely difficult and touchy to legislate…

But I think there is a distinction that has to be drawn between lyrics and between the companies that invest substantial monies into marketing what in affect the glorification of criminal behavior and misogyny. No one can really have accused Bon Scott of much beyond being drunk and disorderly. I don’t believe individual artists need to be censored or sued for their lyrics just like I don’t think “Catcher in the Rye” should be banned because mentally ill assholes read it and shoot presidents and musicians. The case that comes to mind now was Ozzy Osborne’s (not sure if it was with “Black Sabbath”) song “Suicide Solution,” which Ozzy claimed was an ironically titled anti-suicide song. He also claimed he was “speechless” when the plaintiff’s (whose son had committed suicide) attorney claimed he was saying subliminally in the songs riff “get the gun, get the gun, shoot shoot shoot.”

Ozzy won…

#18

It’s a sorry World we live in now…

#19

PC is ruining every aspect of society in, at least, English-speaking countries of the world. You know it’s bonkers when simply using ‘he’ or ‘she’ is considered wrong.