Time Magazine Publishes Anti-French Slur
Editorials - Twitter this! September 22nd, 2008
Can you imagine Time magazine publishing an article mentioning “Chinks”, “Gooks”, “Dagos”, “Wops”, “Crackers”, “Beaners”? Of course not! Using slurs against ethnic or cultural minorities would be not only offensive, it would be immediately seized upon in the public, press and media in a firestorm of controversy, protests and finally public apologies.
But calling the French “Frogs” seems to be just fine for Bill Saporito, business editor of Time magazine. In a piece titled “How We Became the United States of France”, Saporito wallows in plenty a stereotype, buy they all pale in comparison with this blantant use of an ethnic/cultural slur.
“You just know the Frogs have only increased their disdain for us, if that is indeed possible. And why shouldn’t they?”
We believe this incident shows a complete lack of professionalism, a profoundly offensive use of an ethnic/cultural slur in a major American magazine. Even Bill O’Reilly and Jay Leno showed more respect for the French!
References: Time.com
Sources: Wikipedia (Ethnic slurs) – Wordie.com (Ethnic slurs)
Dictionary entries: 4. often capitalized usually offensive: frenchman (Merriam Webster) – noun [C] UK OFFENSIVE a French person (Cambridge dictionary) – (often initial capital letter
) Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. French or Frenchlike. (Dictionary.com)
Complaints (please remain polite and informative)
Letters to the editor: letters (at) time.com
Bill Saporito: bill_saporito (at) timemagazine.com (unverified)
Merci à D.B.
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October 6th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Maybe, but I don’t think the English would have steeped so low as to call a woman’s “time of the month” “the French”. (Makes us wonder what Paul Revere meant when he did his famous ride).
October 15th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Mr. Saporito has exagerated too much once too often, considering the state of affairs in the USA. Although the website is usually dedicated to timeless philosophy, a refreshing post claiming a “Droit de réponse aux américains” to these declarations appears in the blog (French and English version), with the sub-title: “You dreamed you were the flagship of the free world, you are only its Titanic“.
The general idea might be that the former bashers are in such a mess that their arrogance, always misplaced, is now grotesque. We are in a good position to sound the counter-attack. With one proviso: we shall never indulge into the same foul manners, not our style! We must be as usual, much more educated and controled in the surface -we must accept the risk that they do not understand that they are bashed - and hard but fair in the substance.
I am delighted to invite you to a visit and if you feel like it, please, invite your friends.
“Attaquem, attaquem”, Foch, 1917.
With king regards to all of those who have been on watch at the outpost for a long time, reinforcement is coming.
Laouach
October 17th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I’ve read this article and I found it brilliant.
It’s very subtle, very ironic and it’s a strong critic of the us system rather that the french one.
Irony at its best.
It needs some knowledge and some intellectual skills to go over the first level of reading, and I think some of the offended readers her did not find the seconde level of reading that was mandatory to fully understand the hidden message.
BTW, I’m french, and I do not find any thing offending in being called Frog.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
“BTW, I’m french, and I do not find any thing offending in being called Frog.”
You should.
While I agree that this particular article was done in an ironic kind of way (everyone got that by the way , no need to insult our intellectual skills) the term “frog” is usually meant to offend.
As is the term “wop” for Italian-Americans or he term “kraut” for german people and many others. These terms all belong to the lexical field of ethnic slurs and xenophobia.
See wikipedia’s list of ethnic slurs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethic_slurs
October 17th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
“BTW, I’m french, and I do not find any thing offending in being called Frog.”
You should.
While I agree that this particular article was done in an ironic kind of way (everyone got that by the way , no need to insult our intellectual skills) the term “frog” is usually meant to offend.
As is the term “wop” for Italian-Americans or he term “kraut” for german people and many others. These terms all belong to the lexical field of ethnic slurs and xenophobia.
See wikipedia’s list of ethnic slurs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethic_slurs
October 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
@Barney. According to WP, the meaning of “frog” changed over time. If I am offended by something whose meaning changes, as we say in french, “we are not out of the auberge”. I really beleive that the one being really insulted when it comes to reducing one person to its origin, is the one that says it.
If your last argument against someone you’re talking to is: “You can’t be right, your’re a frog (or whatever other slur word)” it really means that either your point is very weak, or you haven’t had any argument at all.
And if you’re talking in a friendly way with someone calling me “Frog”, there is really no reason feeling offended.
So to me, in both case, I do not find it offending at all.
But I may of course be overoptimistic ;-)
October 19th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I am very surprised: “frog” as such is no longer a problem, we should not have tolerated it many, many years ago! My concern is that nobody reacts to the sentence which is really offending in my reading: “Put it all together, and the America that emerges is a cartoonish version of the country most despised by red-meat red-state patriots: France. Only with worse food.”
Mr Saporito by himself is so clever as to abracadabra the words, illusionists of all countries, of course! No, the problem I wish to emphasize is that if Mr Saporito feels that he can use such a word, which in all cases is insulting, whatever be the second and third meaning, he knows that he has what we call a “marge de manoeuvre” as the US patriots, i.e. a few tens of million people will lol (laugh out loudly) for a few tens of lost French men who will protest (and they even may not!). This is pure demagogy. We should stand up and avoid the same mistake as with tolerating “frog” with the word ”despise”: insulting is never acceptable, even for and all the more for brilliant minds.
By the way, I did not realize that the article to which I refer does not appear:
http://www.laouach.com/blog/ecrire/poster.php?post_id=10
You wil see better what I mean.
Amicalement,
Laouach
September 16th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
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