slurdb

February 24, 2002 12:36 AM

slurdb an interesting look into an often overlooked and ignored lexicon - even if it is an ugly one. jtx from hatesville is building a reference to the language of hate, but he needs your help.
posted by boogah (6 comments total)

read thru the pejoratives for the portugese. there aren't many... then again, we're a bit hard to spot. mostly, i just get called "whiteboy."
posted by gangcandy at 2:38 AM on February 24, 2002

A little browsing gives the impression people are making slurs up.
posted by dhartung at 3:07 AM on February 24, 2002

we're a bit hard to spot

Gangcandy, does this mean...? In any case our five slurs are outrageous. Why would anyone call "someone who talks a lot" a portagee?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:14 AM on February 24, 2002

"Portagee" is Hawaiian slang. Mari Matsuda, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, writes:

"In thinking this, I remember my mother's stories of growing up on a sugar plantation on Kauai. She tells of the Portuguese luna or overseer. The luna rode on a big horse and ordered the Japanese and Filipino workers around. The luna in my mother's stories is a tragic-comic figure. He thinks he is better than the other workers, but he doesn't realize that the plantation owner considers the luna sub-human, just like the other workers. The stereotype of the dumb portagee persists in Hawaii today, a holdover from the days of the luna parading around the big house, cloaked in self-delusion and false pride."
posted by Carol Anne at 5:38 AM on February 24, 2002

From what I am reading about Americans, we are big and fat and "a lot" of American males are apparently gay. Interesting project.. I appreciate the difficulty of trying to compose a dictionary of that sort, both logistically and in terms of getting your work taken seriously. Too bad the people who contribute to it don't seem to be doing so out of scholarly regard.
posted by Hildago at 2:52 PM on February 24, 2002

the complaints are exactly the reason that he put a moderation system in place. he realized that a lot of the slurs leave a lot to be desired, but being able to say, "hey this is good." or "this slur sucks, drop it" proves that he wants it to be comprehensive while mostly free of cruft.
posted by boogah at 7:23 PM on February 24, 2002