Ethnic slur on hotel TV

Helloooo6

On Friday, Joseph Ross had just checked into a Motel 6 in Sharonville, Ohio when he turned on the TV and was greeted with an on-screen message that said "Hello Nigger!" Motel 6 responded that the company is "investigating to determine how this mishap occurred, and after inspecting other rooms this appears to be an isolated incident." (WCPO, thanks Charles Pescovitz!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anthony MacPherson

Seems to me like someone added in a custom name for whatever channel the TV turns on to. I know on my old Sony CRT I could set channel names so they would show up in place of the numbers.
- costeau
  
  Yeah. However, hotel/motel TVs are supposed to have restriction features that do not allow the guest to reconfigure the TV in such a manner.
  
  So, unless the motel staff just went out and bought a caravan load of TV sets from a regular TV shop…
  - retchdog
    
    i wouldn’t be surprised if it were a regular tv with a limited remote; cheaper and almost as good, unless some miscreant brings their home remote…
  - retepslluerb
    
    “are supposed”? in which way?
  - EH
    
    Motel 6.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001443259034 David Davion
    
    Which is probably what they had, up until the TV broke and in a rush to “fix” it, they just bought a new one from Best Buy.
- Paul Renault
  
  A few years ago, I was in a motel where one of the previous guests had reprogrammed all the channel names so that they would produce a funny diatribe when you surfed through the channels.
http://twitter.com/joniimaru Jonathan Prien

Don’t you mean racial slur?
- luisella
  
  It’s a racist slur. ‘Ethnic’ sounds like a way to minimize racism. I’m for changing the title of this post.
  - disillusion
    
    The only problem with calling it flat out “racist” instead of “ethnic” though is that you don’t know how the person the put it on the tv meant it. Yes, it could have been meant to be racist, but I’ve seen black people use it with each other almost as if it was similar to “bro.” This doesn’t make it right to change the TV to show the slur, but goes to show why you can’t exactly assume everything is meant to be racist when all you know is that something showed up where it shouldn’t have.
    
    That said, in this case it very well might have been used for racism, but until more info comes out I’d rather them stick with “ethnic” in this particular case.
    - retchdog
      
      uh, if so, wouldn’t the problem then be with the “slur” part and not the “racist” part?
      - chgoliz
        
        eh, forget it.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICTPPP74XH6B4BYIW4GQCNJPA4 Gary
      
      Understand, this is the 21st Century and gen x and lower use the term between each other. White and White, Latino and Latino, and yes Black and Black.
      
      Let’s not limited the context of its usage to one ethnic group. It comes off as if you are old school and out the loop if you get me. Nevertheless, I frequent the area urban parks, and I can assure you, that those youth younger than I am is throwing it around.
  - lafave
    
    “Ethnicity” is often just PC for “race” even though the word ethnicity should be talking about cultural background and race describing physical traits.
    
    The post title should be changed to be more accurate.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001443259034 David Davion
      
      And Race shouldn’t apply (scientifically) between the different Species of humans.
      - lafave
        
        I agree that race doesn’t have any biological significance; however, sociologically, it does (race is a social construct, as is ethnicity). Whether it should is a separate question.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ICTPPP74XH6B4BYIW4GQCNJPA4 Gary
      
      That is 110% absolutely correct, and for those who don’t differentiate the difference fail scientifically to disseminate information presented to them in a journalistic manner. With that said, we also can blame certain members of the media for using it interchangeably, as the idea is to spark “outrage” which we know when ignorance begets more ignorance…thus rationale and logical thinking is plum thrown away.
costeau

I personally wouldn’t be offended if I got “Hello, cracker”, “Hello, whitey”, “Hello, wigger” or something along those lines, but yeah, I can understand those who do.

And I also have no problem in understanding Joseph Ross’ reactions, for that matter.
It’s blatantly worse than seeing the score meter on screen during a soccer match between Nigeria and Germany, especially if Nigeria is the home team.
- jockmac22
  
  I will refer you to Louis C. K. about your opening statement…
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  I personally wouldn’t be offended if I got “Hello, cracker”, “Hello, whitey”, “Hello, wigger” or something along those lines, but yeah, I can understand those who do.
  
  Imagine my relief.
- retepslluerb
  
  What’s wrong with NGA-GER? :-)
  
  Also, unfortunate mixups happens. Facebook’s counting DAUs. Lots of Germans wonder if that says something about Facebook’s opinion about their users.
HowieFeltersnatch

The TV said the new hotel guest is near.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig

guilty as charged

assigning bad names to all the TV channels is the first thing I do when I find myself bored in a motel room
very childish, I know
- oasisob1
  
  This is why I always bring my $100 super amazing ultra mega universal programmable remote wherever I go.
  
  That and the ones in hotels never have batteries.
Lobster

My weatherman is constantly spouting ethnic slurs. I think he’s just angry the weekend’s over, because as soon as he gets passed Sunday he’s all “Monday.”
http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43

The way I heard it, Joe Ross checked in under the name “N1663r” and the Television was programmed to greet him by name.
Nothing to see here, please move along.
SomeGuyNamedMark

This is what happens when Swiss soccer players play with your hotel TV.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1774747130 Justin Foster

Ironic this happened at a Motel 6, since it was the first motel chain to allow black people to check-in. To quote the founder “Is their money green?” To keep things in perspective, Motel 6 has the opposite of a history of racism.
L_Mariachi

Are we to understand that Boingboing’s comment policy regarding Those Words has been relaxed? Given that one of them appears unredacted on a front page post?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  No.
  - L_Mariachi
    
    I have no interest in revisiting the old (and settled) debate, but I do suggest that some consistency would be in order. If you have a blanket policy, the blanket has to cover the whole bed.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Posts and comments have different rules. For an editor to use an offensive word that’s key to the post is one thing. If we open up to it in the comments, every asshole on the web will take advantage of it.
      - Xyzzy
        
        I agree with having a filter (or rule against the n-word’s use), but I also really didn’t care for seeing it used casually in an article when everyone knows the common substitutions for it (even the screenshot has it bleeped out).
        
        I have to say, though, that it’s disappointing that it’s evidently a-okay to use well-known disability slurs here. Folks with low IQ or other noticeable disabilities have a long history of those terms being associated with abuse that parallels the reasons we don’t use the n-word. Even if we assume nobody with a low IQ is reading, their parents/siblings & people with the other impairments are — plus, using it casually legitimizes/encourages those that use it as a slur.
        
        I don’t think that it’d be a huge difficulty to have a blanket policy covering those slurs, if bans/filters (rather than leading by example) is what BB admin prefers. We even saw the writer that covered the Swiss athlete being ejected from the Olympics impose the ban upon himself by using alternatives to the r-word; it shouldn’t be much harder to manage with other slurs (or alternately to handle them the same way the other slurs are, e.g. leading by example).
      - L_Mariachi
        
        Fair enough, but be aware that this might backfire on you. “It’s okay for editors to say n* but not the rest of us.” For reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLrBLxbLxw
bumblebeeeeeee

you really need that difference explained?
PhosPhorious

“So either it’s a slur or it isn’t.”

This is simply untrue. Whether a word is a slur or not is a question of how it’s used, not of what it’s dictionary meaning is. The meaning of an utterance is relative to the speaker.

Everyone knows this. You know this. Do you really talk to your friends in the same way you talk to your employer, or to strangers?
Richard Pell

People reclaim oppressive words as a way of taking control of them. Just because a person is licking a historical wound is not an invitation for anyone else to stick their finger in it.
ratcity

Why don’t you ask them what they think? Oh wait, these aren’t your friends, they’re just “young men” and “rappers”? Do your black friends, business associates, and peers use this word constantly? Do you have any black friends or business associates? If they don’t use this word “constantly” is that meaningful to you?

The answers to these questions should explain your disingenuous (and/or ignorant) BS.

Please expand on how often you look to young men and women that you don’t know to model good social behavior for you?
retepslluerb

Your point is valid, but is it a slur when a black-skinned person coded it in?

How does it work?

Is it some Schrödinger’s slur, i.e. we don’t know its status until we open the box and know the Melanin count?
Navin_Johnson

Privilege fail.

You see, you’re implying that they’re being hypocritical. That if they are going to use abusive & oppressive language amongst each other, they simply have to accept that they’re employing a ‘double standard’ by preventing the Privileged from using them.

What this enables you to ignore is the reality of the power dynamic involved. Language reclamation is a means by which Marginalized People gain back some power they are
traditionally denied by taking control of words used to demean and discriminate against them. When these words come from Privileged People, there is a long and very serious negative history behind them that cannot be divorced from the words themselves. Thus, when Privileged People employ these words, they are perpetuating that history and the psychology behind the word. They are exercising oppressive power that have become inherent to those words – a power Marginalized People seek to subvert and dismantle when they use them.

Pretend not to understand this. Just continue to imply hypocrisy and pout that it isn’t fair.

It also ignores the fact that, from within Marginalized Groups, discourses around abusive language are actually not simple and there are many divided and varied opinions
on the subject. Treating Marginalized People like a hive mind is always a great way to further subtly insult them and since the point of this entire debacle is to come out with as many notches on your belt as possible, you want to make sure you slip in as many knocks below their belt as you can manage.

http://www.derailingfordummies.com/complete.html#playfair
asterios9

The funny thing that people don’t get is that even when black folks reappropriate it, it is still a sort of put-down. It’s ironic, and perhaps affectionate, to be sure, but it still means “someone of low social status.” It doesn’t have some entirely different, positive meaning that has been surgically implanted in there.

So yeah, you’ve got two scenarios.

non-black person puts it in there -> it was probably intended to shock and seriously offend

black person puts it in there -> this is more like putting “hey asshole” in, still intended to, in the very least, surprise and annoy. (We’ll just ignore the fact that the word is usually spelled differently when used this way, which cuts down the odds of this scenario significantly.)

Either way, it doesn’t belong in there. Either way it’s not exactly interesting news, either. (Reminds me of those “somebody grabbed the PA and said the N-word” stories that were popping up a few years ago.)
PhosPhorious

“Yeah, this is actually kind of wrong.”

No, it’s really not. Language is a social thing. The whole point is that the meaning of an utterance (as opposed to the meaning of a word) is NOT determined singlehandedly by one person, even if that person writes a dictionary.

I would tell you to google “pragmatics”, but given that you think that believing that language is a social construct makes one a “masturbatory shitstain” means that this conversation can’t really go any further.
asterios9

Heh, that got pulled fast. The point was that there is still a persistent shared meaning out there, which the dictionary strives to capture.

Let’s look at the wikipedia definition of pragmatics, shall we?

“Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context CONTRIBUTES TO meaning. Pragmatics encompassesspeech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the transmission of meaning depends NOT ONLY only on the linguistic knowledge (e.g. grammar, lexicon etc.) of the speaker and listener, but also on the context of the utterance, knowledge about the status of those involved, the inferred intent of the speaker, and so on.[2]”

Emphases mine, obviously. Nowhere is the claim made that meaning is entirely dependent on context, but only that context can modify it in interesting ways. Which I would not deny.

It’s just silly to insist that, as the original poster did, “n****r” is not a slur because black folks use it, and sillier to argue that sometimes it ain’t because context. Even when reappropriated, it is actually a slur – it retains some of its original connotations. There’s no happy, sunshiney usage of the n-word that doesn’t evoke a background of oppression and low social status.

My point in claiming that “masturbatory shitstain” was my new term of affection for BB commentators was to illustrate the near impossibility of stripping words of their immediate connotations.
PhosPhorious

“It’s just silly to insist that, as the original poster did, “n****r” is not a slur because black folks use it, and sillier to argue that sometimes it ain’t because context.”

How is it silly to argue that sometimes “n****r” is not a slur because of context? When rappers use it to describe themselves, don’t we assume that they are NOT being racist?
asterios9

It seems more accurate to say that they are staking out a position within a racist society by ironically using a slur. The word remains racist and it evokes the context of racism. There is no usage of the word that is entirely free from this context.

(Seriously, pick an instance and explain why you don’t think it is somehow about racism. It always is.)

This is why the ironic usage doesn’t pass easily to whites like Quentin Tarantino or Gwynnth Paltrow – because they are still evoking a context in which they are privileged and others are not. That pesky original meaning never actually changed.