The Weird Al Says Tweet!

[joseyklein]

@alyankovic

Hurry! Only 6 weeks left to pre-order 9780061926914!

So, anyone care to explain what this is??

[Kristine]

@alyankovic

Hurry! Only 6 weeks left to pre-order 9780061926914!

So, anyone care to explain what this is??

It's the ISBN for his book. Google "ISBN 9780061926914" and see.

[joseyklein]

Ahh, thanks!!

[QuantumError]

So yeah, Al's last tweet, whether he realizes it or not is the equivalent of the N word for white folk in Hawaii...tons of tourists and new residents in the state get the impression that it is a funny or cute word after they get called the name on the street and have to have a local friend explain it to them in the most unoffensive words possible....
The literal translation just means "breathless", since Europeans greeted the Native Hawaiians by shaking hands, rather than the usual tradition of grasping them by the shoulders and breathing in.....
But the term has become incredibly derogatory, which anyone having grown up there could tell you.

Okay so I really really believe that Al only meant it in a harmless way. But growing up in Hawaii and being called a smurfing hao*e mye ntire life really killed the word.

And don't get me wrong, Im not posting this to be down on Al AT ALL, I just really hope somehow he may get the full meaning, both good and bad, and ESPECIALLY the people who see the post. It can take one tweet like that to get a word like that accepted and undo tons of goodthats been done. Okayyyyyy rant mode off, sorry.

*returns to lurk mode*

[Wizzerkat]

From what I looked up, the word means foreigner or Caucasian.

[Way_Moby]

Yeah, same here. I looked it up, and it looks like it has meant "foreigner" since before European contact. And anyway, sometimes, I think us white folk need a word that offends us, considering what we've done to other races. :p

In all seriousness though, Al's used similar words like that before, such as "gringo", and since he's really kinda insinuating that he is one, I think it's more of Al using some self-deprecating humor, akin to, as you said, gangsta rappers referring to themselves as the N-word.

[TMBJon]

In all seriousness though, Al's used similar words like that before, such as "gringo", and since he's really kinda insinuating that he is one, I think it's more of Al using some self-deprecating humor, akin to, as you said, gangsta rappers referring to themselves as the N-word.

I agree with this interpretation.

[weird_el]

The word "nerd" offends me -- even when used in an empowering way.

[QuantumError]

Yeah like I said it basically means foreigner, and like I also said Im sure it wasn't meant in some derogatory way. But still I dare you to go to a non-tourist location of Hawaii and find the word being used without being followed by the person being spit on, beaten half to death, or chased by a group of people. Might think its funny or cute, but I betcha anyone who has experienced that will argue otherwise.
Still, not like anyone cares, Im more concerned meaningtoo many people not understanding the dual meanigs the word has, not trying to argue that it has a couple"cute" versions in the meaning cause I am positive it does.

[FredHuggins]

Haole please.

Words are only offensive if you let them offend you. If someone calls you a haole and then beats you up, is calling you a haole REALLY the bad part of what they're doing to you? And is the derogatory use of that word REALLY fairly transferable to a fellow haole using it with affection? Especially when we "haoles," as a group, invaded the land, built all those nice hotels for ourselves and CREATED that tourist/non-tourist divide in the first place?

You're not talking about something objectively terrible, like beating someone up. You're talking about connotations, or as I call it, symbolic sensitivity. I understand its psychological roots - someone beats you up while wearing a bandanna, and suddenly you don't trust bandanna-wearers anymore. I get it. But that doesn't make it a noble trait of humanity, especially when it's something as common as the words they use. Symbolic sensitivity can REALLY screw up the plans of those who mean no harm whatsoever, and for no truly tangible reason whatsoever. In extreme cases, symbolic sensitivity can lead to high-profile protests against Muslims building a community center, or for that matter, beating up a "haole" just for belonging to the same race that built all those nice hotels and forced the attacker's descendants to the "non-tourist" part of Hawaii.

I know it's hyperbolic to compare word censorship to racism, but I truly believe that respecting people must extend to respecting the words they use. It's all subjective, anyway: some Southerners object to the term "redneck" while others embrace it; who are we to say that those who embrace it are "wrong"? It's because people pick word-related fights like yours that the FCC thinks they can/should censor certain words just because they *might* offend someone. But as the late great George Carlin so eloquently proved, censorship never decreases a word's power. It only strengthens it.