Comes off racist if youre scared to use the word black for describing the color of a thing to someone who is black. Black isnt a bad word but you’re thinking of its negative connotations applied to people by racists.
Reminds me of The Office joke where Michael asks Oscar what his ethnicity is and Oscar says “Mexican” and Michael says “There’s gotta be a better word to use than that”.
Also the bit in 30 Rock.
“It’s not because you’re a… uh, what do you call yourself?”
“A Puerto Rican.”
“No, I know you can say that, but what do I call you?”
“A Puerto Rican.”
“Wow… that does not sound right.”
Calling a black object “black” = Does not offend.
Calling your car’s late ignition timing “retarded” = Does not offend.
Calling your dog a “bitch” = Does not offend.
Calling your rooster a “cock” = does not offend.
Calling a tied bundle of sticks for burning a “removed” = Does not offend.
Just follow your friendly dictionary and you’ll be fine.
Also: Hi mods. You’re probably here because of your word filter.
Edit: Something replaced “f-a-g-g-o-t” with “removed” automatically. I’m going to leave it because it’s hilarious that bundled sticks are forbidden.
He’s right. Individually, we are weak like a single twig.

That’s literally fascist propaganda. Fasces is Latin for a bundle of sticks and that was the image of strength that Italian fascists were trying to evoke.
Actually, it’s literally a Simpsons joke making reference to the propaganda, and the punchline is that he doesn’t say fasces. He says something else.
Good context 👍
Oh, so there is an automated censoring system in place. I thought people were saying removed en lieu of re-tard on
Lemmyon whichever instance I was visiting. Kind of like how people use unalive.I don’t think it’s Lemmy. I think it’s per-instance. Lemmy.world is not a great or open place. They’re very close to Reddit, with way too much control over Lemmy where it’s almost synonymous. Take this as a warning if you’re creating a community or new account to spread things out.
Same for .ml instances, too
.ml doesn’t influence Lemmy much. Lemmy.world is the largest instance by far, and they leverage that control to force things on the larger Lemmy community. ml has issues, but at least they don’t force things on anyone else. The lead developer of Lemmy is there, so they could, but they don’t.
Anyway, the point is that Lemmy is only as safe as it is diversified. People should be joining smaller instances, and communities created on other instances, rather than just going to the largest one.
Lemmy.ml is the flagship instance created by the Lemmy developers. I wouldn’t say they don’t influence that much.
And Lemmygrad.ml… Well, they’re their slaves.
Yeah, like I said, they could, but they really don’t. How often do you see posts from that instance in your feed? They influence each other, but it doesn’t spread far beyond that.
Ah, I see. Thanks!
Mods need to turn that shit off. Computers should never tell a human what to say.
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Fuck off. Writing about how and why faggot is a slur is a legitimate use. Informing who used the term faggot in a degenerative way is a legitimate way to use it. Writing about the history of the word faggot also is.
Censorship sucks.
Automated Censorship is stupid and dangerous.
If tomorrow some nazi fash starts using the word “goal” as some slur, would it be then incorrect to say “I have goals” or “omg, we’re goals” (“we’re goals” as “we’re matching”)?
If we concede them every word they co-opt, then they’ll colonialize all language. Just as with the word queer, we should be the ones reclaiming it for ourselves. That’s a way of letting them controlling language.
It’s not that I just want to use slurs. I’m… um… principled! That’s the ticket! Stopping me from saying slurs is a moral hazard. What if I were a historian and this were a conversation about the history of the slur?? It’s not… but if I can construct a pretext then… uh… stop woke! DEI!
Don’t you understand there are categories of inferior people, and we need to be vile to them???
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English isn’t my native language. Hard-R is that retard?
I fear that refusing to use those words even in a educational sense is rewriting history a bit.
It’s weird how americans who been all over the Internet claiming germany has no free speech because gloryfication of the Nazis is forbidden.
Yet it was always fine to write that heil hitler was a common greeting of people who brutally murdered millions.
While writing that fuckwit racists used the term nigger to put themselves over other humans is now frowned upon
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I like to think of slurs as one of those, “we have freedom of speech but also you are not free from consequences for what you say,” sorta things. So, yeah, go ahead and say it if you want to, but don’t be a bitch about it if people tell you to fuck off or call you a Nazi.
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My experience as a user is vastly improved by not seeing slurs.
Yeah, in the UK you might bum a fag. Which, now that I write it out, can mean something very different.
It’s also the name of a meat dish in the UK. Sort of like meatballs in gravy. Although it’s rarely used in the singular. Wonder if the link get censored https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
Mmm, now I want to have some faggots for dinner.
😰
Removed is way worse, though. It’s practically advocating eugenics.
Did it happen instantly, or was it a redacted action?
I noticed within seconds of posting it.
It was a joke about it was a reyarded action
I think the crack about Spanish is because the Spanish word for “black” is “negro.” But it is also not pronounced the same way as racist southerners say it. Spanish uses a short E, where as rednecks insist on saying it “neeegro,” perhaps in the hopes that it’ll make them taller. So don’t do that.
The peanut gallery will win no points for guessing that the origin of the n-word is a mutation and/or corruption of “negro” and its various permutations in the other Romance languages that white people were all dragging with them across the Atlantic, all of which are just the words for the color black. For instance, in Latin it’s the even closer “niger,” single G.
So decades ago I worked at a bike shop and some college students came in. One of them was black, everyone else in the shop was white. She sat down on a bike, that was all black with dark grey lettering. And I said “this bike looks great, I love the black on black look.” Everyone looked at me funny, she immediately got off the bike, and i literally died inside and froze up.
20 years later and i still think about this.
Also I should note that it was not the first time I used that phrase for that bike - when you work sales you end up with little automatic narratives that you barely think about.
The implication I got from the comic imo is that the person is going to ridiculous lengths to appear anti-racist
Saying anyone is black is never racist.
Ehhh, context and tone can go a long way.
In a neutral context, absolutely. I’ve heard people use saying it as an attack in some vile ways.
I agree, but also black for coffee isn’t just describing the color. It’s describing the character. Sugar doesn’t change the color, but that isn’t black coffee. Black for coffee is a label/category, not a description.
It’s still stupid to be scared to call it black, just as it’s stupid to be scared of calling black people black. It’s a common term that everyone understands, and it isn’t an insult.
Yeah lots of repressed racism with whoever does these shitty strips.
Now I’m thinking of the politician who was offended by black holes.
There is a long tradition of “black” being used to describe evil things, which may or may not be related to racism. I think being conscious of this can be useful, but black means a lack of light, and a black hole is something that light can’t escape from. It’s a perfect term for that.

In Spanish you’d just order a “cafe solo”
Best I can do is a Han job
Sir this is a Starbucks, you need to pay first.
Espresso shot first
Welcome to Costco, I love you
Depends on where from cause I’ve only heard “café negro”
Yea, I’m not surprised, quite a lot of things have different names across Spanish speaking countries.
I’ve always heard americano, but I don’t drink coffee
That’s a method of preparing. It means make an espresso shot and add water. Which is different than “normal” coffee where you pour all the hot water through the grounds at once.
never noticed what an americano was, its just diluted espresso.
The story goes that American troops in Europe in WWII didn’t like the concentrated bitterness of espresso so they added water to make it closer to drip coffee, and it’s named after them.
Now I’m offended.
It’s the weak coffee, so you can.
Nah, most places it’s called “café negro”, and it’s fine. “Negro” refers to the color, and there’s nothing intrinsically racist about that word.
If tomorrow some nazi fash starts using the word “goal” as some slur, would it be then incorrect to say “I have goals” or “omg, we’re goals” (“we’re goals” as “we’re matching”)? If we concede them every word they co-opt, then they’ll colonialize all language. Just as with the word queer, we should be the ones reclaiming it for ourselves.
Was in an anti-racist training event for work and the man running the meeting told us a story about this time his white friend’s son referred to him as “Black” and the white dad gets all embarrassed. He scolds his son and then apologizes to his friend. Dude just goes, “it’s okay. I know I’m Black. There’s no need to try and hide it.”
Coffee…neat.
Frapachino. On the rocks.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/0BNRZCnU5eM
“Excuse me. Can I get a cup of coffee, black?”
“Can’t you see we talkin’, white‽”
Give me a coffee, as black as your skin, my good man!
Ew no, if I order a black coffee, I’d want my coffee blacker than most black people. Most black people are still brown if we have to talk about literal skin color.
“I want a South Sudan, and by friend here would like a Brazillian blend.”
Once met a dude from Brazil who was the same shade of black as basic electronic stuff. Dude was fucking dark.
Onyx the true opposite of albanism
… Why would you say that(referring to the title). Just makes people use derogatory language in their head for the lulz.
is saying black in Spanish derogatory language?
No. But implying it is bad to say it clearly does refer to calling black people n*s. At least in competent english speakers.
…no shit. It’s a joke about being hyper aware of offensive language just like you are now.
They use the n-word for the black color in Spanish… Feels weird to say it ngl
its just a Spanish word. negro is not the n word. negro in English is a slur and still isnt the n word
I didn’t realize it was now considered derogatory rather than just old-fashioned.
Nitpick: Negro is pretty bad but it’s not a slur per se, more of a case where the terminology evolved. The slur is the N-word. Which is to say: My not very informed impression is that even racists don’t use the word “negro.”
And “n*gga” is a term of solidarity black people can choose to use and still isn’t the n-word!
They… don’t though.
“Black” in Spanish is “negro/negra”, said with an “e” like in “pet”.
Exactly ?
I’m sorry, you think “negro” is the n-word?
That would be because you would be saying it wrong if you pronounce it the same way, so yeah, that would be pretty weird.
… No, they don’t. It’s pretty ignorant and kinda racist in itself to even make that assumption
And that joke is racist/unacceptable.
Hard disagree. Languages differ and can be unintentionally offensive if people lack context and that is kinda funny. It plays on the joke in the comic of the person ordering really overthinking things instead of being aware that context makes ordering a black coffee a neutral thing.
The title builds on the joke and is pretty funny. Negro as used in Spanish isn’t offensive or derogatory outside of specific usage just like black.
Do you mean because that’s you ordering in the comic? Because apparently that’s you ordering in the comic.
It seems you’ve fallen right into my trap
Holy shit, that person thought of a racist word in their head! Get 'em!
Race is very nuanced - it’s not bla- er, a very dark color and a much lighter color.
Are you saying it’s non-binary? Are you trying to turn me gay?
There are two wolves inside you — one is black, the other is gay. They are both non-binary.
This seems more offensive than just saying “coffee, black”.
Never bothered Jeanway or Tuvok. :V
“What would Janeway do?” is a great way to navigate through life.
I am not being sarcastic in the slightest.
Good thing we already know what she would do with the Trolley Problem.
I take it noir.
With sadness, rain, and a grey city mired in mysteries?
… until she walked in. Then things got interesting.
Your comment is the reason I had to go make another cup
Some dude in the distance playing a trumpet solo
…like my men
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Black isn’t a bad word lol, but last I saw a mercworks comic was the mid 2010s so ¯\(ツ)/¯
I recently had a similar experience. I was playing Codenames Duet in public, and because of their color, I had always referred to the “assassin” squares as “black.” So I suddenly realized I was out in public talking about how I was trying to “avoid the blacks.”
From the context, I’m sure there was no confusion, but regardless, I thought it was a good idea to look up the correct name, “assassin,” and try to start using that word instead of “black.”
I play a card game called Spitzer, where one of the rules is that the holders of the two black queens end up on a team. It is incredibly common to say things like “you beat the blacks”, etc. Context is everything.
Since Spitzer is definitely of German origin, there’s an easy solution. Instead of saying “You beat the blacks,” you can simply say, “Du hast die Schwarzen besiegt.”
First time i saw the comic i thought it was someone embarassed of asking a black coffee 😭
























