Offensive, racist or an example of political correctness gone overboard?

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I used to enjoy using the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black." Having enjoyed cooking over a fire, the visual reference was very clear to me. But then I began to wonder if the originator had been racist. When I think back, I am horrified at some of the phrases that were common place when I was a child. I appreciate that many of those phrases have been adapted to be less offensive. My husband on the other hand thinks that political correctness has gone way too far. When our daughter's learned to sit in a group of other children they were instructed to sit "criss cross applesauce." If you asked them to sit "Indian style," they didn't know what the heck you were talking about. This seemed like a welcome thing to me. If anyone had been hurt or offended by this phrase, then it seems better to avoid it. However my husband thinks the whole thing is ridiculous. In fact he refuses to use the term Native American. My husband and daughters, when speaking of their heritage, say Indian not Native American.

Anyway, are you offended if someone uses the idiom "the pot calling the kettle black?"
Do you think that it's origin it's racist?
Or is my concern about this an example of political correctness gone overboard?
 
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listen, my Mother still uses the phrase, "free white and 21", I still use the I still use the Pot calling the kettle black though, I doubt it had racist intent. you could always modify the phrase if you wanted to, "look at the water calling the sky blue"
 
Calling the kettle black is not racist. As you've said it originates from cooking with fire esp. wood fires.
Sitting Indian style also not racist. There are no Native Americans in my country (at least none descended from the original settlers) and we use the same phrase. I've always assumed it referred to how yogis sit.
 
In cases such as "sitting indian style", do you consider things like that racist if they are true? Just because things have connections to race or culture doesn't mean they're offensive.
 
I don't but in my culture what is considered racially offensive is very different from what is in the US for instance.
 
It's only racist if people interpret it so; since the racist implication (if there was any) has been outdated with time, it is no longer a racist idiom.
 
I think it is all a matter of context. On an interpersonal level, it is always best to be sensitive to the cues given off by others about what you say. Just because one thing doesn't offend so and so doesn't mean it isn't offensive to somebody else. Learning to be respectful of others is a matter of understanding that everybody has different tolerances and intolerances. It doesn't mean you change the person you are or how you speak, it just means that you are willing to acknowledge to someone else that you meant no offensive if they became offended by how you said something or the phrase you used.
 
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I think a lot of politically correct people spend way too much time looking for offense that doesn't exist, and then making it offensive.

"Pot calling the kettle black."
Why would that be considered racist? Because it has the word "black" in it?
"Sitting Indian style"
I too grew up with that one, and don't see it as an offensive term.

"Jewed him down in price"
Now, that's one I would consider racist and completely inappropriate.
 
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^ Oh dear.

I've always assumed the phrase came because back in the day your pots and kettles only came in black, like cast iron? I never realized it was once a racist slight.
 
middle1 said:
^ Oh dear.

I've always assumed the phrase came because back in the day your pots and kettles only came in black, like cast iron? I never realized it was once a racist slight.
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It's not. It comes from the pots and kettles being blackened on the open fire.
 
I've heard: "There's a nigger in the woodpile" used mostly without any racist sentiment to mean there hasn't been full disclosure. Of course the expression itself is racially offensive, however, I doubt it is ever used by racists.

The expression: "There's a fly in the ointment", however, while ostensibly not racist, seems to be used frequently in a racist way.



It would seem that racism is not a matter of vocabulary, which is why I find so much of the PC/political correctness sentiment so stupid.
 
MindYourHead said:
I think a lot of politically correct people spend way too much time looking for offense that doesn't exist, and then making it offensive.

"Pot calling the kettle black."
Why would that be considered racist? Because it has the word "black" in it?
"Sitting Indian style"
I too grew up with that one, and don't see it as an offensive term.

"Jewed him down in price"
Now, that's one I would consider racist and completely inappropriate.
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I grew up with saying/hearing all of these.

The pot calling the kettle black stems from cast iron cookware and was never used as a racial slur. And I grew up in a place where plenty of them were uttered freely.... what with the Grand Dragon of the KKK living in my home town for a while. :ohwell:

I never thought about "sitting Indian style" as being related to Hindu yogis or people from India. But now that I think on it - it makes as much sense as referring to Native Americans.

I switched to the term Native Americans years ago for a couple of reasons. First because I had delved into our history and was learning some truths. It was said when Columbus landed in the "new country" he thought he was near India and therefore named the indigenous peoples, Indians. Grrr....My blood heats up when I think of him and all of the crap that follows in his name. Right away, I dropped the term. When I went to Mesa Verde and learned many of the people originally from there referred to themselves as "The People", I began to use the term in earnest. Secondly, when I began to encounter more people who were from India, it made sense.

I never knew what "jew them down" meant until I moved away from home. Once I discovered the true meaning I dropped it from my vocabulary. Again, in my family it was never meant as a racial slur. Only a phrase we used to mean "bartering". [shrug].
 
Flavus Aquila said:
I've heard: "There's a nigger in the woodpile" used mostly without any racist sentiment to mean there hasn't been full disclosure. Of course the expression itself is racially offensive, however, I doubt it is ever used by racists.

The expression: "There's a fly in the ointment", however, while ostensibly not racist, seems to be used frequently in a racist way.



It would seem that racism is not a matter of vocabulary, which is why I find so much of the PC/political correctness sentiment so stupid.
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+1
 
Sali said:
I find this thread fascinating.

Anyone care for some Brazil nuts to eat while we watch it unfold?

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Boy! You are gettin' too big for yor britches!....

:lol:
 
MindYourHead said:
I think a lot of politically correct people spend way too much time looking for offense that doesn't exist, and then making it offensive.

"Pot calling the kettle black."
Why would that be considered racist? Because it has the word "black" in it?
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I agree. I don't think it's racist. Now, if the pot called the kettle a goddamn ni--er, that would be a different matter.
 
Black Sheep said:
I agree. I don't think it's racist. Now, if the pot called the kettle a goddamn ni--er, that would be a different matter.
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I'd honestly be more impressed at the fact the pot could yell at another object than offended about what it yelled, but I digress.

I personally think a lot of phrases or words have been turned to shit by political correctness. I got in trouble by one of my professors for describing a company as "being in the black" -_- like seriously? Last I checked, anyway, being in the black was a GOOD THING.
 
I am reminded of this story, I guess there are times when people can exaggerate political correctness.

Houston Chronicle
Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Rhyme with a past leads to racial suit against Southwest Airlines
Kansas City, Kansas

A judge has set a trial date in a discrimination lawsuit filed against Southwest Airlines by two black passengers who were upset when a flight attendant recited a version of a rhyme with a racist history.

Grace Fuller, 48, and her sister, Louise Sawyer, 46, were returning from Las Vegas two years ago when flight attendant Jennifer Cundiff, trying to get passengers
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