A horse naming dilemma makes Slate

[ycbm]

Not really, this is meant in no way disrespectful, if you don’t read papers, or patiently wait for the news at 6 and you have NO social media ?
how are people supposed to know? I very much stick to living my life, dont really have much time for watching tv etc

Well, a bit like Rowreach says really. You read a thread like this and think 'why would that be offensive?' and press the Google or whatever icon on your phone and look it up before responding to the thread, and that's another new thing learnt today.
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[Rowreach]

So the historic town in the northwest should change its name from Blackburn! Not everything is racist but a use of words.Blackboard. Black jack. To me when read name I saw no racism but a good name! What about whiteboard is that racist. I fully understand about racism and it’s affect on people but sometimes it’s taken to extreme ?

At this point I wish there was a big sigh emoji ...

 

[ycbm]

So the historic town in the northwest should change its name from Blackburn! Not everything is racist but a use of words.Blackboard. Black jack. To me when read name I saw no racism but a good name! What about whiteboard is that racist. I fully understand about racism and it’s affect on people but sometimes it’s taken to extreme ?

None of those terms are used to refer to white people moving out of an area because non-white people are moving in.

I get as annoyed as anyone about calls of racism where there is none, but that really isn't an appropriate competition name for a horse.

ETA try and put yourself in the shoes of a black show jumper about to start their round hearing "White Flight" called over the tannoy.
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[Barton Bounty]

Well, a bit like Rowreach says really. You read a thread like this and think 'why would that be offensive?' and press the Google or whatever icon on your phone and look it up before responding to the thread, and that's another new thing learnt today.
.

Yeah I did google it, afterwards ?
Didnt see any other post ?

 

[Barton Bounty]

So the historic town in the northwest should change its name from Blackburn! Not everything is racist but a use of words.Blackboard. Black jack. To me when read name I saw no racism but a good name! What about whiteboard is that racist. I fully understand about racism and it’s affect on people but sometimes it’s taken to extreme ?

We are obviously a minority!
Lets not mention a black mamba!

 

[Gloi]

If that is the horse's registered name from the breeder how do they go about changing it? I can see why it isn't the most appropriate name but if it is registered in a breed society what do you do apart from calling it something else when the registered name isn't needed.

 

[TPO]

So the historic town in the northwest should change its name from Blackburn! Not everything is racist but a use of words.Blackboard. Black jack. To me when read name I saw no racism but a good name! What about whiteboard is that racist. I fully understand about racism and it’s affect on people but sometimes it’s taken to extreme ?

Clearly you do not "fully understand".

We are obviously a minority!
Lets not mention a black mamba!

Never seen posters so proud to be so ignorant.

It's quite sad to keep seeing the same individuals repeatedly drag this resource into the gutter and ruin it for so many.

 

[DiNozzo]

So the historic town in the northwest should change its name from Blackburn! Not everything is racist but a use of words.Blackboard. Black jack. To me when read name I saw no racism but a good name! What about whiteboard is that racist. I fully understand about racism and it’s affect on people but sometimes it’s taken to extreme ?

On the off chance that you are not a stupid, nasty, little troll...

White flight means that white people move away from an area that black people (in the main) are moving to. There is a very obvious implication that this is because white people don't want to live in the same area as black people because they see black people as 'bad'. The name of the horse isn't racist as such, but there are definitely racist implications; imagine that little girl at school telling her friends about her new pony and a black child hears it and repeats the story to their parents? How would they feel, even if the child is unaware of the term?

There is no negative implication that links race to Blackburn, black jack, or blackboard, hence why these words are not racist...

 

[cauda equina]

Not really, this is meant in no way disrespectful, if you don’t read papers, or patiently wait for the news at 6 and you have NO social media ?
how are people supposed to know? I very much stick to living my life, dont really have much time for watching tv etc

HHO is social media and a great source of information

 

[Caol Ila]

This took off.

CI what is the general tone of the replies? I am not interested enough to subscribe but curious enough to ask you. Incidentally I would not sell the pony if he was perfect. Certainly not to replace with another one anyway. Good ponies are super hard to find! I'd just change the name and can't see any reason why a parent feels she needs her 10 year old daughter's permission for that. I doubt the kid paid for the pony!

The responses are pretty much all advising Mom to use it as an educational opportunity - to explain why a name like that might be hurtful to other people even if kid doesn't see it that way (much like this thread). The threat to sell the pony is a bit extreme, but Mom should put her foot down and make the kid change its name.

In the US, there would be very few people, especially amongst the fairly educated middle-class that you'd find at a horse show, who would not know what "white flight" means.

The analogy to the city of Blackburn makes no sense. If they called the horse "White Lightning," it might connote a terrible drink but it doesn't allude to racism. It's not the words "black" or "white," but how they are used. I would call a horse "Blackjack" but not "BlackFace."

I had some friends who bought a horse called "Darky" by the previous owner. They changed his name at light speed.

 

[Barton Bounty]

HHO is social media and a great source of information

Apparently so , ?but heaven forbid you dont agree with the others ???

 

[Barton Bounty]

Clearly you do not "fully understand".



Never seen posters so proud to be so ignorant.

It's quite sad to keep seeing the same individuals repeatedly drag this resource into the gutter and ruin it for so many.

Feel free to use user ignore! I have on many that love to cause arguments ?

 

[Rowreach]

Feel free to use user ignore! I have on many that love to cause arguments ?

It's a huge relief to me that I am one of them

 

[TPO]

Feel free to use user ignore! I have on many that love to cause arguments ?

I've tried numerous times but you dominate so many threads that you and your pal make the forum unreadable. That's why so many have left/taken a break from here.

 

[splashgirl45]

I hadn’t heard the term before either but find it odd that the mother is allowing a 20 year old to dictate, as the term is so racist it’s a no brainier that it should be changed, the child should have no say in the matter but mum could give her options of what could be used instead so she has some input

 

[BBP]

My horse has a ‘Blackie’ and a ‘Darkie’ in his immediate ancestry. Descriptive horse names are all well and good and quite old fashioned, but I was very glad my horses registered name didn’t follow the same naming regime.

 

[splashgirl45]

We had blackie at one yard I was at and a previous yard had a Sambo, this was many years ago when no one realised it could cause offence .

 

[maya2008]

I changed our latest pony’s stable name - the one she had was the name of a toy and I was worried it would have encouraged future child owners to treat her like one. So we changed it to a name with similar sounds but a different meaning. New name is prettier, pony is happy and I think it’s probably safer for her future!

 

[blitznbobs]

Starlight flight —- pretty and hopefully only offensive to aliens

 

[dogatemysalad]

Another person here who hasn't heard this term before. However I used to ride a superb horse called Flight, so I think White Flight is a great name for a SJ.
I'm guessing Black Beauty and Black Bess are unacceptable now ?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

We had blackie at one yard I was at and a previous yard had a Sambo, this was many years ago when no one realised it could cause offence .

Tbh, I think it was more that no-one cared, if it did cause offence. Hopefully most of us have developed empathy since then.

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Another person here who hasn't heard this term before. However I used to ride a superb horse called Flight, so I think White Flight is a great name for a SJ.
I'm guessing Black Beauty and Black Bess are unacceptable now ?

No they are not unacceptable. This thread is so depressing. You have many people explaining very patientlty why black perople in the USA would find a term that is racially offensive, racially offensive. The work black is not offensive. The words Black Bastard are. A horse called Klu Klux King is offensive. The phrase White Flight has highly charged negative connotations that BLACK PEOPLE may well find offensive. Not because they are ludicrous snowflakes but because it is racially charged phrase. I would not call my horse Final Solution either. But Final Furlong is fine as is Find a Solutiuon. Sorry to dumnb this down but can you truly not see the difference?

And yet white person after white person after white person comes on here and dimisses this most basic of examples of racial sensitivity, the most basic of courtesies as 'nonsense'.

It has been explained before but just in case anyone is genuinley interested read this articicle or this excerpt. I know for sure who won't bother.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race

“I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience. You can see their eyes shut down and harden. It’s like treacle is poured into their ears, blocking up their ear canals. It’s like they can no longer hear us. ....Amid every conversation about Nice White People feeling silenced by conversations about race, there is a sort of ironic and glaring lack of understanding or empathy for those of us who have been visibly marked out as different for our entire lives, and live the consequences. It’s truly a lifetime of self-censorship that people of colour have to live. The options are: speak your truth and face the reprisals, or bite your tongue and get ahead in life. It must be a strange life, always having permission to speak and feeling indignant when you’re finally asked to listen. It stems from white people’s never-questioned entitlement, I suppose.
“I cannot continue to emotionally exhaust myself trying to get this message across, while also toeing a very precarious line that tries not to implicate any one white person in their role of perpetuating structural racism, lest they character-assassinate me.
“So I’m no longer talking to white people about race. I don’t have a huge amount of power to change the way the world works, but I can set boundaries. I can halt the entitlement they feel towards me and I’ll start that by stopping the conversation. The balance is too far swung in their favour. Their intent is often not to listen or learn, but to exert their power, to prove me wrong, to emotionally drain me, and to rebalance the status quo. I’m not talking to white people about race unless I absolutely have to. If there’s something like a media or conference appearance that means that someone might hear what I’m saying and feel less alone, then I’ll participate. But I’m no longer dealing with people who don’t want to hear it, wish to ridicule it and, frankly, don’t deserve it.”

 

[cauda equina]

Apparently so , ?but heaven forbid you dont agree with the others ???

Well of course you (generic you) don't have to agree with everyone but you (generic again) can still learn stuff; there are people on here whose lives are very different from my own and I'm grateful to hear about their different experiences

 

[dogatemysalad]

No they are not unacceptable. This thread is so depressing. You have many people explaining very patientlty why black perople in the USA would find a term that is racially offensive, racially offensive. The work black is not offensive. The words Black Bastard are. A horse called Klu Klux King is offensive. The phrase White Flight has highly charged negative connotations that BLACK PEOPLE may well find offensive. Not because they are ludicrous snowflakes but because it is racially charged phrase. I would not call my horse Final Solution either. But Final Furlong is fine as is Find a Solutiuon. Sorry to dumnb this down but can you truly not see the difference?

And yet white person after white person after white person comes on here and dimisses this most basic of examples of racial sensitivity, the most basic of courtesies as 'nonsense'.

It has been explained before but just in case anyone is genuinley interested read this articicle or this excerpt. I know for sure who won't bother.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race

“I can no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience. You can see their eyes shut down and harden. It’s like treacle is poured into their ears, blocking up their ear canals. It’s like they can no longer hear us. ....Amid every conversation about Nice White People feeling silenced by conversations about race, there is a sort of ironic and glaring lack of understanding or empathy for those of us who have been visibly marked out as different for our entire lives, and live the consequences. It’s truly a lifetime of self-censorship that people of colour have to live. The options are: speak your truth and face the reprisals, or bite your tongue and get ahead in life. It must be a strange life, always having permission to speak and feeling indignant when you’re finally asked to listen. It stems from white people’s never-questioned entitlement, I suppose.
“I cannot continue to emotionally exhaust myself trying to get this message across, while also toeing a very precarious line that tries not to implicate any one white person in their role of perpetuating structural racism, lest they character-assassinate me.
“So I’m no longer talking to white people about race. I don’t have a huge amount of power to change the way the world works, but I can set boundaries. I can halt the entitlement they feel towards me and I’ll start that by stopping the conversation. The balance is too far swung in their favour. Their intent is often not to listen or learn, but to exert their power, to prove me wrong, to emotionally drain me, and to rebalance the status quo. I’m not talking to white people about race unless I absolutely have to. If there’s something like a media or conference appearance that means that someone might hear what I’m saying and feel less alone, then I’ll participate. But I’m no longer dealing with people who don’t want to hear it, wish to ridicule it and, frankly, don’t deserve it.”

Why are you assuming I'm white just because I'm on a UK based forum ? I have mixed heritage, I was also born and lived in Kaduna.
Isn't it racist to assume someone's heritage without asking or seeing them ?

 

[Rowreach]

Where is my big sigh emoji

 

[Barton Bounty]

Well of course you (generic you) don't have to agree with everyone but you (generic again) can still learn stuff; there are people on here whose lives are very different from my own and I'm grateful to hear about their different experiences

At no time have i said I haven’t learned something new? Not sure where that comes from ?

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Why are you assuming I'm white just because I'm on a UK based forum ? I have mixed heritage, I was also born and lived in Kaduna.
Isn't it racist to assume someone's heritage without asking or seeing them ?

Your reply - along many others - is a white privilege kind of a reply. An 'oh everything is racist these days' sort of dismissive handwave. So you may be mixed race but that does not exempt you from being part of the problem of structural racism by your refusal to see racism, even when it it beating you over the head.

 

[cauda equina]

At no time have i said I haven’t learned something new? Not sure where that comes from ?

I got the wrong end of the stick, sorry

 

[Barton Bounty]

I got the wrong end of the stick, sorry

That’s unlucky, do you know where that stick has been ?????

 

[stangs]

Another person here who hasn't heard this term before. However I used to ride a superb horse called Flight, so I think White Flight is a great name for a SJ.
I'm guessing Black Beauty and Black Bess are unacceptable now ?

Following this absolutely impeccable logic, I will be calling my horse White Power. “White” isn’t a bad word, and “power” isn’t a bad word either. Therefore, because phrases have no meaning outside the semantic content of the words that make them up, “White Power” is a perfectly good, non-racist, non-political name for a horse. Anyone who disagrees with me is an argumentative woke snowflake