Pc Version Of 'The Dambusters'

[sddsddean]

Watched the Dambusters again last night on Ch5 (I think!). This is the first time I've noticed that Guy Gibson's black labrador has had his name changed. For those that don't know, his name was N*gg*r, but in this version it was overdubbed to Trigger. Now, I know the N word is abhorrent and totally agree with that, but if we start changing historical facts, just to suit current 'sentiments', is that wrong? Surely history teaches us why things should change, but if you remove them in the first place, you have no benchmark. Is this the thin end of the wedge and the start of us all being duped and influenced by re-written history as envisaged in '1984'? or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill?

[KUSTARD]

In real life now. What I thought was really sad was the fact that the dog's gravestone was removed on the RAF base where he was buried because of all this pc nonsense. Beware if your name is "Black" or something of that ilk. You won't be able to have it on a gravestone in the future!!!!

[Redhelen72]

That word has no place in today's society If the people who 'own' it want to use it thats up to them but the history behind that word is disgusting and nasty.

[Redhelen72]

It was removed and replaced just missing the offensive language

[Zacs-Master]

08:46 completely correct, Red. I’m not sure why the AB old farts find it so difficult to comprehend that a white person using the word is offensive to the race it was describing, whereas the use by the people it was designed to insult is being done in irony.

[bhg481]

It's difficult to understand because, back in the day, it was a perfectly ordinary word used to describe the colour of railway coaches etc, just as the word for a female dog has become taboo to use because some people started to use it in a n insulting manner. The old uses for the words still exist but we're not allowed to use them and we even strike them from history.

[Zacs-Master]

It’s not a perfectly ordinary word. It was designed to denigrate a race of people. Just because it was in use in daily life at one time doesn’t make it right. It was used to describe a colour because that colour was the same as the skin of the people it was disparaging, therefore doubly insulting.

[bhg481]

We'll have to declare Guy Gibson a racist then if he deliberately gave his dog an insulting name.

[Spicerack]

//It was used to describe a colour because that colour was the same as the skin of the people it was disparaging, therefore doubly insulting.//

Amazing, if true.

[Zacs-Master]

You’d have to come up with a different explanation as to why a colour matching a black persons skin shade wasn’t the reason for its use then, Spicey.

[Spicerack]

I'm not claiming to be an etymologist, Zac. In fact I couldn't even spell it.
I'm just saying that's an amazing fact...if it is true.

[vulcan42]

Didn't the word come about because of a mispronunciation and therefore misspelling, of the word *** which is Spanish for Black? anyway it is wrong to rewrite history to appease modern culture. This is just one word, next week a sentence, next year a paragraph, removed to make history more palatable. How far does it go, will, in a hundred years, according to the history books, there was no slavery?

[douglas9401]

Black is only used because Nish Kumar appropriated brown for Indians and the various splinter groups of that region.

I blame the Empire.

[Zacs-Master]

I can’t see any other reason for it, Spicey. Perfectly logical for the unenlightened times.

[Spicerack]

If I had to guess, I'd say the word (and/or variations thereof) existed and then the people came.
Like I say, just guessing.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ This is just one word’ yep, one which black Afro-American peoples associate with the almost complete enslaving of their ancestors.
There’s a big difference between cutting out or changing an offensive word and pretending that a whole event (slavery) didn’t happen.

[douglas9401]

Just like Eskimos having more than 50 words for snow, Zulus have dozens for black.

They only have one phrase meaning 'oh no, not this again' though.

[Zacs-Master]

Maybe the Scot’s could adopt that word for your independence referendii, Dooogie?

[Spicerack]

You mustn't say Eskimos, douglas.

[bhg481]

Spicy - I think your last comment just sums this up nicely; a word which has been in common usage for years suddenly becomes taboo because somebody chooses to be insulted by it.

[Sqad]

That was then, this is now.
G.P Gibson's dog was called N i gger which was normal then but isn't now. Death doesnt wipe out one's history or one's name.
Gibson's dog was N igger was then and is now. Today one would n't use the name just as Germans do not call their children Adolph........but he is still Adolph Hitler.

Different times, different world different philosophies.

N igger is an unacceptable term for use today, but the dog is still....N .Gger