Monday, February 16, 2009

Apologies and regrets over the use of a derogatory term

It has been pointed out on various blogs that I referred to "windowlickers" in posts at the end of last week. I picked this up from another Labour blogger who alleged that Guido Fawkes has used it to describe the people who visit this site (I don't know if he ever has done so). At that point I thought the phrase meant someone looking in a window, like a kid at a candyshop, wishing they were inside.

When someone challenged me on the use of the term and said it referred to the mentally handicapped I said immediately that I was unaware of that and would check it out. Having done so it is now clear to me that the term does have this awful meaning and so I unreservedly apologise for using it and undertake never to do so again. As I say, sorry.
Posted by at 4:44 AM
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20 comments:

  1. Good.

    Now go ask your bosses to apologise for screwing up the economy in particular, and the country in general for the past decade.

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  2. How would you equate Carol Thatcher's use of the word 'Gollywog' and your use of the word 'Windowlicker'.

    Secondly, the honourable thing to do would be to resign. Before you're fired.

    There should be no tolerance for this sort of thing, eh?

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  3. well swiss bob,

    i mistook what the term meant. i apologised as soon as i found out. i have not pretended it was a "joke".

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  4. The blogosphere has been horrendously abused and polluted, in the gravest and most unacceptable way. I am outraged, incandescent, grossly offended and insulted that you would even consider the use in any shape or form of the foul terminology you have been employing Mr Draper -- golliwogg is just not acceptable as a word, a concept, a thought or indeed a dolly. Purge yourself in purgatory, prostrate yourself in penance, the stocks are where you belong Mr Draper. Bring back the tumbrils.

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  5. Carol said much the same thing. Didn't she, do you think she should get the benefit of the doubt as well because she didn't deliberately mean any offense by it?

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  6. So how's this blogging thing going then Derek?

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  7. The term means what the people using it and/or hearing it mean/understand by it. I had and have no idea what Gudio was using the term to mean but to me - it relates to my mad seven-stone lurcher Hooch who licks the car windows. Also a First bus he jumped onto at Cadishead one time.

    This is clear enough from my post about Guido's use of the term against his own people. That can be found here and the Guido quote can be found in situ at a Lib Dem/Libertarian blog Cicero's Songs here.

    The term actually appears to have at least two different etymological routes. The offensive one seems to come from North America, whereas the idea of window shopping cf "XYZ is "lickable" = very attractive" is the European use. Specifically a translation from a French Idiom for window shopping - "faire du lèche-vitrine" - which is referenced here and apparently in the Aphex Twin video to their/his song The Windowlicker (NB: Video may offend sensitive souls - bikini babes - and the music is ambient post-house).

    The unfortunately named - already named when rescued - slobbering hound Hooch is probably nearer to the N American usage because he actually likes licking windows. It's just something he does. And he couldn't make sense in a blog comment either I'll be bound.

    Nonetheless if anyone's been offended by my own or my protege's use of this term to refer to deliberately offensive no-limits blog commenting "trolls" - then sincerely sorry.

    Now, please do not go away and find an obscure meaing for troll like, oh I don't know, sexual predator, and confuse this with the standard usage of the term on the internet these days which is synonymous with "wind up merchant", generally anonymous, anonymised or pseudonymed.

    For a while I had a persistent troll on my blog who would align all sorts of innocent or innocently used terms with being un-PC because of some obscure alleged or real origin. Long forgotten if ever known by most of us living real life, rather than some cowardly second life.

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  8. no... if you read adrian chiles' account of the incident she knew what she was saying. i did not

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  9. OK, Derek, drop it now, please!

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  10. 1. It would be a good idea to reset the "clock" on this blog;

    2. If you are not going to publish my comments on this Derek - as the unnamed "another Labour blogger" I have an interest - could you please email me my text and if possible links. I didn't keep a copy before pressing send.

    Thanks.

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  11. Have you come up with another phrase to berate those who have the temerity to look "in a window, like a kid at a candyshop, wishing they were inside".

    We can't let them get away with it! Only kids can look like they are looking in a candyshop wishing they were inside. All others who partake in this sordid pastime must be right-wing nazis, paedophiles or bankers.

    Action must be taken - please start a campaign. I think Conservativehome were suggesting this action was okay! - let's take them on with an internet campaign (for old times sake).

    Can we use the term window-steamers, or single-glazing lickers to refer to these cretins? I assume the lickers in question don't have double-glazing as they are clearly not environmental lovers - unless double-glazing is a status symbol for bankers - in which case I hate it. It's too confusing - Derek can you tell me again what I should be thinking with regard to glazing of windows.

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  12. very good james. i made a mistake, i deserve to get the piss rippe dout of me...

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  13. James,

    I think the word to describe that well-worn analogy of a child looking in a candy-shop window and wishing he was inside is: "window-looker".

    I suppose I'll get in trouble for saying that now.

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  14. hey Dolly, what are your views on this?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tgDbnPd_B4&eurl=http://donalblaney.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-uncanny.html

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  15. You must have known the term was derogatory. You must have known it might potentially be seriously insulting to some.

    If you did indeed suspect it was dergoatory I find your apology a hollow gesture and typical of the sort of spin we have come to expect over the last 10 years from this dreadful labour administration.

    If you did not suspect then you are simple foolish.

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  16. I think you should perhaps think long and hard about what happened with the use of this word and understand that the reaction you got from it is not that much different to the bullying behaviour of the zero tolerance movement. Remember, ignorance is not an excuse.

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  17. Dolly's downfall - ha ha ha ha ha!

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  18. no jobs around. i didn't know it was derogatory. simply didn't. sorry

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  19. 'Draper's Downfall' on YouTube is a hoot.

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  20. Blimey derek - I can almost forgive the term window licker as a genuine mistake - but using the slightly less derogatory - but still offensive - term "mentally handicapped" reduces the impact of your apology somewhat.

    It's picky, but I hold you as a noted communicator and psychotherpist to be a little more careful about their language. Could do better !

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