Think about it with your own name and see how you feel about it.
This sounds like tu quoque. I'm not sure if you were addressing me specifically, but sure, I'll play along.
I'd be fine with it. If my name was used as a pejorative, it likely wouldn't be referring to me specifically. If it somehow
was referring to me specifically, the assertion about me is either false and I don't care as long as I'm not going to jail, or I did something to become so infamous. Then, I'd have to look myself in the mirror and think, "Well, maybe I shouldn't have punched all those dolphins..." or whatever I apparently did in this hypothetical scenario that resulted in my name being used in a negative light. Others using my very generic name as a pejorative either wouldn't concern me or I would have to take responsibility for and reflect on my actions.
This is just one man's opinion. I can't speak for anyone else. If it bothers you, I'm not going to debate that. However, I'm not going to take something as a personal attack when it isn't. I have too many things to worry about to let that, of all things, bother me.
However, I'm not on board with your logic.
And you don't have to be though you've misrepresented things I said which I don't believe is fair.
Saying that using a specific name as a pejorative is ok because there isn't a previously established social norm to discourage people from using it seems less reasonable than stopping to think about whether people are negatively affected and then adjusting your behavior and vocabulary if necessary.
First, whether or not its "okay" is not for me to decide. I merely attempted to answer a question I understood to not be rhetorical. Was I mistaken? You tell me.
Second, and more importantly, I didn't say nor imply that "using a specific name as a pejorative is ok because there isn't a previously established social norm to discourage people from using it". That's a straight up strawman.
Third, and since you brought it up, I have thought about this, read articles about it, and discussed it with friends and colleagues. One such article is
this opinion piece written by a black woman named Karen which did help shape some of the conversations I had regarding the use of "Karen" as a pejorative/meme. To be clear, I don't expect you to read or agree with it; I'm only pointing out that I found her point of view on the subject in the article and related tweets to be useful.
Fourth, if you're not going to address what I actually wrote in my previous post, I don't have much more to add. I don't want to spend my time replying to counterpoints you made of arguments I
didn't make.
Saying that a specific name is universally understood to have a negative meaning about a group of people, but that the group of people whose name is that specific word won't be affected by (mis)use of that pejorative seems very much like an "I'm not affected, so I'm not going to care" attitude.
Again, I didn't say nor imply that.
Finally, the fact you have already seen people who feel a need to create disclaimers about their given name to qualify what kind of person they are seems pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?
No, it doesn't. It wasn't a disclaimer literally at all; it was a joke/amended movie quote someone named Karen made. Contextually, that's the beginning and end of it. At this point, I can't tell if you're serious or merely playing devil's advocate.
Regardless, I don't really want to get roped into a big thing regarding this. I'm going to take my own advice from the other thread and accept that I'm not going to get through to you especially since you have already resorted to strawmen. The only reason I replied is because I didn't appreciate your egregious misrepresentation of my post nor the condescending tone of your reply.