Vintage Thunderbirds from japan...are they on crack???

[Bionic-Joe]

My Mom is Polish...and My Dad..Scottish...I grew up on the streets of Chicago with every white Trash gang member making fun of me because I was Polish and could speak it... People are assholes... But not everyone is...we're all from the same genetic line...we are all cousins.... That's what gets me... why are people jerks to their own kin??? Only one race...the Human race...

[Dave W]

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I don't think Jon had any racist intentions, he's been in the MI business and I've heard the term used as descriptive of a guitar's origin.

But it was always a racial slur, no doubt about it. When I was growing up, back when there was still a good bit of anti-Japanese sentiment after WWII, it was an intentional slur.

[uwe]

Given the international and multi-ethnic background of this forum, I think we should all agree that Spics, Japs, Polacks, Rednecks, Niggers, Yankees, Gooks, Redskins, Wops, Ivans, Chinks, Camel-Jockeys and what have you are all equally welcome here, we only draw the line at Krauts really. It's ok to use those terms amongst us as long as you (a) don't consider yourself anything better and (b) never forget that behind all the tongue-in-cheek clichées there is an individual that might teach you better about those collective preconceptions.

That said, I have always wondered why - to my knowledge at least - we've never had a black LBOler here (if I have just ignored someone, my apologies!). I assume that it is hopefully not because we have sometimes posted pictures of the Confederate flag  "Rebel" Gibson Victory bass (an oxymoron if there ever was one, it should of course have been renamed the "Rebel Defeat bass"!) Seriously, I always put it down to us being essentially a forum of people with rock music roots (even if some of us have moved on to other music), still it has made me wonder. Or is my thinking that there must be a lot of black bass players out there just another whitey preconception? Are there more black players at TalkBass?

[the mojo hobo]

So when is the last time you saw a black guy playing a Gibson bass?

[uwe]

I wasn't just talking about this specific forum and I don't believe that black players have a specific dislike of Gibsons. Tiran Porter of the Doobies played various Gibsons, the guy from Brothers Johnson played a Grabber, Stanley Clarke played an EB early on, Ralphe Armstrong played an RD, one of the Jackson Brothers an EB-3, granted all this was a while ago! 

[mc2NY]

Jap is racist? Hmmmm....new one on me. It always seemed to be the abbreviated version of spelling out Jaaaaapannneeesse. I just looked it up and some dictionaries list it as an abreviation, some say sometimes offensive, some do not. American slang dictionary just says it is short for Japanese.

It is not listed in the racial slur database for "Asian"
http://www.rsdb.org/race/asians

And the racial slur dictionary only lists "Jap" as an abreviation for Japanese, which is how I used it.
http://www.rsdb.org/search?q=Japanese

But no offense meant on my part, although I personally think all the PC bullsh*t is totally out of control. Many words that were once perfectly fine have been morphed by select groups of people.

A few year back, I got flamed on a site when I used the word "midget," which apparently has also been hijacked by the PC Police. I was told they are now "little people." Funny because my "little people" friend calls herself a "midget." my other friend still owns a "midget MG" car and has no intention of calling it a "little people MG."

As far as I know, the only "JAP" that was offensive is if it was used to refer to a Jewish girl, meaning Jewish American Princess.

Anyway, I meant JAPANESE. I've written for a lot of publications and "Jap" being offensive is a new one to me. Sort of like when my assistant editor changed all of the "Negroe bluesmen" references in a feature to "African American Bluesmen" and I made him change them all back and we got in a HUGE P.C. Fight about it. I called my drummer, who is Black and a music historian who has hosted TV series. He confirmed the proper term WAS "Negro bluesmen."

I never offended any of my JAPANESE pals over the years....which included the heads of companies I was a bass endorser for....plus I also did work with the heads of Roland and Yamaha and Korg, which all flew me to various meeting with them in the U.S. and Europe.

So, if my use of "Jap" offended you, please substitute the unabridged "Japanese" in its place.

[Dave W]

I've removed the atomic bomb pic. Way out of line. This is not a joke.

Jon, I accept that you intended no harm, but it's always been a racial or national slur, at least going back to WWII, regardless of what any database says.