How To Search People In The Philippines?

Is it helping, or hurting Black people when institutions such as Yahoo! censor words like "*****"?

• Here in Yahoo! answers, geographical references such as those to ****** Island; ****** Occidental, Philippines, or ******, Pontevedra, Spain, are all censored. If you don't what I am talking about, then fill in the blank in this logical sequence: Your toe grows, your foot grows, your ankle grows, your shin grows, your _________. The word we are supposedly talking about is spelled very similar to, and sounds a lot like, the Blacks-only hair product, called "Re-Gro" for women who have lost hair. Even The United ***** College Fund is censored. But, it still flies to say "colored people" so get your fill. It seems like pandering to certain people would be very bad for those people. It could make them become hated by everyone else. We all know of the "teacher's pet" who everyone, naturally, despised. It seems also, like expecting less of Black people, insofar as social standards are concerned is harmful to them. Lastly, it seems like constantly differentiating Blacks, or saying something "is different" for Black people, is bad for Blacks as well. Just go to Google and search for the following items. Google will make full-sentence suggestions based on your keywords. why are white people why are chinese people You will find that Google suggests many items, such as "why are white people smarter than black people." This will work with any race of people, except one. Now try searching for the following. why are black people No suggestions. Google has blocked the a-z list of items that, until recently, were suggested, such as "why do black people act like animals." No joke. At this moment, Google has failed to censor "why DO black people" so have fun with that. There are some real truisms in there. Add an "a" to the search to see all of the "a" suggestions. You can do this with most every letter in the alphabet. I am pretty sure this is a really bad thing for Black people. In the country where I live, Blacks had no rights at all for most of the time since the foundation of the country. They were thought of as livestock, and as 3/5 human, and so forth for hundreds of years. Recently, in the 1950s, we began a massive social experiment, called "Integration," in which Blacks were considered equal to everyone else. So, this experiment has been in full swing since about 1968. The Blacks have had more than equality, they have had special treatment. Such special treatment was somewhat understandable in the process of assimilating these folks into society. But now, we are all equal, no longer differentiated in our theaters, schools, and water fountains. It seems to me that megacorps like Yahoo and Google have the power to differentiate Black people right back into what was the norm for hundreds of years. That would be an awful shame. All of the demands for special treatment in the education field seem bad for Blacks as well. If we really want to show that we care about our Blacks, we need to expect them to pass the same tests as everyone else. There is no Hispanic test, or Asian test, or White test. We need to expect them to act with the same level of respect and dignity as everyone else as well. If special demands for Blacks keep getting made, then Blacks could end up in "special" schools for Blacks. That would be SO AWFUL, OMG I am crying my eyes out. My heart is bleeding out for my beloved nigras. Quick followup poll: How long do you think it will be before they censor the word "nigra?"

• Answer:

  Hi T1, Words have both a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. Denotation is the literal definition of a word while connotation is the emotion or feeling associated with that word. The kinds of words to which you're referring have developed strong negative connotations as a result of how they've been used over the decades. They've literally been used as weapons against African-Americans. To understand this requires that we be aware of the historical context of such usage. I favor Y!A trying to reduce the strong negative results of its users employing such words. We benefit by shedding light rather then heat on emotionally charged topics such as race. With a 400 year history of slavery and discrimination as a context, I think it's fair to say that the words that are considered derogatory by African-Americans should be avoided. The fact that some Y!A users don't follow that guideline is reason enough for Yahoo to impose what I consider to be a very mild and judicious use of censorship on this forum. It gives us a better chance to discuss emotionally charged topics without hurting people in the process. Regards.