"Aikido" becomes a mainstream verb

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[Don_Modesto]

From http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ridley30nov30,0,3142352.story?coll=la-opinion-center

"The solution to the "nigger" question is to blunt the weapon before it can be used, as gays have done with "queer" and women with "bitch." Aikido the word; turn it against your enemies. To do otherwise merely strengthens every bigot, every racist, every hate-monger, every closeted race-baiter (and has anyone discussed the irony of Trent Lott becoming the Senate minority whip?), every failed-actor-turned-comedian who wants to lash out and wound and bring low a black individual."

[ChristianBoddum]

Hm !
I always say that turning the attack against or back to your enemy is really not Aikido,
though most people have this idea about Aikido (non-practitioners).
If we should Aikido the word, then we should make it move in a direction we both
want it go to - away ? absorbed by a vacuum of common interest ?
If we all could tie our tongues then there wouldn't be no word to react to !

[billybob]

Don,

thanks for sharing that!

No longer do I have to hear "judo chop", "get him Kato", now I get to hear "Aikido".

About the article:
I'm truly glad to hear a man say that he and his children are who they are, and categories be damned. I suggested to a very close friend that that was Exactly my hope for the future. That the very word would become a joke - because it will represent a concept that has died, been overshadowed - become a byword for oppression cast off.

Oo. That was fun. Made me feel free for a second.

Dave

[James Davis]

Treat words just like you would a fist. Don't let them hit you. Get out of the way and don't let them hurt you. Even if they manage to score a hit, you don't necessarily have to return fire. Deny them the reaction that they're looking for.

Establish that you are in control of yourself and that they can't take that away from you.

[crbateman]

Good point, James. Unlike a fist, a word cannot hurt you unless you let it.

[Jim ashby]

No-one can give offense, you have to take it.