Hi Tamar,

>>IMO, there is a great difference between insulting and discrimination. Discrimination is about generalisations that are insulting. Here I miss te generalisation.
>
>The generalization is implied. If you say "She's blonde and an airhead," it's clear you're describing two different characteristics, but "She's a blonde airhead" carries an implication that there's a relationship between the two.

I just see it a bit different. If you say a 'blonde airhead', I would take there might be something like a 'black airhead' as well, with different characteristics. IOW, I do see the word 'blond' as a specification of the population of 'airheads'. BTW, the word 'blond' in holland is often associated with 'dumb', so a 'blond airhead' could be intepretated as a 'dumb airhead'. IOW, I don't see that when I say 'blond airhead' that this implies that all blonds are airheads, or that all airheads are blond. For the same reason I cannot conclude that when someone says 'Dumb black' that all blacks are dumb nor that all dumb are blacks.

I Can OTOH see that from an historical viewpoint (suppression of blacks in the 20th century) see that some expression carries an extra emotional meaning. However, though this might enfore the insult, it by definition is not discrimination yet.

I just can't see your viewpoint. Maybe there is a literate up here, who can give their take on it.


>I don't know any stereotypes about Dutch people, so I can't come up with a realistic analogy here, but suppose for a moment that the Dutch were said to be prone to fighting. Saying "Boy, Walter sure is belligerent" is clearly just about you, but if I said "Walter's just a belligerent Dutchman," it takes on an additional connotation, playing on the expectation that the listener knows that all Dutchman are belligerent.

Again, I cannot draw that conclusion. If you say "belligerent Dutchman", you specifying a type of dutchman, not that all Dutchman are belligerent nor that all belligerent are dutchman.

I'm well aware that your viewpoint might be cultural to american language, but the way I learned and practise english and dutch (In dutch those rules are the same) I cannot view it this way.

Walter,