is asking a black man to dance a "jig" racist?

[bigtree]

12. 'jig' or not

It was definitely inappropriate to ask the President to get up dance for her.

I think it can be safely criticized as insensitive to the history of the term as it relates to blacks in America.

It's hard to say what Jennifer's intent was in asking the President this. She said it following the President's remarks about the appropriateness of folks joking with him. It was clear to many folks who have had experience with the term as a racial slur. that it was inappropriate.

That insulting connotation hasn't appeared to be as apparent to those who have not had experience with the term as a derogatory and are ignorant of it's origins. That might be indicative of Jennifer's own ignorance of its divisive and insulting potential and past.

I will say, though, that her lead-in with a complaint that foreigners were holding her husband back from finding work as an engineer as a result of our immigration policies was a red flag to me. It smacks of the Tea party complaints and finger-in-face Brewer's complaints. It just doesn't help that her complaints followed with her parroting of this historically offensive slur offered without a hint of guile to our nation's first black president.