Comments on: “Nordeast” a racist term? When will the madness stop?

By: borang

borang — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:44:04 +0000

I have a friend who headed a band a few years back here in Minneapolis, and their band name was “Nordeast.” Two of the band members grew up in Nordeast, and they were damn proud Nordeasterners. Sometimes I wish I would have grown up in Nordeast, don’cha know.

By: Bixby

Bixby — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:38:47 +0000

Don’t worry, I already called Al Sharpton on my Blackfone(tm). He should be here in a matter of days to protest this injustice.

By: aliecat

aliecat — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:03:32 +0000

So, when my mom refers to Germans as Krauts, is that racist too?

/we’re almost fully German.

By: mhansen

mhansen — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:10:33 +0000

I agree with Ed Kohler. My family finds a point of pride and oral history in discussing and mimicking the way our immigrant ancestors adapted to their new home in Eastern MN and Western WI. Not to mention my father and uncles’ childhood TV friend Axel and his Dog.

By: ksommers

ksommers — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:01:29 +0000

Nord is many foreign languages term for the word north, including Italian, French and German. This person needs to get a life

By: Ed Kohler

Ed Kohler — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:54:48 +0000

IMO, the term Nordeast celebrates the heritage of that part of town.

If you want to hear people speaking with a similar inflection in 2009, visit Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

By: noodleman

noodleman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:03:18 +0000

Thanks, Max. I did have trouble formatting after pasting in the letter, and appreciate the assistance.

By: justpbob

justpbob — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:02:17 +0000

I speculate that the term “racist” was put on “Concerned Reader” LTE headline by the staff at CP to catch the eye and maybe push a few people’s buttons (it clearly worked).

I geneally don’t worry much about the opinions of someone who won’t sign their name (I’m Bob Moffitt, BTW) to an LTE or online comment. This one almost sounds like a spoof, but I have meet self-appointed defenders of various demographic groups, so who knows.

I, for one, will continue to use the term Nordeast with the same pride it residents feel for the term.

By: Max Sparber

Max Sparber — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:39:22 +0000

I had to trim your post a little, Noodleman, to make it fit our format. Noodleman had some additional comments, as follows:

I admire cultural sensivity as much as the next guy but “Nordeast” has never been used in a deragotory manner AFAIK. It has been claimed by contemporary generations — including the sons and daughters of the immigrants who settled there — in the same manner that Frogtown or the Dago sandwich have been used.

Rather, I think Concerned Reader may be racist … that by homogenizing and removing unique cultural identities, he/she is trying to foist — and force — everyone to think only one way: The mind-set of “guilty, white liberals.”