At a council meeting on Thursday, Anne Arundel County Councilman Dick Ladd, 71, casually used the word “gook” in an aside describing his military service in Vietnam. After the utterance sent a shockwave of gasps around the council chambers, Ladd explained that the word is the “technical term for North Koreans” and left it at that. I guess they gasped because he was speaking over their heads?
We’ve seen this kind of thing before. Remember when Michael Richards got “technical” about African-Americans at the Laugh Factory in 2006? Or when Tracy Morgan recently got very “technical” discussing homosexuality? For some reason people were outraged. These guys even had to go on the apology circuit regretting their use of “specialized jargon.”
A warning to Councilman Ladd: it’s unfortunate, but there are plenty of people who just aren’t going to understand you if you get too “technical.” And for some reason (who knows why!) they might even get offended.
So, there’s an article in the Baltimore Sun about a city councilman who, at
a public meeting, referred to the Asians as “gooks”. He later
apologized and brushed off his comment as something understandable since he
was in Korea as a solider and gook was a technical term. A reader’s comment in the paper supported Councilman
Richard Ladd’s behavior. His rationale was if someone is shooting at you,
it’s perfectly acceptable to refer to the shooter in any manner.
Let’s all calm down! Certainly, when someone shoots at a person that
person may take some liberties with the manner in which one refers to the
shooter. Using a technical term for “opposing shooter” may be difficult for those without technical military background.
Councilman Richard Ladd might himself be technically referred to as Councilman, Mr.
Ladd, or Richard. In this case as a governmental official speaking at a
public meeting perhaps we shall call him Dick.