‘Tis the season — though I’m not sure why. (Should I be offended at Santa Claus showing up before Halloween?) Anyway, some retailers got in trouble with consumers this week for jokes that misfired. Continue reading
What would Santa say?
Monthly Archives: November 2015
Just when you thought you’d heard it all: In 2014, you may recall, a federal trademark appeal board cancelled the trademark registration of the Washington, DC, professional football team’s name, the “Redskins,” holding it offensive to Native Americans. The board said the mark is barred by the Lanham Act’s ban on disparaging names that may lead some people to hold others in contempt. In July a federal district court rejected a challenge to the board’s decision, holding that a trademark is “government speech” and so not shielded by the First Amendment. Continue reading
Making Sense of the Flotsam
Stuffed into folders, stacked on my desktop, and strewn about elsewhere are random piles of articles more or less about “offense.” It’s time to put them into some kind of order. That will no doubt offend some people. Continue reading
Anger verboten
Offense of the Month: November 2015.
A little hard to classify, this one. You’ve probably already read the story. A black woman in a hoodie is taking morning exercise in the street in her neighborhood in an affluent Dallas suburb. Cue white cops. They suggest she walk on other side of street, or even sidewalk, to better see traffic, to be safer. They ask to see ID and radio police station for a “name check.” All in three minutes. Police leave. A few days later, woman, a professor and dean of the University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism, publishes angry op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, claiming racial profiling: Continue reading