Hi, I'm Jon and I'm a digro

[jonsdigs]

I'm a digro. We really "dig" the dark. We like to think we are due more dignity than being referred to by the "D" word. I've often found our digro dialect is hard to comprehend by mainstream cavers. This may come from being shunned and discriminated by the young uppity purist innerworld spelunkers (YUPIS) for so long. There are those who are part "digger" who feel they have to treat it as their dirty little secret from "stalagmite-huggers.":shhh:

So next time your children point and yell "Look at that funny man with the footprints on his back!", remind them to be kind to him as without his painful sacrifices many caves would not be enjoyed by familys today.

[cavemanjonny]

All hail the mighty digro!

[Mike Cato]

Surely I'm not the only one who finds this thread offensive.

The blatant innuendo of it all and such.

Let's continue the debate but keep things civil from here on.

As a starter, let's use the term "Subterranean American".

Moderators?

[Evan G]

Mike Cato wrote:

Surely I'm not the only one who finds this thread offensive.

The blatant innuendo of it all and such

I was offened when I first read it and I found it in bad timing with the Michael Richards thing going on. Then I rolled my eyes and thought of it has a joke in "Bad Taste and Timing".

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"Subterranean American"

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[Cheryl Jones]

"Subterranean American"

[Dane]

Someone mentioned this thread the other day and they had the same initial response - as I had not seen it, my first question was, do you know the race or heritage of the poster?
"No"
Then it would be presumptuous and possibly even rude, to the point of being racist, to question their motives.
Regardless, whether it is humorous or malicious would seem to be in the eye of the beholder, and anyone truly offended may need to question their own motivation.

Personally, I think it is a clever play on words, as is "Subterranean American".
Because it rhymes with words that are offensive, we should consider censoring it?
I believe that is getting just a little too "PC".
I can see it now - the 67,328 words that rhyme with the Seven Words You Can't Say on TV!

[Evan G]

Someone mentioned this thread the other day and they had the same initial response - as I had not seen it, my first question was, do you know the race or heritage of the poster?
"No"
Then it would be presumptuous and possibly even rude, to the point of being racist, to question their motives.
Regardless, whether it is humorous or malicious would seem to be in the eye of the beholder, and anyone truly offended may need to question their own motivation.

That is a rather odd response! I found it offensive because I don't like hearing it or read it, even in jest. Nothing more! I'm as anti-PC as it gets, but it is not a reason to be uncivil.

[Dane]

My point is,
- I do not know the background or the motivation of the poster - therefore I can not make assumptions as to his intent.
- There is nothing patently offensive with his post - he used made-up words - if the reader is inserting something else into it, it may be something in their background that motivates such a response. I do not mean that it is bad or wrong to have such a response - only that their background is different from mine.
- What is it that you do not like to hear? Words that rhyme with words you do not like to hear? Again, I think we must draw the line somewhere.
- Based on your string of emoticons, you seem to find "Subterranean American" funny, but is that not a play on "insert minority- American"? - Why is that less offensive than the play on words the Poster used?

I certainly meant no offense to you, the poster, or anyone else. I think it would be interesting to hear Jonsdigs response to all of this. Perhaps he could enlighten us as to his motivation, intent, etc. Barring that revelation, it is open to anyone's interpretation.

I responded to your reply, however, if you would like to pursue this further, I would suggest doing it via PM to spare bandwidth and the time and patience of our fellow cavers.
If one of us can dissuade or convince the other, then let the victor have the final post!

[mabercrombie]

If Digro is offensive what about calling a subterranean american a Digger?

[jonsdigs]

Subterranean American is great but it loses the point of speleo-excavators often being disrespected as the poor step-children of the caving community.

[Evan G]

Subterranean American is great but it loses the point of speleo-excavators often being disrespected as the poor step-children of the caving community.