"Racist" Spicks and Specks app censored by Apple

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cobl04

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Just the latest in "Australia is racist"...

Apple censors 'racist' Spicks and Specks app

Spick is a derogatory term that refers to Hispanics across the United States.

The musical quiz show's title actually has nothing to do with Latinos but is named after a lesser-known Bee Gees song.

ABC is now trying to persuade Apple to reverse its decision after the app surged to the top spot on the local entertainment app chart. The app is currently promoted as "S***ks and Specks".

That it's a derogatory term is complete news to me. What do you think? Would you have been offended if you were scanning the app store? Or are you of the opinion, like me, that this is PCness gone waaaaaay too far. S***ks and Specks makes it look much worse in my opinion.

Anyways I'm off to the cricket, to eat some KFC with my rowdy West Indian friends.
 
Spicks is an old old racist term like dagos and wops from like the 50's or 60's This show has been on air for ages without complaint and the title has nothing to do with anything race related. There are far more offensive apps out there.
 
I actually cannot believe that this has been censored.

If nothing else, surely this is a goldmine of jokes for Adam Hills.
 
I would've thought of the show had I seen the app, because I knew what it was thanks to you guys. I can't guarantee that everyone else around the globe knows what it is, and I know that word is considered extremely offensive in some places. So, I guess there's the possibility of people being upset as a result of misunderstanding.
 
oh i'm sure lots of people from mexico, puerto rico, etc. in america are going to get offended because the word spicks is in an app in australia. honestly the possible racist connotations never even occurred to me when i first heard that show title because i knew it wasn't referring to that. friggin' context.
 
Is the app not internationally available? My mistake, I thought that was the problem.
 
So... are they gonna censor the song as well?bee gees-spicks and specks 1971 - YouTube

Apple has always stood for censorship to keep things clean and family friendly. But this is taking the PC stuff a bit too far imo - they don't even wait for a complaint to see if content is offensive? - Surely that would be a better quality control system!
 
The slur word is never spelled with a -k anyway, is it?

Only by dumbass racists who use it as a slur and spell it wrong.

It seems more relevant that the PC police go after that cleaning product Spic 'n Span. (Not that they should. Or apparently have - their name is still the same.)

http://www.spicnspan.com/

(I can't believe that popped into my head reading this thread. :lol: )
 
Or at least the spelling police! The phrase is spick-and-span. :tsk:

Not that that the way that song's lyrics use "spick" makes the slightest sense either...
 
Yeah, I figured something like that was the idea, but it's a totally made-up usage of "spicks"; the word by itself has no meaning in contemporary English, and in any case the original meaning was a nail (spike). Poetic license I guess.
 
Spicks is an old old racist term like dagos and wops from like the 50's or 60's This show has been on air for ages without complaint and the title has nothing to do with anything race related. There are far more offensive apps out there.

Ahem. These are all offensive terms. Just because there might be some other app saying more offensive things doesn't make them less so.
 
Actually "spic" derives from "spiggoty," which is an older Anglo-American derogatory term for Latinos (origin uncertain, but unlikely to come from "Hispanic"). Not that that clarifies anything about the spelling.
 
I would giggle had I seen that, then went about my day. The fact that they're censoring it is worse. When they do that, it seems like it's meant to be derogatory
 
The OP article suggests it was an automated censoring, not the decision of an actual person?
"iTunes is a US-based platform and it automatically censors words which are considered accidentally offensive in America," an ABC spokesman said.

"We've asked Apple to review it for the Australian audience."
 
I'd just like to point out that "spicks and specks" means "bits and pieces". Absolutely no racial connotation whatsoever. The fact this was censored, even automatically, is outright ridiculous.
 
Ohhhh, are you saying the phrase in Australian English predates the Bee Gees song? It's not in the OED or AHD, so I was assuming Barry Gibb made it up. Perhaps he learned it in Australia?

As far as the auto censoring, I don't have a clue how that kind of thing works, but since machines don't understand context you'd have to anticipate in advance any situations in which an otherwise "bad" word might not be, and for an American at least, only spick-and-span might come to mind as an acceptable use. (Assuming you're treating spick as a variant spelling of spic in the first place.)
 
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I know that some here do not understand my point in the Food Police
are Coming thread. That's ok if we disgree. I'm not offended.



But this thread here confirms my view that we seem to be heading toward a future society that will strickly limit our speech and personal choices.



Get a copy of the film Demolition Man for the weekend.

Just for fun :lol:

Watch it with some popcorn drenched in real butter (and salt) and a pure cane sugar sweetened soda.
 
the iron horse said:
But this thread here confirms my view that we seem to be heading toward a future society that will strickly limit our speech and personal choices.

.
Actually it doesn't, this is not an example of government or any kind of governing body trying to control speech or choice.

Hopefully you see the difference.
 
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