XtotheZ, you don’t need to cite entirely fictional “roots” in slavery to explain your dislike of a tired internet fad.

The last time Xzibit has been relevant without the help of the memes is when Pimp my ride is on. And come on, planking could refer not only to the method of slave transpo, it could really take from the nature of planks, i.e. stiff and straight.

thinks ‘sleeping on the job’ and ‘foodstamps’ is “racist”… planking is just retarded…

The overarching mentality behind this issue is one I find to be fascinating. On one hand, we accept that the English language is an ever changing entity. We adopt words from other languages and make them our own, add new definitions to existing words, change the meaning of old words, or create new words entirely.  On the other hand, when a word becomes a pejorative—particularly when that pejorative is related to race or religion—people want to section it off and put it in a box. To archive it and pretend it doesn’t exist. The problem with this is, it then perpetuates the word’s negative connotation. For instance, faggot can never be anything other than a pejorative aimed at homosexuals, because we have locked it away in a box. But all this really does is makes sure these hateful words will always exist. We’ve created a weapon and locked it away; But they’re words, which means everyone has the key to use it, and we’re simply hoping on good faith that no individuals of good moral standing will unlock the vault and use the weapon.  Which is silly. Why lock the weapon away and hope no one uses it when you could dismantle the weapon entirely and render it ineffective? Because, at the end of the day, words are all about the context we use them in. It’s the same reason “nigger/nigga” is such a divisive word. When a black person says it, the assumed context is that of camaraderie. When a white person says it, the assumed context is racism. But I’m getting off topic. The point is, these words will never be able to be anything other than pejoratives if they are locked away and treated as such. Though there is the common belief that, if a word is says with negative intent and that intent is derived from the word’s use as a pejorative that, by proxy, that makes it racism/homophobic/what have you.  To give an example, “faggot” has become a harsher term for “douchebag” recently. See: South Park’s fag episode and Louis C.K.’s bit about the word. But in our PC culture, if you call someone a fag for, say, swooping into your parking spot when you had your turn signal on, you are still being homophobic despite not saying it towards a LBGT individual. Why is this? Well, some will ask, why did you call him a fag? It’s because you’re mentally aware of fag being a hateful word towards gays. Thus, you’ve taken that hostility and applied it in a different scenario. Ergo, it’s still homophobic because the root source of hatred stems from the word’s use as a homophobic slur. But even then, I find the logic to be silly. The the aforementioned is true, we’ve still taken a word that’s viewed as harmful to LBGT individuals and diffused it to being a mere angry epithet. Still harmful? Potentially. Better off than it was previous? Most definitely.  Geez, I’ve really skewed off topic here. Back to the article in question, I can’t find any evidence of “planking” being used in a racist context. But even if, at one point, it was, we have moved on. The word’s meaning has changed entirely. Do not try to put it in a box. Hopefully, within the coming years, faggot, nigger, spic, and the rest of their ilk will have followed the same path and the negativity associated with them will have dispersed. So long as we don’t still have them locked up in a box that is.

He’s right. So cut it out. Motards.

Pretty sure there’s a huge difference between chaining someone down to make room for more human trafficking, and just lying down on something like an idiot.

Oh! So “pimpin” is alright?

I don’t know about racist, but I’ll grant his point that planking is dumb.

Clearly Mr. Xzibit has some sand in his vagina.

oh lolz

4 fuk sake!

That last picture had me tearing up laughing so hard.

just call it the lying down game and there will be no issues. calling it “planking” warrants accusations like this.

I thought the name came from lying on the ground like a plank of wood?? no? Either way, it still isnt funny!

This reminds me of when people say “picnic” has racist origins. Or that “pimping” is based on a racist stereot- OH WAIT