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Old 11-16-2016, 10:19 PM   #3
Archaea
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte View Post
I heard about the Phil Jackson dispute with Lebron James on the Doug Gottleib sow today. At first I thought that James is being ridiculous (what Gottleib thinks), based on my understanding of the meaning of posse; it just seemed a poor choice of words when he meant entourage. At most I would have faulted Jackson's vocabulary. But then I looked up the word in the urban dictionary and I see it has another meaning that arises from inner city, African American groups of young men and gangs. And I decided James isn't being overly sensitive. I'm not saying Jackson is racist. I just think he was being too cute; he's a 75 year old white man. He shouldn't be using posse in that context.

This reminds me of when Jackson called Mormonism a cult.
The disconnect here between speaker and audience is a perfect example of people seeing what they want to see.

Entourage of course makes sense. I had no idea "posse" has an urban sub-meaning and I doubt anybody outside of the subset within the urban community has any idea it has acquired a secondary meaning. For me, posse always conjures up the sheriff with John Wayne at its head to do justice, not some gang member. James, given his wealth and connection to mainstream society, had to know for most people outside the urban setting, "posse" doesn't connote the negative subtext.

On the other hand, Jackson is not some mensch who is very gifted with words, even though ESPN wants to portray him as a cerebral coach.
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