Ok because of this thread I did some research...turns out planking was good for something!
http://www.thegrio.com/news/is-planking-harmless-fun-or-fundamentally-offensive.php?page=1
http://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/exhibitions/museums/brookes.html
http://www.dur.ac.uk/durham.first/winter07/slaveship/
This is the picture everyone is so up in arms about--the one that has people screaming slavery.
But what if it was this picture?
Or this one? What then??
plank /plæŋk/ Show Spelled
[plangk] Show IPA
–noun
1. a long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board.
2. lumber in such pieces; planking.
3. something to stand on or to cling to for support.
4. any one of the stated principles or objectives comprising the political platform of a party campaigning for election: They fought for a plank supporting a nuclear freeze.
–verb (used with object)
5. to lay, cover, or furnish with planks.
6. to bake or broil and serve (steak, fish, chicken, etc.) on a wooden board.
7. plunk ( def. 2 ) .
—Idiom
8. walk the plank,
a. to be forced, as by pirates, to walk to one's death by stepping off a plank extending from the ship's side over the water.
b. to relinquish something, as a position, office, etc., under compulsion: We suspect that the new vice-president walked the plank because of a personality clash.
My take on it. Yes slaves were made to lay on planks(read...boards) but they laid face up...you would too if you were going to be laying in urine and feces. And while it wasn't right what they went thru for people to even try to compare that to this is wrong.
If anyone should be offended it's dead people. This is their signature move. They've got this down to a science and have since the first man walked the earth. And now suddenly people think it's cool so they want to gank on their plank.