Dissing
is usually what a dangerous black male between the ages 13 and 30
refers to when he confronts you with "Are you dissing me man?"
Dissing derives from the word disrespect, but the word is miss-used in the context referred to above. Nobody respects a man who would act in such a provocative and predatory way. Fear, anger and contempt are more accurate descriptors.
The same word and the same meaning applies to the University of California Board of Regents when they dis-invited Larry Summers to talk at a Regents meeting. Summers was dis-invited because he told a group at MIT, several years ago, that women may be missing from scientific fields for several reasons, one of which might be biological.
For saying this, Summers aroused the anger of
the Arts and Letters Faculty at Harvard who got him fired. One
particular irony here. The uproar came from the Arts and Letters
Faculty, the very people who are unable to be scientists, in most
cases, even if they wanted to be. Scientists and all the departments
heavily informed by mathematics on the Harvard faculty, supported
Summers.
I would guess that the 150 faculty, administrators and miscellaneous in the U.C. system, who signed the protest against Summers talking at a private dinner with the Regents were mostly Arts and Letters people, who never did well in science or math.
In any case, dis-inviting Larry Summers is a good example of dissing in the black mugger's use of the term. Summers couldn't respect the Board of Regents, who cowered in fear, or the campus protest writers, he could only look on them with contempt. As I do.
The black mugger, the cowardly Regents and the activist faculty don't deserve respect, just contempt.
Footnote: Two out of two of my daughters are scientists.