NationStates Jolt Archive

There are quite a few "offensive" words that don't actually have any reason to be offensive. E.g. "retarded" for "Affected with mental retardation". It's as if every now and then a word simply becomes "offensive" and has to be replaced by an "inoffensive" one, which then itself becomes "offensive" some time later.

I have a friend with diabeties who finds it offensive to be called "a diabetic" she says we should say "Angie has diabeties" instead of "Angie is diabetic"

:rolleyes:

Spastic. It used to be the Spastics' Society, ffs, before it became scope.

There are others that needed to be changed, though, e.g. Downs Syndrome used to be called Mongoloidism IIRC (hence calling someone a mong).

I'm never politically correct.

...Can you guys help me find my teeth? They're around here somewhere....

I have a friend with diabeties who finds it offensive to be called "a diabetic" she says we should say "Angie has diabeties" instead of "Angie is diabetic"

:rolleyes:
I understand why she makes a distinction though: she is a person with an affliction. (Angie has diabetes.) She is not an affliction herself (Angie is diabetic).

In other words, she prefers to be thought of as a person rather than as her disease.

I understand why she makes a distinction though: she is a person with an affliction. (Angie has diabetes.) She is not an affliction herself (Angie is diabetic).

In other words, she prefers to be thought of as a person rather than as her disease.
oh, I understand now.

I get annoyed with her though because she calls my kids "celiacs" and doesn't see a problem with it.

I should whip out the person arguement on her, see what she says then.;)

There are quite a few "offensive" words that don't actually have any reason to be offensive. E.g. "retarded" for "Affected with mental retardation". It's as if every now and then a word simply becomes "offensive" and has to be replaced by an "inoffensive" one, which then itself becomes "offensive" some time later.
"idiot" used to mean what "retard" means today. and "retard" is slowly becoming "special" or equally whitewashed terms. They all progress from diagnosis for retardation to being a slang term for stupid.

"idiot" used to mean what "retard" means today. and "retard" is slowly becoming "special" or equally whitewashed terms. They all progress from diagnosis for retardation to being a slang term for stupid.
To be fair, any text book with some mention of mental disability will call it mental retardation. For example: 'Kleinfelter Sindrome children often exhibit mental retardation'. It only means they are slower mentally, ffs.

There are quite a few "offensive" words that don't actually have any reason to be offensive. E.g. "retarded" for "Affected with mental retardation". It's as if every now and then a word simply becomes "offensive" and has to be replaced by an "inoffensive" one, which then itself becomes "offensive" some time later.

I am a gimp.

I have a friend with diabeties who finds it offensive to be called "a diabetic" she says we should say "Angie has diabeties" instead of "Angie is diabetic"

:rolleyes:
It makes perfect sense to me...but teachers tend to have to be pretty PC. I don't mind it though...would you say, Angie is cancerous? Angie is hepatitic? People have diseases, they are not defined by them. The only exception tends to be people who ARE deaf or blind...they don't want to be called, "angie with blindness:)".

oh, I understand now.

I get annoyed with her though because she calls my kids "celiacs" and doesn't see a problem with it.

I should whip out the person arguement on her, see what she says then.;)
I would! What's good for the goose is good for the...uh...other goose:)

I have a friend with diabeties who finds it offensive to be called "a diabetic" she says we should say "Angie has diabeties" instead of "Angie is diabetic"

:rolleyes:

Better not call her a "woman" - she's more than just her gender.


Here's another offensive word - "coloured". "Black" is acceptable, but not "coloured". Maybe I'm just too young to understand, but what's the difference between being named after a colour, and being named "coloured"?

Better not call her a "woman" - she's more than just her gender.


Here's another offensive word - "coloured". "Black" is acceptable, but not "coloured". Maybe I'm just too young to understand, but what's the difference between being named after a colour, and being named "coloured"?
It depends on who used to say it, slave owners used to call African Americans "colored" and that is why they don't like it, it has a bad connotation.

(that is what my African American friends tell me anyway, they don't like to be called black either, just like I don't like to be called white)

It depends on who used to say it, slave owners used to call African Americans "colored" and that is why they don't like it, it has a bad connotation.

(that is what my African American friends tell me anyway, they don't like to be called black either, just like I don't like to be called white)

OK. Personally, I think refering to people as black and white is pretty stupid since they're not very descriptive, or even accurate, but I wasn't aware that anyone considered them offensive.

Here's another offensive word - "coloured". "Black" is acceptable, but not "coloured". Maybe I'm just too young to understand, but what's the difference between being named after a colour, and being named "coloured"?

I prefer to use 'black' because I'm coloured - I'm just coloured light beige, not dark-brown/black. Then again, where I live I'm called a 'skip', which also means a dumpster or big rubbish receptacle.

My mother uses 'coloured', and it strikes me as overly PC - trying not to offend, but trying so hard that the recipients take offense at the level of gymnastics put into avoid offence.

EDIT: I prefer not to use black or white unless it's relevant to context, though - I don't say "hey, my black friend John ... *blah blah blah* "

I use 'black' because they mighn't be 'African' or 'American'. ;)

OK. Personally, I think refering to people as black and white is pretty stupid since they're not very descriptive, or even accurate, but I wasn't aware that anyone considered them offensive.
I probably get offended for a stupid reason.

When filling out forms it seems on the race/ethnicity question to be worded more often than not

_ African American
_ Hispanic American
_ Native American
_ Asian American
_ white

I want to be an American too!!!!!!!! I am a citizen, why can't I be something other than "lack of color"?

I probably get offended for a stupid reason.

When filling out forms it seems on the race/ethnicity question to be worded more often than not

_ African American
_ Hispanic American
_ Native American
_ Asian American
_ white

I want to be an American too!!!!!!!! I am a citizen, why can't I be something other than "lack of color"?

Yeah, shouldn't it be "caucasian american" to go with the pattern?

I probably get offended for a stupid reason.

When filling out forms it seems on the race/ethnicity question to be worded more often than not

_ African American
_ Hispanic American
_ Native American
_ Asian American
_ white

I want to be an American too!!!!!!!! I am a citizen, why can't I be something other than "lack of color"?
Don't worry, white is all the colours mixed together (if you're talking about emission not absorption)!

Yeah, shouldn't it be "caucasian american" to go with the pattern?
actually I would think European American or something as caucasian doesn't tie to a place. (but I guess Hispanic and Native don't either, so yeah.)

yeah and I usually just check "other" if they have it, and write in "AMERICAN!!!!!!"

actually I would think European American or something as caucasian doesn't tie to a place. (but I guess Hispanic and Native don't either, so yeah.)

yeah and I usually just check "other" if they have it, and write in "AMERICAN!!!!!!"
Caucasian does tie to a place, just the wrong place.

Caucasian does tie to a place, just the wrong place.
Yeah I was about to edit my post, I just looked it up on WIKI
:(

it is the wrong place though.

"idiot" used to mean what "retard" means today. and "retard" is slowly becoming "special" or equally whitewashed terms. They all progress from diagnosis for retardation to being a slang term for stupid.

Yes, the words "idiot", "imbecile", and "moron" used to be technical terms refering to degrees of mental retardation. If I remember correctly, the most severe was idiot and the least severe was moron.

My first name is an offensive word in Russian. :)

If only I spoke Russian so I could use it to shock the people from Russia that I don't know. :(

I'm offended by the terms "Monkey" and "Ape". From now on, everyone must refer to these animals as "Sapien Challenged".

I can get offended if I get referred to as a "fag", and the person saying is obviously trying to be offensive. If s/he is not, then I just gently correct the use of the word and am none the worse for wear.

Sometimes I think poeple overreact with those offensive terms. It's usually easy to tell who uses them without thinking, and who's trying to insult you deliberately. The former should be corrected, not assaulted. The latter's usually not worthy of attention.

I can get offended if I get referred to as a "fag", and the person saying is obviously trying to be offensive. If s/he is not, then I just gently correct the use of the word and am none the worse for wear.
I have a question, is it okay for me to refer to homosexuals as homosexual?

I have a friend who is a lesbian who doesn't like to be called "gay"
but then I said homosexual on here once and someone got mad, and said they were gay.

I don't know what to say, I don't want to hurt someones feelings or anything.

Better not call her a "woman" - she's more than just her gender.


Here's another offensive word - "coloured". "Black" is acceptable, but not "coloured". Maybe I'm just too young to understand, but what's the difference between being named after a colour, and being named "coloured"?
I think it's just the way it's been used historically. "My oh my...look at that little coloured girl go!"

Black doesn't really work for me either...I never want to use it, because I usually go by ethnicity, and black really isn't an ethnicity. It's easier with Canadians, because their ethnicity or nationality is still strong...from the west indies usually, or directly from Africa so you can actually call them African-Canadian (bleh) or whatever. But in the US, calling someone African when their family has lived in the US for like 300 years...it sounds dumb to me. I don't know what else to call black people though if you actually need to describe their colour for some reason. Hmmm.

I use 'black' because they mighn't be 'African' or 'American'. ;)


My students are reading E.R. Braithwaite's To Sir, With Love. They don't get why I keep correcting them when they refer to Mr. Braithwaite as "African-American".

He's Guyanese. I have explained this repeatedly. So what's on the test?

"African-American."

I prefer to use 'black' because I'm coloured - I'm just coloured light beige, not dark-brown/black. Then again, where I live I'm called a 'skip', which also means a dumpster or big rubbish receptacle.

My mother uses 'coloured', and it strikes me as overly PC - trying not to offend, but trying so hard that the recipients take offense at the level of gymnastics put into avoid offence.

EDIT: I prefer not to use black or white unless it's relevant to context, though - I don't say "hey, my black friend John ... *blah blah blah* "
are you actually being called a trash receptacle or is it just a word that sounds the same but youre really being called something else?

Another term I don't care for (overly PC) is 'women of colour':rolleyes: Suddenly, women 'of colour' are somehow classed together in opposition to 'women of no colour' or something.

But the term African-American has ALWAYS struck me as incredibly inaccurate.

I call myself an Indian, but I get annoyed when people refer to natives as 'Indians'. Spanish is rife with that term too...indio this, india that...sheesh. Then again, my own government seems to want to continue to call us Indians, as that is how we are named in the 'Indian Act'. Bleh. It's just confusing..."Indian with a tomahawk, or Indian with a dot?" Stupid.

I have a question, is it okay for me to refer to homosexuals as homosexual?

I have a friend who is a lesbian who doesn't like to be called "gay"
but then I said homosexual on here once and someone got mad, and said they were gay.

I don't know what to say, I don't want to hurt someones feelings or anything.
I think it should be ok... most of the time...

are you actually being called a trash receptacle or is it just a word that sounds the same but youre really being called something else?
Have you ever heard of Skippy, the bush kangaroo?

Where I'm from, Anglos are skips.

So no, there's nothing offensive about it really - it's just that if you don't know the other meanings, you might be offended.

I have a question, is it okay for me to refer to homosexuals as homosexual?

I have a friend who is a lesbian who doesn't like to be called "gay"
but then I said homosexual on here once and someone got mad, and said they were gay.

I don't know what to say, I don't want to hurt someones feelings or anything.
Homosexual is usually the right term, although some people dislike its use because it's too cold, too "clinical"(it was used back when homosexuality was still considered a mentil illness).

Gay is... well, gay. I can't really understand why your friend wouldn't like being called gay... But does she mind being called a lesbian?

Personnally, I don't mind the use of either term.

Homosexual is usually the right term, although some people dislike its use because it's too cold, too "clinical"(it was used back when homosexuality was still considered a mentil illness).

Gay is... well, gay. I can't really understand why your friend wouldn't like being called gay... But does she mind being called a lesbian?

Personnally, I don't mind the use of either term.
she is okay with Lesbian as long as you say it correctly (not sarcastically ect.) I really think she doesn't like the word gay because a lot of people around here use it as an insult, and homosexual isn't used that way.

I don't know, like I said, I just don't want to insult someone, or hurt thier feelings by accident (or on purpose either for that matter)

she is okay with Lesbian as long as you say it correctly (not sarcastically ect.) I really think she doesn't like the word gay because a lot of people around here use it as an insult, and homosexual isn't used that way.

I don't know, like I said, I just don't want to insult someone, or hurt thier feelings by accident (or on purpose either for that matter)
Then just go ahead and be direct about it.

Ask that person what word s/he prefers to be used when describing him/her.

Quite frankly, diffrerent people find different terms offensive.

Quite frankly, diffrerent people find different terms offensive.


And hat´s where the people banning "offensive words"
always gets it wrong. They might think of offensive in terms of 'Bi**h' and the likes, but I for one find terms like 'free flow of work power' or 'humane capital' at least equally offensive, yet they never get banned... :(

There are heaps of words that are offensive for no good reason that people like to be offended by something.

Fuck, c*nt (not sure if the mods frown on that one ;)), etc.

Why are they offensive? I can say "Sex! Vagina!" and i'm not likely to provoke hostility. Weird looks, maybe, but probably not hostility. If I screamed out "Fuck, C*nt!" i'd be in an entirely different situation.

Now, now, are you aware that those words are doubleplusungood? You must use only good, unoffensive words that are so vague they mean nothing. Oh yeah, and big brother is watching you, always.

I am sick to death of people being P.C. If I worried about what offended everyone, I'd never speak, because no matter what you say, SOMEONE will probably be offended.

Basically, I'll call you whatever the hell I like, and unless you've done something to wrong me, I won't mean it as an insult. So basically, people need to suck it the hell up, and quit telling me what I can and can't say.


BTW I'm a cripple, a Yankee, a breeder (thanks Fass!) and a redneck, and a nutcase (a few slight chemical imbalances in the ole brain), and I'm proud of all of it, because it's who I am, and no words that anyone could use could make me less proud of who I am.

Now, now, are you aware that those words are doubleplusungood? You must use only good, unoffensive words that are so vague they mean nothing. Oh yeah, and big brother is watching you, always.

>.>

Uh...I shall un-proceed my language-use of "slip slop" and "bread oven" as of now.

a breeder (thanks Fass!)

Don't mention it. I'm here to spread it around.

There are quite a few "offensive" words that don't actually have any reason to be offensive. E.g. "retarded" for "Affected with mental retardation". It's as if every now and then a word simply becomes "offensive" and has to be replaced by an "inoffensive" one, which then itself becomes "offensive" some time later.
This is exactly why we should be working on people being civil with eachother rather then just changing the word

If we ban every word that offends every person, we'll be back to nothing but grunts in no time! (check that, some people don't like grunting either.)

OK, everyone just shut up and be polite! :rolleyes:

To be fair, any text book with some mention of mental disability will call it mental retardation. For example: 'Kleinfelter Sindrome children often exhibit mental retardation'. It only means they are slower mentally, ffs.
yeah...official texts will always (and I think always have? correct me if I'm wrong) refered to the disability as mental retardation. What I'm refering to is the more coloquial way of describing someone with retardation. Really, they aren't "retards" but "retarded". Kinda like the diabetic thing. It really is just a symantic argument...some diseases and afflictions are refered to as being the person (usually genetic related illnesses) while others are refered to as things that effect the person (viral and bacterial).

I think what it comes down to, and I could be wrong, is the ability to cure. You are not influenzic because it isn't physically a part of you. You are diabetic because your genetics made you that way

as for the gay/homosexual/fag/etc. issue, I have a friend who actually prefered to be called a fag, which I never understood. I know if I called his boyfriend a fag, I would be dead. My friend hated the phrase homosexual (he didn't like how it sounded) and therefore hated to be called homosexual. Thats what his boyfriend prefered.

Colored vs Black vs African American...I hate African American because not every black person is African. Most of the people I know who are black are Haitian. The one girl from africa who I knew was Ethiopian, and prefered to be refered to as such. Colored has bad associations from the Americas and South Africa, so I stay away from that. I tend to go with "black" and "white"

one that has always caught me...Oriental. objects from east Asia can be refered to as oriental, but not the people. The way it was explained to me was that it was too eurocentric. But I have 2 issues with that. First, Near and Middle east have never really been contested heavily. Secondly, Oriental comes from latin meaning "to rise", refering to the sun. Yeah, its eurocentric...but Japan is refered to heavily as "land of the rising sun", as is shown by their flag. Why is this okay, but not Oriental?