That’s at least partly because they don’t think being deaf is an impairment.
What’s weird in the OP’s link is apologizing for “colored people” but not “people of color.” What’s the difference?
If you aren’t, it is. And I’m shocked and saddened by the posters who are either too dense or too ignorant to realize that their white opinions don’t matter a damn.
and your color of the rainbow would be…?
Infrared.
I don’t think that warrants an eyeroll. People are entitled to use different words to describe themselves, even if it’s a change from fifteen years ago.
It’s just that the “don’t be a jerk about it” principle still applies
Silenus does get hot under the collar now and then.
And it seems to me some people are just looking for ways to piss people off.
Seriously, if somebody tells you they don’t like you calling them something but you decide you’re going to call them that anyway because you don’t care if you’re offending people, then you’re an asshole.
As for people who are shocked to find out that calling somebody colored is generally offensive, have you been living in a cave for the last fifty years? If so, here’s a tip for you; negro has gone out of fashion too. That happened around forty years ago.
White people don’t get to decide what racial terms directed at black people are offensive.
Except my friends, who can hear a little, HATE being called “deaf”, since they aren’t.
Who does? My friend, who upon being called black, said “I am not black, I am a lovely shade of mocha.”?
But Trans people get to decide what terms directed at straight non-trans people are offensive or not. why is that?
Here are the rules:
If you personally are offended by being called cisgender, then it would be offensive for somebody who knew this to call you that. If your friend is offended by being called black, then it’s offensive to call him black if you know this. If you know somebody named William and you know he doesn’t like being called Bill, then it’s offensive to call him Bill.
On a broader note, go with the consensus within the group. If black people generally don’t like to be called colored, then don’t call a black person colored. If non-trans people in general decide they don’t like being called cisgender, then people should stop using the term.
You’re allowed to decide what you personally are offended by when it’s directed at you. You are not allowed to decide what other people find offensive or acceptable when it’s directed at them.
You are legally allowed to say offensive things. But if you choose to say things which you know are offensive to other people, then you are an asshole. And people will treat you like an asshole.
I don’t think it’s true that any group can declare what is and isn’t offensive. What it is is that minority that faces discrimination (or has faced historical discrimination) can tell you that a term is (was) used to discriminate against them.
Cisgender people are not being discriminated against, so complaining about the term just comes across as whining over a word they don’t like. It’s not loaded with a history of cisphobia. Hell, there’s no history of cisphobia, period.
Then there’s the problem that there do not appear to be any trans allies who seem to be bothered by it. And a whole lot of people who complain because they think they should just be called “normal.”
In other words, the protestations against the term “cisgender” are themselves tangled up in bigotry issues.
Then they get to say ‘hey, I myself like “hearing impaired” thanks’
Problem solved?
Benedict Cumberpatch did the same thing last year. When it was reported in the UK quite a few people were confused as “coloured” isn’t seen as quite so wrong over there.
“Colored people” was the polite alternative to The N Word. Which I heard at school & repeated once in my Grandma’s hearing. Once. She said she’d wash my mouth out with soap if I ever said it again. So I can’t even type it. She used “colored people.”
But she was born in the 19th century & has been gone a very long time. It’s polite to use the terms currently preferred by the people being named. (Note: People of Color (POC) is not limited to African-Americans; it includes all non-whites.)
I think “NAACP” has been grandfathered in–for the work they’ve done since 1909. (While searching for the founding date of the NAACP, I came across a news story of last Sunday’s “White Lives Matter” protest in front of Houston’s NAACP headquarters. Two dozen armed fools flying the Battle Flag made a predictably lame appearance.)
Of course a white person’s opinion matters. It has just as much weight as a black person’s or a green person’s. Changing terms every 5 years is silly. What saddens me are the posters who express the racist view that color of skin matters when it comes to expressing ideas.
You are expecting intellectual consistency?
That’s absurd. Mostly because there’s no “black people” as a monolithic group who can decide these things. One guy who’s hopped up on a bunch of Cornel West may decide that “black” is offensive, while some 90 year old person in Alabama may be perfectly fine with “colored” or “negro”, so long as it’s not being used in an insulting way, and think that “african american” is the silliest thing ever.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? You could argue either way or neither way.
And while in a very hypothetical, theoretical sense, I agree with the notion that everyone gets to decide what they’re called, in the real world, people are going to be categorized, and as long as the category names are not used or meant to be used in a derogatory, insulting or negative way, people need to roll with it. Without some kind of clear way to broadcast someone’s personal preferences ahead of time, getting offended without knowing the context on either side isn’t right.
I mean, if someone prefers the term “african american”, but I have no idea, and I use the term “black” in good faith, and they get offended, that is squarely their problem.
There would be no intention of offense, and had no way of knowing what term they prefer, and what I used is a commonly used term that’s also commonly accepted as non-offensive. If someone chooses to take offense from that, that is their problem, not mine. Had I called them something commonly taken as offensive or as a slur, then yeah, that’s reason to take offense.
And if you continue to use that term, having been informed that it is offensive, it is squarely your problem.