I am not aware of the term black being considered racist. Perhaps by some misinformed people, but I’ve never been called out on refering to an individual as black. “African-American” is a cultural identifier, much in the same way “Polish-American,” “Italian-American,” and “Irish-American” are. So far as I know about the history of the term, it was created to create inclusivity. I mean, seriously, think about it. I live in a Polish-American community, we have Polish-American pride day, we have a culture to be proud of and to celebrate. Every other ethnic community has some sort of hyphenated-American culture . So what’s wrong with “African American”? It’s a valid community and a well-defined culture. It’s a culture separated from “Carribean-Americans” or other black Americans. I do not think African-American and Carribean-American are, or should be, interchangeable.
These hyphenated names are cultural constructs, not physical.
Furthermore, in mainsteram journalism, “black” IS the correct term when referring to a physical atrribute. (Per AP Style.) “African-American” is used to talk about the culture.
Words like “horizontally challenged” or “gravationally challenged” and their ilk are meant to be jokes. Apparently, some people got whooshed and are either trying to use it seriously, or misinterpreting people who use it in jest. I forget the name, but sometime in either the late 80s or early 90s, there was an entire book parodying PC and contained a collection of these sorts of euphamisms. It was a joke, people! But some people failed to see the humor and lambasted these phrases as PC brainwashers coming out to get ya.
Don’t know where you are from, but I live in California and that’s a pretty common phrase for church people. There are several variants such as “Gone with Jesus” or “Gone home to be with the Lord”.
There isn’t any euphuism for death that stands up to scrutiny of the bereaved, IMHO.
Of course if the dearly departed weren’t much of a good person you have to say “the devil done took him” or “I guess he’s in Hell now” in order to ease the blow of saying the word “dead”.
Perhaps the reason people take the joke PC terms even halfway seriously – and I once SAW “vertically challenged” used in an article somewhere by a politician, yes that’s a terrible cite but it’s all I have – is because the REAL ones are JUST AS SILLY.
African-American → not silly, IMHO, for reasons stated above.
Native American → useful distinction as “Indian-American” and “American Indian” can be confusing for some people
Gay/lesbian → as opposed to what? Homo, faggot, queer?
Handicapable → This is stupid, but is it PC? Says who? Disabled is fine. Handicapped is fine. I don’t see any big objection to either of these terms, although disabled seems to be in preference. Differently-abled? Some more vociferous PC adherents might champion its use, but I don’t find there to be be firm opposition to any of the other words.
Listen, PC is mostly about politeness. Call people what they want to be called. Yet people foam at the mouth at mere mentions of these initials, because pop culture has perverted what was a sensible concept.
I refer to myself as disabled, simply because I hear it the most. That being said, if I could choose I’d pick handicapped. While “handicapped” suggests a disadvantage, “disabled” implies the person is lacking all functionality. Today my professor lovingly called me a “gimp,” and it was so damn refreshing I started laughing. But that’s just this gimp’s opinion.
Regarding PC, I disagree. I don’t think it’s about politeness. I think it’s about censorship of language and thought. Sure, by being PC the speaker probably has the best intentions in mind, but intentions can often lead us astray. By using an anesthetized word, the speaker dulls the impact its of meaning, thereby softening it for their own well being. No one wants to think of someone as a cripple. Just look away and call him differently-abled, and everything’ll be pretty. I’ll stop bashing PC when it leaves me alone.
As far as people considering me racist for using the term “black,” well… I live in California and hang out in the UCSD theater department, which is probably the liberal capitol of the country.
I’ve never been corrected for referring to somebody as black. I don’t have any real argument with African-American except that it’s so damn long. And if we’re going to get into hypenated-American then I’d be English-Irish-Russian Jewish-American, which would be getting into the realm of the ridiculous. (I realize that’s more specific than African-American, but that’s because I am fortunate enough to know what countries my ancestors came from. Obviously not everybody is.) Why does almost everybody get a hyphen except us white people? (Okay, Native American lacks a hyphen as well, but it is at least an more-or-less accurate description, though I’m given to understand Indian is commonly used.) Is it because we’re assumed to be Americans first and anything else second? So does this mean nobody ELSE is assumed to be American first and anything else second? And am I the only person who finds this odd? I have not the slightest problem with people having different cultures and heritages. I am not saying we should all be alike. But we’re all Americans, right?
Concerning PC labels for us handicapped, I think the thing that gets lost is that there are people who don’t want to be called whatever is supposed to be the “polite” term. Therefore, it’s rude to call them that. And really, who would want to be called something like “handicapable?” Gag. I wouldn’t go around calling strangers gimp or cripple, but again, I don’t think I’ve known anybody who’d have real objections to handicapped or disabled.
I think what gets on people’s nerves is not that others are trying to be nonoffensive in their speech. It’s that so many of these terms come across as patronizing in their tone. “This poor person won’t be able to handle it if I refer to his/her condition politely, but bluntly, so I’ll use a sanitized ‘upbeat’ sounding word to boost his/her self-esteem, and doesn’t that make me sensitive and thoughtful?”
It’s all in how something is said. Someone can really hurt my feelings if they come up and say, “Damn, woman, you sure are FAT!!” OTOH, if someone says, “Ok, so you’re fat. No big deal, everyone has flaws!” I don’t find the word hurtful. And the word “overweight” is fine too, as long as the usage is NOT meant to insult. But terms like “weight-challenged” (I heard that once, but I can’t remember where) are obnoxious and condescending.
And although I myself am not “physically challenged” snicker, I think the term “handicapable” is just about the most patronizing, condescending word I’ve heard on this thread!
I’ve always felt that hyphenated-American is Un-American. The idea of this country is that anyone can come here and make it their home and be one of us, right? Hyphenated-American gets that backwards, emphesizing the differences between people rather than what they have in common. “American of blank descent” is fine if one is discussing an issue where cultural context is important, but other than that, plain old “American” should be the default.
I don’t mean to sound like a right-wing “we are Americans, if you don’t like it, leave!” sort in case anybody was thinking that. I am genuinely confused by the hyphenation issue.
I’ve run across that a time or two, but it was always associated with white supremacists. You know, the “Our European-American rights are being STOLEN!” sort of shit. Your experience may be different.
I am all for politeness, and I’ll call you anything you want, but I still don’t see what’s wrong with “black” or any non-hyphenated descriptions (aside from obvious racial slurs, of course). Honestly, I REALLY don’t want to go around offending people. I’ve had enough stupidity directed my way to not want to shove it at other people deliberately.
I thought of this thread yesterday when I was reading an article on how there is an animal rights group that wants to rename pet ownership to pet gaurdianship. Link (The overall gist of the article was agains this) The group says:
I think this is the thinking in general. So we change “handicapped” to “disabled” and then when that takes on a percieved negative connotation by some well-meaning group, we change “disabled” to “differently abled” all the time believing that by changing our language, we will change how we act. I’m not convinced it works.
Dammit. There IS nothing wrong with black. Who is telling you there is? Like I’ve said before, the mainstream media accepts “black” as the standard description of someone with dark skin. It’s not offensive, and I’ve personally never heard anyone claim it is. Some hypervigilant people think African-American is a synonym for black, but these people are wrong. Like I’ve said before, it describes a culture, not a physical characteristic.
As for hyphenated-Americans, there are plenty of them. Come to Chicago. Here we have Polish-American pride, Italian-American pride, Irish-American pride. There’s no shortage of hyphens here. Once again, these hyphenated names are used when the person’s culture is an important detail.
