Politically Correct

[KATSCAN]

I've offended someone; maybe others on an earlier thread. I'm sorry for that.
But what are some answers for the following:

I can't use the "j" word for Japanese
I can't use britt for the English

I don't mean to be wrong; I did however want to distinguish Japanese from Asain; Taiwan, Korea, etc. I hope this thread isn't bad for anyone. Just looking for some answers.

[Botnst]

I am an Offended-American. I go through life looking for things that pi$$ me off. It is a life full of opportunity.

Bot

[DslBnz]

I wouldn't care if someone called me a blinkin orange Limey, Scotch, multi-Gook from the Northeast. Whatever. I think people are far too sensitive on this topic.

[Moneypit SEL]

When people apply the same standards to 'Cracker' and 'Redneck', I'll sign on. Otherwise, unwad your panties, it's just a word.

[Kuan]

This is not about political correctness. Political correctness is about adjectives. It's finding a different way to describe someone's condition. Height challenged, for example, instead of short. What tkamiya is talking about is extending people the courtesy of treating them like they want to be treated. It takes absolutely no effort to not use the N* word. Don't know? Just ask.

When you use an offensive word, a curse word, and direct it at a person, you are commiting a speech act. It's not just a word, it's a purposeful word, with intent, and intension (with an s). They can hurt and be real painful. If you've ever been in a verbal fight with a loved one you should understand.

[KATSCAN]

I certainly won't use it again. I am not evil driven. Good heart.
I was not alive during the war or concieved. Maybe just a thought.
Golf anouncers use the word Swede to describe Sweden. He's a Swede
Olympic coverage I've heard the word "Finn" for Finland. He's a Finn
We've all heard Tai for Tailand. Tiger Woods mother is Tai

So please understand how mistakes can be made by people like me who don't know better. Will be concience of it from now on.

Thanks

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by Kuan

This is not about political correctness. Political correctness is about adjectives. It's finding a different way to describe someone's condition. Height challenged, for example, instead of short. What tkamiya is talking about is extending people the courtesy of treating them like they want to be treated. It takes absolutely no effort to not use the N* word. Don't know? Just ask.

When you use an offensive word, a curse word, and direct it at a person, you are commiting a speech act. It's not just a word, it's a purposeful word, with intent, and intension (with an s). They can hurt and be real painful. If you've ever been in a verbal fight with a loved one you should understand.

These are very astute observations, as are tkamiya's. As I see it, the N* word in particular is distasteful as it has a very charged, hateful history. Far more blacks were chased down and lynched while being called N* than were whites who might have been called a cracker or redneck.

I don't see see how referring to a middle easterner as a rag head/camel jockey, a black a N*, or an asian a gook or jap is akin to calling a white a redneck. The history of hatred is just not there. At the same time, I don't want to dismiss the feelings that originated the widespread use of the word "jap" either... WWII was an ugly, ugly thing, and the Japanese in particular commited some outrageous atrocities in their campaigns. It would be hard to lecture a survivor of the Bataan death march, for instance, on etiquette of this sort.

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by KATSCAN

So please understand how mistakes can be made by people like me who don't know better. Will be concience of it from now on.

Thanks

Hey, you asked and listended, and have learned! Nothing wrong with that!

If I cared about being called whitey, cracker, nazi, fascist or neocon I'd be a very sad person. For some reason its perfectly acceptable to use those words but not other ethnic slurs.

[cscmc1]

Originally Posted by MedMech

If I cared about being called whitey, cracker, nazi, fascist or neocon I'd be a very sad person. For some reason its perfectly acceptable to use those words but not other ethnic slurs.

Someone once referred to my old man as a "jack-booted Nazi, fascist pig." It torqued me initially, but the guy who wrote it (in a letter to the editor in our local paper) is nuts... like, certifiably NUTS. Eventually, dad talked me into laughing it off, as he did. Dads are pretty sharp!

[Lawrence Coppar]

Thought JAP was an acronym for Jewish American Princess.......

[Benzadmiral]

. . . but some (hell, most) of the PC weasel-wording is ridiculous. "Height-" or "vertically challenged"? Come on! That sounds like the condition is something that can be responded to, that the "vertically challenged" person can rise above the problem and *overcome* the challenge. And aside from lifts in my shoes, that's not possible. If I'm short, I'm short, and that's the end of it.

Not long ago, in a piece of fiction, I used the term "Oriental" to describe a character who had Chinese or Japanese features. The narrator of the scene doesn't know which the character is, so he uses "Oriental." My editor suggested "Asian." "'Oriental' sounds like a carpet."

I responded, "Fine. But folks from Myanmar, India, and Kazakhstan are Asian too. If I use 'Asian,' how will we know what that character looks like? She's an extremely minor character; I'm not going to go into detail about her looks. It's a thumbnail sketch. You're asking me to use a less accurate word to keep from offending some mythical reader."

Originally Posted by cscmc1

Someone once referred to my old man as a "jack-booted Nazi, fascist pig." It torqued me initially, but the guy who wrote it (in a letter to the editor in our local paper) is nuts... like, certifiably NUTS. Eventually, dad talked me into laughing it off, as he did. Dads are pretty sharp!

I guess that explains the guys around here that call us Facsist Nazi's

[Kuan]

Originally Posted by narwhal

Kirk Vining labeled me a lillywhiterichsoutherncrackeredneckfratboy, and he was partially right, so I can't act like I know how it would feel to be called a Jap, and I certainly have no beef with people of Japanese descent. However, I fail to see how shortening a word by 5 letters used as an abbreviation for a race can be thought to be hate inspired. As the man earlier mentioned, they call folks from Finland, Finns, ect....What about "rice rockets" when talking about Japanese bikes--is that offensive too?

So society may have turned this into an offensive term, and since several members have expressed discomfort with it, I personally will not use it on this forum, but I think it is a little overboard on the sensitivity scale.

It requires someone to be offended for a term to be offensive. It's not a universal thing. You don't know what it's like to be called a Jap because you're not, and it would be kinda funny if someone did call you a Jap. In anycase, you've obviously been offended before when called something else. It's that kind of feeling. Everyone's been offended before.

[Botnst]

It isn't the words that offend me so much as the intent of the words to do harm of some sort. Narwhal could call me a cracker day and night for weeks to no ill effect. If he could stand it, I could stand it, too. Basicly, it takes one to know one.

But there have been people here whose sole intent was to insult and demean and denigrate through use of terminology calculated to be offensive. The words didn't offend me nearly so much as the intention of the person using the words.

In that sense, and that sense alone, I don't think using the term "Jap Car" would offend me, were I of Japanese extraction. However, if the term was used as a pejorative with the intention of slandering or insulting me, I would be deeply offended (even if I'm not of Japanese descent).

For example, one of my best friends in the service was an American Indian. No big deal, with him being an indian, he was rather proud of his heritage. He always envied the older guys who made Chief Petty Officer. "I'm the only Indian on this ship and look at all the guys I gotta call chief." Well, some people are just knuckleheads, especially when liquor overwhelms better sense. They'd use the same words that I used or that Bill used, but coming from their mouths stoked a huge head of steam looking for a relief valve.

And that's why I made my callous, flippant remark about being an Offended-American.

There are plenty of reasons to be genuinely offended by bigotry. Why crowd the field unnecessarily?

Just as folks shouldn't look for opportunities to be offended, the rest of us should excersize restraint and not use terminology or references that might offer incedental offense.

All we have to do is take a moment and be polite like mommy told us.

Bot