Quote:
Originally Posted by wdmso
I don't consider homosexual to be derogatory. Why should it be, if its just a harmless matter of sexual choice?
See Jim that’s the problem it’s not about what you consider to be derogatory or offensive.
whether it’s derogatory or not, can only be decided by the person it’s being used against or towards
Not the speaker determination, that it’s not derogatory
I’ll give you an example my wife was trying to remember a girl she worked with temporarily on the floor with the oncoming nurse who’s black she couldn’t remember the girls name but she knew the girl was black but my wife referred to her as colored .
And the black nurse who is relieving her tore, her new one for using the term colored, basically telling her refer to her is black it’s offensive the color colored
If my wife’s mistake was unconscious one, and a lesson was learned
but there are people who use terms to incite intimidate, or embarrass others. It happened here a few days ago.
forced to bake queers cakes.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device
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The black nurse didn't have to tear your wife a new one unless she was consumed by a racial grievance that could only be relieved by striking out at someone she considered to be the cause, or part of the cause, of that grievance. The "lesson" I would have learned from such abusive behavior is that the black nurse had unresolved issues and that I would be better off not having many personal conversations with her for fear of inadvertently saying something "wrong." She could have politely told your wife that saying "colored" is offensive to her and please say black, if you don't mind. What any Blacks, Negros, Coloreds, Afro-Americans, personally wish to be called, is not that definitive or constant from time to time. To say that only they can decide what is derogatory is denying anyone else a use of language they don't personally consider derogatory. This is especially true if there is no standardized usage that for everyone is purely descriptive. When people take umbrage at words like "homosexual" or heterosexual or bisexual or asexual which have no inherent derogatory connotations and then decide to replace them with their own words, like "gay," they are insulting not only a language, but all of those who have used, and wish to use, that word to describe their own experiences--language is seized by a select few at the discouragement of anyone else from its appropriate use. That's a form of insult that is probably intended.
I still don't know what is the preferred or "correct" diction, Black or Afro-American. Black seems to be the choice of the day. But "people of color" in certain instances is quite OK--and very "inclusive" and a sort of self-satisfying jab/insult to "whites" who are excluded from the implicitly better group.
BTW, I've noticed that your writing has improved a lot, maybe from your daily back and forth on the forum. Still a ways to go. But keep it up, you'll eventually show your kids that you can do better than "fortune cookie" talk.