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Sometimes when a large group of people are offended by something, it promotes a positive change and brings about acceptance.
For example, when I was a child the word "retarded" was thrown around on the playground and intended to be an insult. At the same time children that were cognitively different were hidden away in homes and rarely seen in public. Forget about seeing mentally disabled children in schools then. Today thinking people find the word offensive as it is a reminder of when it was intended as an insult and children were hidden. People recognize that each person, even those cognitively different, have something to offer the world and are humans. To use that word is demeaning to what they offer us.
The same applies to racial epithets. They are offensive because they are a throw back to a time when they were intended to denote a person that was some how "less."
Spending currency with pictures of Andrew Jackson or George Washington;
Street name "Black Hawk Road" in Scardsale;
The list goes on.
And if those offenses prevent someone from being productive they need more help than I can give them.
“NCAI's Long Standing Opposition to Harmful "Indian" Sports Mascots
As the nation’s oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization, NCAI has long held a clear position against derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people—including sports mascots—in media and popular culture. In 1968 NCAI launched a campaign to address stereotypes of Native people in popular culture and media, as well as in sports. Since this effort began, there has been a great deal of progress made and support to end the era of harmful "Indian" mascots in sports.†Ending the Era of Harmful
Sometimes when a large group of people are offended by something, it promotes a positive change and brings about acceptance.
For example, when I was a child the word "retarded" was thrown around on the playground and intended to be an insult. At the same time children that were cognitively different were hidden away in homes and rarely seen in public. Forget about seeing mentally disabled children in schools then. Today thinking people find the word offensive as it is a reminder of when it was intended as an insult and children were hidden. People recognize that each person, even those cognitively different, have something to offer the world and are humans. To use that word is demeaning to what they offer us.
The same applies to racial epithets. They are offensive because they are a throw back to a time when they were intended to denote a person that was some how "less."
Nomenclature name didn't do it. Education as to the possibilities of such groups did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spuggy
“NCAI's Long Standing Opposition to Harmful "Indian" Sports Mascots
As the nation’s oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization, NCAI has long held a clear position against derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people—including sports mascots—in media and popular culture. In 1968 NCAI launched a campaign to address stereotypes of Native people in popular culture and media, as well as in sports. Since this effort began, there has been a great deal of progress made and support to end the era of harmful "Indian" mascots in sports.†Ending the Era of Harmful
You pointed to organizations. They have agendas. Real people don't.
People don't have to walk on eggshells unless they are being offensive and can't handle someone calling it out. If someone can't handle a backlash for being offensive maybe they need to think about it and wonder who exactly is being the snowflake here.
Wrong. It’s the culture of ‘everything from white people’ is offensive. That’s what it really is about, but everyone is too PC to admit it.
I never worry about being called out, especially from libs and leftists. Mod cut.
Last edited by PJSaturn; 12-24-2018 at 09:02 AM..
Reason: Personal attack.
Well back in the day heaven forbid if an African American had the audacity to tell white folks they didn’t like being called the n word, or a woman tried to speak up against sexual harassment, sheesh your life was made hell.
Thank you. I had to learn the hard way how utterly clueless some people are to the experiences of others. Like, their brain simply cannot conceive of anything beyond their concept of how the world is. And unfortunately too many of these people are given authority to make decisions that greatly affect those they don't understand.
On an intellectual level I know these people exist and I shouldn't be surprised, but reality leaves me with my jaw dropped every time. "Must be nice" is all I can say.
Thank you. I had to learn the hard way how utterly clueless some people are to the experiences of others. Like, their brain simply cannot conceive of anything beyond their concept of how the world is. And unfortunately too many of these people are given authority to make decisions that greatly affect those they don't understand.
On an intellectual level I know these people exist and I shouldn't be surprised, but reality leaves me with my jaw dropped every time. "Must be nice" is all I can say.
I do believe that intent has a lot to do with it. I do not agree that the person who hears the word or phrase gets to randomly decide if it is offensive by definition or not. That attitude leads to a complete breakdown of interpersonal communication skills as the offended party doesn't even have to try to understand the other person. Instead of interacting based on everything said, body language, expression, and context, etc., they can just throw up a wall the instant they hear *whatever offensive term* and then all communication breaks down.
Wouldn't things get a whole lot better if we actually tried to understand each other?
That's what I'm saying. I have noticed that people have gotten more offended than before. I am anti Trump (only mentioning this because he is the least PC president we've ever had) but I still agree with the OPs premise. Worse yet, look at all the progress we have made towards equality with women and other races. Sure we're not entirely there yet and some progress might be trying to be erased now but you don't need to act like everyone is against you just because you're a different race or you're female.
People these days like to throw around the word racist for example. There was a lady at my local hospital who called the nurses racist for not treating her right away. I get that she was in pain but she also needed to realize that the doctors are busy and likely have people who are in more dire situations that she is. I got second hand embarrassment from her behavior because of the way she kept ranting about her throat. They should have kicked her out.. I guess legally they couldn't. Finally she walked out so I guess she wasn't as sick as she made it out to be. A pop culture example is people thought Adam Levine was racist for encouraging people to vote for Reagan instead of DeAndre. If you felt his decision was wrong that's one thing but to call him racist for that considering the circumstance is just ridiculous. One person even said they were no longer a fan of Adam. An example that it has gotten worse I think would be the controversy over Little Mermaid. That movie came out in 1989 and you're just now saying that it's offensive. Come on people it's just a song that you are taking far too literally.
Another good example of the racist card is when someone says negative things about someone of a different color that automatically means they're racist by the PC police. They never consider that maybe that person is just horrible despite their color. The worst is if you input a scenario where it's not good for a certain person to date a person of another culture. Now if you don't think about it sure it sounds racist but even when I explained that sometimes cultural differences do matter when it comes to romantic relationships (especially if you're in the relationship for the wrong reason meaning a reason other than love) and why said person might clash with that culture they still didn't get it.
A good movie line is "you can't handle the truth" because that's what I'd say to society. As a person who is very honest I get negative outcomes by it. Either people are offended or they use the truth against you to not pick you for an opportunity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
I think if you hurt someone with your words, even if you didn't intend to, you should try to smooth it over with them.
I was shopping for clothes with my sister, and at the time I hated knickers, and said so pretty loudly.
There was a black girl shopping at the same rack. She looked at me with a mixture of anger and hurt, and walked away. I sat there thinking wow that's someone who's sensitive about my fashion opinion!!
Then I realized what she thought I had said, and I felt bad, but I didn't go find her and explain it to her. I should have.
Intent isn't everything. Sometimes, impact is important too. That was about 40 years ago and I still feel bad.
There's no point although I have been known to try as you can see by the example up there. If the person is hurt by your words when you had no intention of being malicious they're not one to listen to reason most of the time. They're either looking to be offended or too brainwashed by the media or both to see it any other way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rrah
Sometimes when a large group of people are offended by something, it promotes a positive change and brings about acceptance.
For example, when I was a child the word "retarded" was thrown around on the playground and intended to be an insult. At the same time children that were cognitively different were hidden away in homes and rarely seen in public. Forget about seeing mentally disabled children in schools then. Today thinking people find the word offensive as it is a reminder of when it was intended as an insult and children were hidden. People recognize that each person, even those cognitively different, have something to offer the world and are humans. To use that word is demeaning to what they offer us.
The same applies to racial epithets. They are offensive because they are a throw back to a time when they were intended to denote a person that was some how "less."
I'm not one to care so much about individual words (like I might hate certain offensive slang words but I'm not telling you not to use it because it's more about personal preference and the sound of those words) because it's more about intent but retarded is one of those words I feel you just shouldn't use.
Crazy mental even psycho is fine to me because I use these words plenty but retarded I feel is inexcusable.
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