On Wednesday, 19 March 2014 at 07:51:06 UTC, Nick Sabalausky
wrote:
But "black" and "white" are less clear. Ever since the US civil
rights movement, "colored" has become accepted as a term that
"you just don't say" (despite still being used as the "C" in
the NAACP, confusingly enough). So "black" was used to replace
it. But then for some reason I'm completely ignorant of, many
people started considering "black" to be taboo too, and started
insisting people say "African American", which I find rather
goofy since not everyone of that apperently-unnameable
ethnicity is American at all.
Nor is everyone who is "African" "black" in the sense outlined
above (cf. Northern Africa). The problem is that as long as a
group is discriminated against (overtly or covertly), it doesn't
matter what new name you make up in order to sound less
offensive, it will soon be perceived as derogatory. That's why
you have negro > colored > black > African American. It only
shows that discrimination has never really stopped.
[...]
even though "white" is still used all the time anyway and I've
never seen anyone get offended.
QED. "white" has no negative connotations simply because the
majority of people are white. The thing is as long there is
racism and discrimination against minorities (be it ethnicity or
sexual orientation or religion), people will always feel uneasy
about it and it will always result in twisted minds (political
correctness is a symptom, and proof, of the madness of racism and
discrimination). There is no way out _within_ this framework
(that's why pc has failed), the only way out is to leave the
framework. Yes, we are all jackasses!
