In my opinion, nobody should call an ethnic, religious, social, or political group by any name other than that which the group calls itself.
Any other practice is actually "name calling" which may be offensive to that particular group, and reflects the bias of the "name caller". Thus, it is correct to call a member of the National Socialist party -- Nazi; a member of the Italian Fascistic Party -- a fascist; a member of any communist party -- communist. Applying these adjectives to any other group, is an intentional offense. However, if a book discusses the opinions or philosophies, which deviate from the prevailing consensus, or are considered controversial-- then LCSH already has the term CONTROVERSIAL LITERATURE. Aviva Astrinsky YIVO Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
