http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025518582Oh my.
Archae (30,963 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 08:03 AM
How many terms do we no longer use, besides racist ones that is?
I have a good friend who is an avid "Wheel Of Fortune" watcher, and she's in her 70's.
The young guy that was recently a contestant who has Down's syndrome, she described him as a "Mongoloid."
I hadn't heard that term in a long time.
The same woman uses the term "colored" for both blacks and Hispanics.
She's not racist at all, these are just terms she grew up with and never gave up.
Okay now, the franksolich racism test.
<<<uses "Mongoloid" all the time; it's a perfectly good scientific term.
However, as am reputed to not be prejudiced against the cerebrally-challenged, others don't get offended because they
know how I really feel about things, and am using the term in its scientific sense.
<<<has never used "colored" in life, to describe blacks or those of Texan derivation.
Probably because of the place and time in which I grew up; it's always been "black," and as for the Hispanics, that's always been "Texan."
Unlike blue states, where racism is pervasive, out here in red-state Nebraska we don't have any "Hispanic" "problem." We have lots and lots of Texans, but no problems.
JustAnotherGen (12,225 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 08:45 AM
2. Oriental
My great gramfeathers used that term . . . It's one that should well be frowned upon - and generally is. . . I hope.
<<<uses "Oriental" all the time, but generally not when referring to human beings.
<<<usually calls them what they specifically are, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Thais.
Prophet 451 (8,489 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:11 AM
3. Still in general use here
Here (UK), "Asian" usually means someone of Indian or Pakistani descent so we usually refer to people of Chinese and Japanese extraction as "Oriental".
You know, the British used to have the terms "Near East" and "Far East."
The Near East is what's today called the "Middle East;" I dunno where the new Near East is.
<<<stubbornly uses "Near East" and "Far East" as the British did.
JustAnotherGen (12,225 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:28 AM
8. You are in the UK - another response 
That same great gramfeathers? She was all Irish Protestant - family came here in the 1740's. That group of folks tended to marry only their own for a couple of hundred years.
Something I wonder if you've heard in your life (she was born in 1904) - Lace Curtain Irish.
The only people I've ever heard use it were her, her peers, and a few people I've met from London who at that time were in their mid 60's.
As in - "Ahhh - Lace Curtain - not Catholic".
Bluenorthwest (32,082 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:57 AM
9. I have heard that term before, it is not about being Catholic or Prod, it is about having a bit of
money, which makes one Lace Curtain Irish, as opposed to being poor Shanty Irish.
My father did not care for the terms Lace Curtain and Shanty Irish, as he felt they were derogatory comments, critical of a people for being poor then critical again when they try to rise up. This sort of verbiage is fairly common toward many groups of minorities. The 'Lace Curtain' was supposed to denote an affectation of a class to which they did not belong and a display of wealth. Shanty was supposed to denote a lack of human value due to poverty and ignorance. There are counterpart terms for many minority groups.
<<<am at a quandary here.
There's lots and lots of those of Irish derivation here in Nebraska--the third-largest ethnic group, after the Danes and the Germans--but it's really difficult to describe them, as "Irish" Nebraskans in no way, shape, or form bear the least resemblence to any blue-state "Irish," especially the Bostonian sort.
Nye Bevan (16,894 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:15 AM
4. I believe "Eskimo" is now considered non-politically correct
<<<still uses "Eskimo."
treestar (51,738 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:16 AM
5. mentally retarded, which used to be the clinical term
<<<still freely uses "mentally retarded," as it's a good description of a scientific category of people.
TexasMommaWithAHat (80 posts) Thu Sep 11, 2014, 09:21 AM
6. Gypsy
has been replaced by "Roma," or "travelers." Probably others that I don't know about.
<<<still uses "gypsy;" it's a great word to describe a rather colorful group of people, not derogatory in the least.
