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BGonline.org Forums
Sarah Palin and more thoughts on offensive words
Posted By: joe freedman In Response To: A Few Responses on Offensive Language, Stick and Stones, and Political Correctness (Nack Ballard)
Date: Tuesday, 23 November 2010, at 2:13 a.m.
Some words become pejorative because the subject itself is deemed unpleasant. Wikipedia has an interesting article on euphemisms. One example is the "evolution" of lame → crippled → handicapped → disabled → physically challenged → differently abled. Now, I don't think "lame" or "crippled" should be excluded from Scrabble, although they're probably not the best terms to use in polite conversation (unless the reference is to a horse). Nor should "spastic", although "spaz" might be going too far. The same should be true, in my view, for "negro", if it does in fact have an accepted lower-case use. The same is not true for "nigger" or "jew" (as a verb), which are ethnic slurs uniquely associated with persecution, murder, etc. and with the attitude that made them possible. So how do we decide which words are OK and which are not, without sliding into silly political correctness? I'm not sure. Hasbro has the right to do so, I take it, with respect to officially sanctioned Scrabble tournaments. The slope may be slippery, but that doesn't mean we should stick to flat land. In closing, I'd note that sensitivity to words is not limited to bleeding heart liberals. As many are probably aware, Sarah Palin blasted Rahm Emanual for using the term "retarded" to describe some political opponents. Palin's words: “Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the ‘N-word’ or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities–and the people who love them–is unacceptable.” Presumably Ms. Palin would also --quite properly-- object to the term "mongoloid" to describe persons with Down's syndrome, even though that term was in common use for centuries. It all depends upon whose ox is gored.
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