I just got up from conversation with a couple of older black men, that I said “well I got to go back to work and start cracking the whip.” And it occurred to me then that it was probably a really insensitive stupid thing to say.
Sadly, it hadn’t occurred to me until it’s already said.
Unfortunately there isn’t really a full list because that shit changes so often. Previously accepted phrases become slurs and yesterday’s slurs get reclaimed.
And it is locational. Something insensitive in the US might be insensitive here in Oz or over in Europe… Or might not.
That is how idiom works.
Yep. Can be things you wouldn’t even think about too. For example the word ‘spastic’ isn’t offensive in the US, but is deeply offensive in the UK, similar to the word ‘retard’
Yesterday
Cursèd Saracens did spoil my day
Give us strength to crush those hordes, I pray
Oh, I believe in Huns to slay
You do realize you’re asking for a racist-o-pedia, right?
So, basically twitter…
Me and the boys going to work on the Big Book of Slurs
I remember in my 20s the phrase “indian giver” coming out of my mouth. I hadn’t used that phrase since I was a kid of 10 years old or so.
I immediately realized that I should never say that shit again. Adult me realized it is a horrible thing to say but as a kid I just thought it meant you gave and asked for it back. I had much more context as an adult.
Most of the time I think before I speak, but not always.
And Indian cuts. I realized it was racist when I heard the next generation calling them Chinese cuts.
the folks in the linux subs talking about ‘ricing’ their desktops need to see it when you find it!
Speaking of stupid and insensitive, I was in my 20s before someone explained to me that to reference “jewing someone down” on price was not a great thing to say. It seems absurd. I’d just never seen it in writing or thought about it–it was an idiom, that’s it. You want to get a better price, so you jew them down. I guess I thought it was a homonym, if anything, but I didn’t really think about it, at all. Big-time facepalm moment when it clicked for me. Likewise for, “I got gypped.”
My grandfather, who passed away in the 90s, used to say “cotton pickers” for people that he meant as “jerks”. It took me until the 2010s that he was taking about black people. 🤦♂️
A lot of people post online that they love the phrase “cotton-headed ninny-muggins”.
But once you look at it thought this lens…boys I think this one’s not ok.
Isn’t that a line from “Elf”?
The two that really make me wince are “Indian giver” and the related “Indian summer” and of course calling hooch “firewater” isn’t great either.
I always thought “Indian summer” sounded very poetic, maybe related to the climate of the Indian subcontinent.
But it’s just garden variety American racism?
That’s so disappointing!Does anyone know more about the etymology?
Indian* here, and I don’t know anyone offended by Indian summer.
*It says Indian on my ID.
Ok I’ve thought about it a bit and I need to know. What’s wrong with Indian summer?
It’s related to the concept of an “Indian giver”: the warm weather seems like a gift, but is taken back.
I have never heard it described that way. It’s the last warm weather of the year before winter. It was something to look forward to.
Could you explain the firewater one?
It’s sort-of an antique trope whose main thrust is implying Native cultures are backward and unworldly because they don’t have distilleries (though, point in fact, some of them did ferment alcohol).
Firewater and other drinking stereotypes were about the myth of Native Americans all being raging alcoholics, which are as racist as saying black people are inherently violent or Jewish people inherently coveting money.
The alcohol abuse rates of Native Americans aligns with poverty issues, just like everyone else.
I honestly had no idea until now that firewater had anything to do with Native Americans. I just thought it was a term for alcohol, and don’t use it myself anyway.
Never heard it that way. It is a calque of a Native American name from the northern plains. I always thought a white person using it was offensive due to negative stereotypes about native Americans and drinking (and also mocking somewhat, like walking about saying “how” or speaking pidgin).
It’s not quite what you’re looking for, but there’s this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
To add to this:
List of lists of pejorative terms for people
It includes lists for men, women, lgbt+, disability, age, ethnicity, religion, location. The severity of the terms is varying and arguably location-dependent.
For example, while I (probably) wouldn’t use the word “wanker” in a formal professional large meeting in my current workplace without it being somehow contextual, almost no Australian or New Zealander in that company would blink an eye if I said it casually at lunch. But when I worked in the education sector I used the personal rule “if I don’t want it written on my gravestone, I shouldn’t say it”, because teachers have subsonic and lightning-fast swearing detection reflexes, even when they’re not at school.
Oof. At work we currently have a project for words deemed insensitive. For the most part I think it’s worthy, but some things are overboard. The project group cast a very wide net, ignoring context and etymology. My biggest disagreement is over “black” and “white”.
Take “black box” and “white box” for types of testing. These are based merely on the properties of light. I have serious doubts about anyone every having felt excluded by their use. And yet, we’re wasting time coming up with non-standard nomenclature to satisfy this supposed slight. There’s a whole laundry list of words like this.
I’m still mad about git master
Master as in “the master copy”
And they went and broke a bunch of tools and workflows to change it
Yeah, master has a few uses like this. Master bedrooms came about in the 20th century and had nothing to do with slavery. Then there is master in a pupil setting, though that is fairly uncommon in the US anyway. It’s more of a European/UK thing I think.
Again, I have nothing again changing things that are genuinely problematic. I just have a problem with busy work that is being demanded for items that aren’t actually offensive.
If you want a list of potentially offensive terms, look for corporate communication guidelines. PR people love making everything inclusive to a fault.
For example, Google has this wordlist that contains quite a few “insensitive” words like “dummy” or “blind” or “to cripple”. Wikis also have lists like these.
You should probably take most of these “loaded” terms with a grain of salt, but you can use them as a jumping off point if you want to think about the language you use.
I personally find it amusing that modern sensitivity is treating terms related to slavery as if the exclusively refer to black people. The additional carefulness is reinforcing the idea that black people are inherently attached to slavery, even though slavery as it exists today is rarely ever race-based.
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This is a misled approach. Rather than trying to list out the myriad phrases in our language based on historical prejudice, it’s better to just understand that prejudice yourself so you can determine what you want to perpetuate and what you don’t. That being said this won’t prevent something like this from ever happening again, and sometimes things you would never guess are rooted in white supremacy or other ism. No one knows the full extent of it themselves and no one is expected to know everything. If it happens on occasion and you realize it like this and avoid it in the future it’s fine for most people. If you keep saying something you don’t realize is messed up and stop when you learn it’s messed up, that’s also fine. It’s only when it’s obvious that you know it’s wrong but you insist on doing it or get defensive about how it shouldn’t be a big deal when it becomes a real issue.
100%. We’re all human and so many phrases are just in the vernacular.
I grew up hearing the word “gypped”. I didn’t know that’s how it was spelled (thought it was jipped.) It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized gypped -> Gypsy and extremely offensive. I’m still embarrassed that it took me that long to figure out.
Cunt
I actually looked into this two days ago. I came across a PDF that was maybe six years old but already outdated. It’s a problem when it’s this difficult to keep up. I know it’s a problem to not try to keep up too though. The human condition sucks.
where does everyone stand on cretin? IMHO it’s medical use is obsolete afaik, so really it’s just an insult right?
I think it might have originated in the Bible. Paul says in Titus 1:12-13 NIV
"One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: ‘Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.’ This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith.
I always found it comical that Paul, the great apostle, endorsed this stereotype of the people of Crete.
I think medical terms like retard, mongoloid, idiot, imbecile, moron, insane, cretin, and all other words implying someone is lacking certain cognitive abilities are obsolete. Medical terms will usually include “disability” or “disorder” these days, especially now that we have more knowledge about the underlying causes of someone’s intellectual disabilities.
I don’t think most people object to “idiot” or “dumb” despite their origins in either developmentally disordered people or mute people. It’s actually quite interesting that “idiot” remains much more acceptable than “retarded” when “idiot” was used to refer to people with the lowest IQ scales.
It’s only a matter of time until “developmental disorder” or “special needs” becomes a slur. Every time we invent a new word for someone stupid, people will use it negatively, and the word becomes charged, unless the term is so outdated that people forget it was ever used professionally. It’s an endless game of vocabular musical chairs.
I think it’s medical and insulting use are obsolete lmao
I dunno man, cretin perfectly describes Trump…
