I'm going to be controversial, so please think hard about what I'm saying - and why you're reacting to it the way you
are - before replying.

I think "Political correctness" is mainly an American problem, though it seems to be spreading to England too.

The word "nigger" was not originally a pejorative term, just a description - it's the Latin word for "black" with the
"g" doubled. Since then it has become "black", "negro", "coloured", "of colour" and "African-American" (not much use in
England, that last one), and possibly others that I don't know about.  But this "political correctness" is treating the
symptom, not the disease.

If we look down on black people, or women, or homosexuals, or gypsies, or people with mental or physical disabilities,
then any word we choose to label them with eventually comes to mean "those people we look down on", and has to be
replaced by another euphemism.  It wouldn't surprise me if in a few years' time the word "gay" was seen as
"inappropriate" (a word I hate as much as "politically correct") and had to be replaced by another term.

And different people like to refer to themselves in different ways.  Some women in the USA object to being called
"ladies".  But some ladies in England object to being called "women"!  Similarly some gypsies like being called
"gypsies", and I'm guessing that they would object to the word "travellers" because that would include people who chose
to follow a travelling way of life but were not real gypsies.

So I'm with Tom Hinds - always be respectful, not intentionally disrespectful.

Colin Hume

Email colin@colinhume.com      Web site http://colinhume.com
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