Is it normal we decide words are bad over time?

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The correct term form Afracian Americans in the US was once nigger, but then someone decided that was a bad word, so it went to negro, but then later that was bad, so it became colored people which was completely polite to use until someone decided they didn't like that either, so it became black people which was totally fine to say until someone decided that was no good and it became Afracian Americans. In 20 years when someone decides that is no good, I wonder what the next correct term will be, pigmently gifted?

The point of that obsurdly long sentence is that every word on that list, even the one at the beginning that is today thought to be so horrible, were at different points in history just normal words to discribe people of color. No different than calling a blue house "blue". There was nothing derogatory or mean spirited until someone decided there was.

I notice the same thing with the word "retard". Apparently that is now a terrible thing to call someone who is retarded. It used to be just the normal correct term to describe with mental and developmental disabilities. It was not mean or rude, it was just correct. The fact is, any word that is used to classify such people will ultimately become something that would be offensive to call someone without such disabilities. It wouldn't matter if you made the correct term " greatest person on Earth" because if being the greatest person on Earth meant you were retarded, no one would want to be called that. So why bother constantly changing things? Why is it offensive to call someone that actually is retarded, retarded? Again, it is no different than calling a blue house blue.

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33% Normal
Based on 6 votes (2 yes)
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Comments ( 5 )
  • modernism
    8 years ago

    You're right - but that's just the way things are. There's no way to stop the connotation of certain words inevitably become negative (or positive, for that matter).

    Things change. That's life. And in order to socially adapt, you have to change with it.

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  • _Crusades
    8 years ago

    Liberals want to handle everything with a silk glove. That's why they enable minorities to impose censorship on words that describe their traits.

    This also happens with fat people. They demand to be called "people of generous proportions". Notice how they add positive adjectives to their labels?

    The fact that all these groups want to change the way society calls them. shows how ashamed they are with themselves. But they don't want to show it. They instead fabricate a lie and want the rest of society to believe in it and accommodate whenever some progressive representative of a group has a hissy fit.

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    • RoseIsabella
      8 years ago

      I love your Richard Nixon quote!
      :-)

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  • Rihyae
    8 years ago

    Let's call 'em Melanins.

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  • Koda
    8 years ago

    It's the concept of the "euphemism treadmill". A touchy subject will always be a touchy subject it seems. Retard was far from the first in that "treadmill". We keep replacing the term because it eventually becomes pejorative when people use it as an insult.

    What needs to be realized is that there's no "perfect term" that can't be said in a spiteful or mocking tone. Even calling mentally challenged people "glorious angels of purity" won't stop them from being made fun of or people using that term to bully others by comparing them to the mentally challenged. Words are just words. We give them the power they have, but when it comes to possibly offending someone, it's still best to err on the side of caution. Even if the word is meaningless to you, if know it means something hateful for someone else, don't say it around them.

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