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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: The Racial Pejorative
Message-ID: <257@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Oct-84 15:54:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.257
Posted: Sat Oct  6 15:54:15 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Oct-84 21:25:17 EDT
References: <266@whuxl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 27

Maybe I'm imagining this, but I think I'm seeing the "duck the pejorative
name" phenomenon again.  Having southern relatives on one side, I've noticed
that the acceptable term for people with a majority of African ancestors
seems to change regularly.  Negro, Black, Afro-American [thankfully that one
was short-lived], etc.  My theory is that the new name is acceptable for only
as long as it takes to transfer the pejorative image from the old name
to the new one.

Now we are supposed to say "Asian" instead of "Oriental".  Well, I won't,
on three counts:

   (1) It's inaccurate; Indians are asian too.

   (2) I see little evidence that oriental is pejorative.

   (3) It doesn't alter the fact that a lot of oriental immigrants
       exhibit behavior which I don't like, regardless of who does it.

(I might add that I find the the common behavior of a lot of white
southerners to be offensive too; I'm an Equal Opportunity Offendee.)

I have no answers, merely observations.

  Charley  Wingate    UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mangoe
                      CSNet: mangoe@umcp-cs   ARPA: mangoe@maryland

"My wings are like a shield of steel."