Post by shmeep on Jul 22, 2005 8:15:21 GMT -5
Here's my rant of the day: people who are trying to be so PC in their phrasing that they end up being insulting. I got into this with my brother the other day. He met a "hearing impaired" guy at the store.
"It's okay to call him 'Deaf,'" I said. I'm always trying to educate people in this way.
"But he had some hearing," he said.
"Then he's 'hard of hearing.' Or he still might prefer the term 'Deaf.'"
He didn't grasp it so I started to say that the label of Deaf is about a cultural group and is unrelated to how many decibels a person is able to hear.
Somehow it all ended with him nearly convincing me that, since Deaf people (who are a part of the Deaf community) find it insulting to be called hearing impaired, that I was being PC by trying to ban him from using such a term. I started to think he had a point, but then it hit me. HE was the one using the "PC" term to begin with. Why was I being called "PC" for telling him to call Deaf people Deaf??
So I sent him this email:
Hey, I was thinking about our "hearing impaired" versus "Deaf" or "hard of hearing" conversation and I wasn't really satisfied with how I explained it to you. By the time you were through with me, I was the one being PC by saying that Hearing Impaired is insulting to Deaf people. It's really more the other way around. Here's why (and I hope I can explain this better): Deaf and hard of hearing are the technical labels and what most of them call themselves. Hearing Impaired is the PC term, made up by hearing people who feel that to call a person what he is is somehow degrading. Hearing people say Hearing Impaired to be PC, but they don't realize that to deny a group of people the name of their group is actually far more insulting. It's like if black people feared it would be insulting to call me white and decided randomly that the proper thing to name me is melanin challenged when I'm perfectly happy being called white because it's what I am. I know, dumb example, but it is apt. So, whenever I hear someone trying to be PC and saying hearing impaired, I just stick in that it's okay to say Deaf. See? Deaf is the NON PC term, but it's the correct one. It's a cultural term, not a measure of how much one can hear.
I think I got through to him because he sent me this:
Yup, sometimes trying to be PC is actually not being PC. I get offended when people call me "white" since I'd prefer "cracker" or "honkey." You know, I've never been fond of the term "African-American" since that presupposes somebody's nationality. Like if you see somebody on the street, and describe them to somebody, how do we know if they're a US citizen or not? Should you have to ask everybody's nationality, just so when describing them you can say, "so this African-New Zelander..." And does that mean that you have to call somebody who's from Africa, African? But not everybody in Africa is black. Black and white both seem like equally innocuous terms.
So, the whole African-American debate aside, I thought it was a pretty successful exchange.
There. Rant concluded. Hope my lack of PC-ness doesn't offend anyone.
"It's okay to call him 'Deaf,'" I said. I'm always trying to educate people in this way.
"But he had some hearing," he said.
"Then he's 'hard of hearing.' Or he still might prefer the term 'Deaf.'"
He didn't grasp it so I started to say that the label of Deaf is about a cultural group and is unrelated to how many decibels a person is able to hear.
Somehow it all ended with him nearly convincing me that, since Deaf people (who are a part of the Deaf community) find it insulting to be called hearing impaired, that I was being PC by trying to ban him from using such a term. I started to think he had a point, but then it hit me. HE was the one using the "PC" term to begin with. Why was I being called "PC" for telling him to call Deaf people Deaf??
So I sent him this email:
Hey, I was thinking about our "hearing impaired" versus "Deaf" or "hard of hearing" conversation and I wasn't really satisfied with how I explained it to you. By the time you were through with me, I was the one being PC by saying that Hearing Impaired is insulting to Deaf people. It's really more the other way around. Here's why (and I hope I can explain this better): Deaf and hard of hearing are the technical labels and what most of them call themselves. Hearing Impaired is the PC term, made up by hearing people who feel that to call a person what he is is somehow degrading. Hearing people say Hearing Impaired to be PC, but they don't realize that to deny a group of people the name of their group is actually far more insulting. It's like if black people feared it would be insulting to call me white and decided randomly that the proper thing to name me is melanin challenged when I'm perfectly happy being called white because it's what I am. I know, dumb example, but it is apt. So, whenever I hear someone trying to be PC and saying hearing impaired, I just stick in that it's okay to say Deaf. See? Deaf is the NON PC term, but it's the correct one. It's a cultural term, not a measure of how much one can hear.
I think I got through to him because he sent me this:
Yup, sometimes trying to be PC is actually not being PC. I get offended when people call me "white" since I'd prefer "cracker" or "honkey." You know, I've never been fond of the term "African-American" since that presupposes somebody's nationality. Like if you see somebody on the street, and describe them to somebody, how do we know if they're a US citizen or not? Should you have to ask everybody's nationality, just so when describing them you can say, "so this African-New Zelander..." And does that mean that you have to call somebody who's from Africa, African? But not everybody in Africa is black. Black and white both seem like equally innocuous terms.
So, the whole African-American debate aside, I thought it was a pretty successful exchange.
There. Rant concluded. Hope my lack of PC-ness doesn't offend anyone.
