So I try to keep up on these things, but sometimes I'm surprised. Like when I wrote this column I used the term "Native American" at first, but then my smartypants son told me that term is now politically incorrect.
Moments like these help me to understand why my parents, who are in their 80s, will occasionally still say words like "deformed." I'm guessing that one isn't very politically correct, is it? But this is how they refer to their poodle's back leg. Their poodle, they say, was supposed to be a show dog, except he has a "deformed" back leg. So now he's only 3/4s of a show dog.
I love that 3/4s of a show dog lives in my parents' house.
Out of curiosity, did your son offer a viable alternative to the use of the term 'Native American'?
ReplyDeleteThe back leg is not the only thing "deformed" about that dog. Here's a list 4 other deformities:
ReplyDeleteHis sense of entitlement
His ideas on how to play fetch
His window-down coughing antics on trips
Most of all, his breed.
Are we back to American Indian?
ReplyDeleteI had the same experience with "oriental. Is there some kind of holding spot where we can automatically know when a politically correct word has been corrected?
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah...what is the correct term now?
ReplyDeleteI was going to make a comment about Jacques, but Jimmy beat me to it. Well said, Uncle.
ReplyDelete