Politically Incorrect

Where I come from, being called "dude" was a double insult. A "dude" was a greenhorn likely to try & mount the wrong side of his horse. A male (I'm female) tourista wearing a cowboy hat. It was obvious that he was a tourista because his cowboy hat was clean and a real cowboy's seldom is. A "dude" was a "drugstore cowboy" I was miffed when someone called me a dude.

 But, times have changed and so has society's lexicon. We've changed "disrespect" from a noun to a verb.  Far worse in my mind, ignorant national newscasters have made "an historical occasion" instead of  "a historical occasion" the accepted phrase. The guiding rule had been "an" before a noun beginning with a vowel and "a" before a noun beginning with a consonant. The letter "h" is a consonant. ( My English teachers would have been horrified.) English is a living language, not some static thing carved in stone.

The Japanese (those from Nippon) use to call Caucasians "gaijen" meaning "foreign devil". For westerners being offended would have disrupted commerce. During the era of the civil rights movement it became polite to call a Negro person "black". This was to avoid the slurs associated with the word "nigger". Negro is a the correct English word used by ethnologists to refer to a specific race. It comes from the Spanish "negra" (meaning black) as many of the Muslim Moors were dark skinned. Likewise, the confusion of Columbus gave us the confused racial name of "Indian" for the natives that he found in the Americas.

The black (negro) folks I know are not really black. They are various shades of chocolate brown. Actually, I'm not white. I'm sort of salmon pink. Imagine the Klu Klux Klan wearing pink sheets to their meetings! Personally, I think referring to the two main divisions of race in the United States as "chocolate" and "vanilla" would be rather cool. We could throw in "strawberry" and "butterscotch" to cover the whole field.

Don't get me started on "Native American". Oops, too late. I'm a native American. The flesh of my flesh came from America. The bones of my bones are made from the calcium of American soil. To disparage this in any way disconnects me from the environment in which I live (and we're beginning to see where that leads, aren't we?).

 I used to try to refer to the peoples who's land the European settlers took as "first peoples" to try to show some respect but that's too big a mouthful.  "Indian" (still use it occasionally as old habits die hard) doesn't show that respect and is totally confusing. After 400 years we should have come up with something better but then we in the United States are still using the size of some king's foot as our standard of measurement. As far as I know,  name of the king is lost in antiquity. These days I try to remember to change the "Indian" misnomer to "Amerind". Intent seems to me to be the most element in referring to an ethic group and hopefully this is both meaningful and respectful.

I recently saw a public broadcast where a guest on an interview called out another guest for using the 60's term "black" to refer to an ethnicity. "You're supposed to say 'African American'". What complete bullsquat. This politically correct nonsense has gone too far. I had a friend who's ethnicity origin was Mexico. I called him a "chicano" as was the politically correct term at the time. "I AM not a chicano I'm a MEXCAN", was his response. Another friend of mixed Amerind & Spanish origin I frequently teased by calling a "wetback" referring to the idea that immigrants from the south often cross the border by swimming across the Rio Grande or the All-American Canal. He knew that  I was well aware that his ancestors had settled nearby long before any Europeans had even explored the area. I was teasingly acknowledging that fact and showing appreciation for the contribution his culture had made to mine.

In some communities I have seen friends of all races affectionately referring to each other as "nigger" in the same vein as "dude" is often used today. No offense is meant. I'll start saying "African American" and "Asian American" when people start calling me an "European American". I'd much rather be actually correct than be politically correct.

I don't want to go around feeling offended when the person calling me a "dude" mean no offense. So, if I say something off the cuff that offends you, please ignore it. I hardly ever mean to offend anyone and if I do I can just about guarantee that you'll know it. And, I promise I won't take offense when someone calls me a "dude" or just about anything else that's in their personal lexicon.

Let's all be more civil to each other by making this promise to ourselves: "Don't take offense where none is meant".  To do so not only hurts ourselves, it's just plain silly.

 And, always be sure to - "smile when you say that, stranger."