Kodi Arfer / Wisterwood

"Person with albinism" is a ridiculous term.

Topic List
#001 | Kodiologist |
Next they'll be calling me "differently pigmented" or "oculocutaneously challenged". Political correctness is laudable, but circumlocution and euphemism aren't, and the ends don't justify the means.

Then again, being very inconspicuously albino, I've never been taunted or discriminated against for albinism per se. Perhaps if I had been I'd see the word "albino" differently.
---
"Now I will have less distraction." —Euler, upon going blind in one eye
#002 | BUM |
It's kind of funny. In a ridiculous way.
---
SIGNATURE
#003 | HeyDude |
I dunno. I guess I don't see how "person with albinism" is euphemism. There's some general "scariness" associated with one-word descriptions, I think... always seems to have been.
#004 | Kodiologist |
It's euphemistic insofar as it's a substitute for a more obvious expression that's thought to offend despite that expression not actually being a swear word. Admittedly, it isn't deceptive in the way that many euphemisms are (e.g., cats which are "put to sleep" will sleep for a long time); it's constructed more to avoid a particular word than to skirt around an offensive concept. So as euphemisms go, it ain't that bad.

It's strange that some persecuted groups have largely gotten away with a simple name: women, blacks (remember that, as Maddox points out, not all blacks are African-American), the blind. Jews are in a strange situation in that nobody has gone so far as to condemn the word "Jew", but there's a certain preference for the word "Jewish". This may have to do with neo-Nazis liking to use "Jew" as if it were an adjective, creating a vague analogy with the case of "albino". Children, of course, will always have a number of valid short and slangy names so long as nobody cares about offending them.
---
"Now I will have less distraction." —Euler, upon going blind in one eye
#005 | DarthMarth |
The day "kid" becomes politically incorrect, I will lose my remaining faith in America.
---
CSBE FTW!
DarthMarth - Better than a bowl of Cheerios.
#006 | Kodiologist |
I agree, "kid" should stay. On the other hand, I for one would be very happy to see "minor" be repudiated.
---
"Now I will have less distraction." —Euler, upon going blind in one eye