Some people are short; some people are tall. Some people are thin; some people are fat. These are simply descriptive terms; however, because fat people feel (with some justification) stigmatized by their weight and girth, they take offense to being called fat. And it certainly doesn't help when people use 'fat' as an insult. Personally, I find terms like 'mentally challenged' and 'differently-abled' to be awkward. Retard could be used objectively, as could terms like 'disabled', 'lame', or even 'crippled'. But it is not. It is being used as a comparison between a person of sound mind acting stupidly and people with Downs Syndrome, essentially borrowing the stigma attached to Downs to insult someone.
At the same time, this is always a moving target. Any group that feels unfairly stigmatized will eventually find offense in whatever term is used to describe them. There really isn't any linguistic difference between calling someone a colored person versus calling him a person of color. And yet, the former was once fine but is now considered a slur while the second an accepted description...for now at least.
At the same time, this is always a moving target. Any group that feels unfairly stigmatized will eventually find offense in whatever term is used to describe them. There really isn't any linguistic difference between calling someone a colored person versus calling him a person of color. And yet, the former was once fine but is now considered a slur while the second an accepted description...for now at least.
