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Words that you can't say anymore

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dojokun

Banned
What words did you say when you were a kid that is considered politically incorrect now?

For me:

1) Gay as a pejorative: When I was a kid, "gay" was a common pejorative.

2) Ghetto used as an adjective, to describe anything other than actual ghetto: Only recently did I learn that calling something "ghetto" was considered racist. Up until recently, people around me and I have used that word to describe being cheap. Now when I hear people say it, I wonder if anyone else in the room will object.
 

Camp Lo

Banned
Gay is a word I've stopped using as OP described.

I try to stop using nigga but that's a work in progress.
 

darthbob

Member
I used to say 'rape' online, as a term for 'owned', sorta.

Not anymore. Not after what happened to a friend.
 
I used to love the word retarded (and still do, don't get me wrong), but I have to seriously watch who I say it around nowadays.

I used to say 'rape' online, as a term for 'owned', sorta.

Not anymore. Not after what happened to a friend.

Yep, used to use rape a lot too.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
How is "ghetto" racist? I grew up in the ghetto and we had a variety of people.
 

Chuckl3s

Member
I use to say "Hot" a lot until I heard Paris Hilton say it.

As a kid, I use to say "Gay" as well but don't use it anymore.

Yeah I don't see how "ghetto" is raciest. I grew up in the ghetto.
 

dojokun

Banned
How is "ghetto" racist? I grew up in the ghetto and we had a variety of people.
Well apparently, because the dictionary definition specifically means a slum occupied by minorities, calling something ghetto could be construed as associating minorities with that something. If you call it "ghetto" when someone is cheap and tries to haggle an already cheap price at a yard sale, it could be construed as saying that only minorities are cheap enough to do that.

It's a new thing for me... I used to say it all the time and still have to stop myself once in a while.
 

blackflag

Member
Never new ghetto was racist... Maybe classist but I use it on occasion. More than 1 race lives in the ghettos, assuming otherwise would be racist.
 

RevDM

Banned
I use to say "Hot" a lot until I heard Paris Hilton say it.

As a kid, I use to say "Gay" as well but don't use it anymore.

Yeah I don't see how "ghetto" is raciest. I grew up in the ghetto.

HRZ-119_Jewish-Ghetto_Munkacs-Hungary.jpg
 

TheMan

Member
negro

it has a ton of historical baggage, but from a purely aural standpoint it sounds much better than african-american. to me, AA sounds so ungainly with its 7 syllables.
 
Well apparently, because the dictionary definition specifically means a slum occupied by minorities, calling something ghetto could be construed as associating minorities with that something. If you call it "ghetto" when someone is cheap and tries to haggle an already cheap price at a yard sale, it could be construed as saying that only minorities are cheap enough to do that.

It's a new thing for me... I used to say it all the time and still have to stop myself once in a while.

I used ghetto because everyone around me in high school did, including kids who lived in the ghetto. Ghetto was basically their "tacky" or "unrefined." That being said I don't use it anymore.
 

dojokun

Banned
negro

it has a ton of historical baggage, but from a purely aural standpoint it sounds much better than african-american. to me, AA sounds so ungainly with its 7 syllables.
The funny thing is, what if someone is black but they are just visiting from Canada? They're not an African-American... they would be African-Canadian. You don't know someone's citizenship by looking at them, especially in a country like the USA where lots of people travel to on vacation. So the "-American" part seems presumptuous. I just say "black." (I'm Asian in case that matters.)
 
I'm a huge politically correct liberal and I still use retarded and gay. Am I a bad person?

I mean, I was using "gay" to describe displeasure probably a full decade before I knew what homosexuality was. Maybe that's part of the issue? Hetero privilege?
 

Jacob

Member
I've been trying to say retarded less. I never used "gay" and the like as a pejorative much but I pretty much completely stopped doing that a few years ago.


People are referring to the modern (American?) sense of ghettos as inner city slums that are stereotypically inhabited by minorities.
 

TheMan

Member
The funny thing is, what if someone is black but they are just visiting from Canada? They're not an African-American... they would be African-Canadian. You don't know someone's citizenship by looking at them, especially in a country like the USA where lots of people travel to on vacation. So the "-American" part seems presumptuous. I just say "black." (I'm Asian in case that matters.)

yeah, this is true as well. but i think negro sounds better than black too.
 

darthbob

Member
Sometimes I call my lesbian friends 'faggots' as a joke. They laugh, I laugh, but inside I feel bad.

:-/ I'm just gonna stop.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I still use ghetto. It's just straight up not racist. It's pretty damn racist to assume only a certain type of people (BLACK) live in the ghetto or that saying ghetto is analogous to black folk.

For the record, I didn't grow up in the ghetto. Just the trailer parks.
 

Retro

Member
My old English teacher lamented that "Gay" (as in happy) and "Queer" (as in strange) are no longer considered appropriate and elicit snickers from immature brats.
 
A common insult in English primary schools was Spaz or Spacker, it was a mean word for Spastic which itself is now wrong to say

Obviously in adult life you wouldn't use them anyway though
 

Quick

Banned
I didn't know "ghetto" was considered racist by some. I don't really say it, but I certainly don't mean it to be racist when I do say it.

Fag, retard, gay in a negative connotation, are the big ones. Not that I don't ever say the word "gay", but I certainly don't refer to something negative or bad as being gay.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Well apparently, because the dictionary definition specifically means a slum occupied by minorities, calling something ghetto could be construed as associating minorities with that something. If you call it "ghetto" when someone is cheap and tries to haggle an already cheap price at a yard sale, it could be construed as saying that only minorities are cheap enough to do that.
That's fucking stupid. It's racist to think there are only minorities in the ghetto. You can't be offended over a secondary implication to a primary racist implication that you interjected.
 
The funny thing is, what if someone is black but they are just visiting from Canada? They're not an African-American... they would be African-Canadian. You don't know someone's citizenship by looking at them, especially in a country like the USA where lots of people travel to on vacation. So the "-American" part seems presumptuous. I just say "black." (I'm Asian in case that matters.)

i say black, too. "african-american" has always, to me, been very stupid and too politically correct. you never know if someone is from africa, europe, or any part of north or south america. it never made sense to me, even as a child, to assume all black people are africans.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
Gay as a pejorative has gotten to the point where I'm uncomfortable around other people who still use it. Like it would be around white dudes constantly dropping n-bombs or something.

I try to avoid bitch as a noun these days, though I still use it as a verb for whining, which maybe I shouldn't.

Still use ghetto to mean a cheap or ramshackle version of something. Again, maybe I shouldn't, just go with cheap or something.
 

dojokun

Banned
I also know plenty of people who use the word "ghetto," including plenty of minorities. But after two neighbors of mine objected (one of them was objecting to someone else saying it and the other one to me) that it's offensive, I reluctantly decided to try to stop using it. Not because I'm fond of the PC movement, but because I'd rather not get bogged down in arguments about it.
 

Khezu

Member
I never really said Gay a lot as a kid, in fact 90% of times I even used the word were all in a span of 2 weeks, right after that commercial came out. Not out of some weird desire to keep the word like some people, I just really didn't like Hillary Duff.

I did say Retarded a lot, and still do sometimes, but not out in public at least.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I also know plenty of people who use the word "ghetto," including plenty of minorities. But after two neighbors of mine objected (one of them was objecting to someone else saying it and the other one to me) that it's offensive, I reluctantly decided to try to stop using it. Not because I'm fond of the PC movement, but because I'd rather not get bogged down in arguments about it.
I guess that makes sense if you're surrounded by idiots who don't understand it's a reference to the different economic status and social practices of a subculture and you don't want to bother explaining it to them. Probably hard to convince them if you aren't from the ghetto.
 

Ra\/en

Member
I don't see how "ghetto" is racist. I think if you attach a certain race to the term in your mind, you are being racist somehow.

Insensitive to socioeconomically disadvantaged folks? Yeah, sure, but NOT racist.
 

Metrotab

Banned
I'll add a word that hasn't been mentioned yet: oriental.

A shame though, I always found it much better sounding than the dry East-Asian, especially when paired with its counterpart, occidental. It even has this sophisticated sound to it.
 

nOoblet16

Member
I used to say cunt a lot, now I don't....infact I don't swear a lot in general, so much so that when I do people tell me it doesn't sounds nice coming from my mouth and it doesn't "suits" me....well whatever !
 

dojokun

Banned
I'll add a word that hasn't been mentioned yet: oriental.

A shame though, I always found it much better sounding than the dry East-Asian, especially when paired with its counterpart, occidental. It even has this sophisticated sound to it.
I'm Asian and I never really even thought about this. And it is sorta of weird, cause "Oriental" is 100% acceptable when referring to inanimate objects from Asia. Just not for people.
 

sikkinixx

Member
Gay/faggy, retarded to the point it's odd when someone says it now. Though I rarely hear any of that anymore even from students which is nice to see.

That said I'm a firm believer that context and intent is everything so I'm rarely offended by what people say. Though as a straight, white, non-religious/non-athetist male there aren't too many slurs to throw my way.
 

Fantasmo

Member
I have a hardcore homosexual friend who uses "gay" and "fag" as derogatory words. I always find it both strange and amusing when he does that.
Had one of these gay friends too. He got me saying it again (used to as a kid) for awhile, and we're now in our damn 30s. Cut ties with him a couple years back (drug addict asshole), and the word has mostly stopped coming out of my mouth. Still shocked that a gay person would use it so blatantly and with such hostility.
 

terrisus

Member
Cancer as meaning anything other than the disease cancer.

Having had cancer will have that effect on one.
 
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