"It's the Thing that counts..."

Fantastic, janesainworth. You should be proud of that.

I shall always think of you that way now janeainsworth.

When I worked in Hongkong I was referred to by the patients as the Gweipo Nga-yi.
The female foreign-devil dentist

I'm with Elegran really, it's ok to show an interest and surely the first question to someone with a plastered leg would be 'oh, no, what happened to you?' However, you wouldn't say to a Downs child 'what's wrong with you, then?' because it's obvious and insensitive. I wonder if the difference is in whether a condition is perceived to be temporary or permanent? And, of course, there are other variables, such as age, gender, situation, environment that would influence what you said or did not say.

(PS No-one's yet told me how to describe the next citizen of warmer climes who comes my way. Perhaps I could refer to her/him as 'a benedict'?)

True.

I am probably looking too far into the future.

But surely the point that Cummberpatch (I'm not sure of his first name – is he called Benedict?) was making was that black actors have far more professional opportunities in the USA than in the UK. It would have been very difficult to say that if he didn't refer to skin colour.

As the world has more people of mixed heritage, labelling people by their skin tone must become more absurd I would have thought.

Years ago I arrived at a small Kenyan airport and an African I walked past pointed to me and said he'd never seen such a white person. Was I being racially abused?

It would help some of us if these terms of ethnic identification were flagged up more when they change so we don't say the wrong thing. Here in rural Cornwall we are not always aware of the current requirement.

I was listening to the black singer Jamelia who was asked if she thought Cumberbatch's comments were offensive. She said she was certainly not offended and felt sorry for people these days trying to keep up with what is and isn't permissible to say. She said it is easy to spot when someone is being racist and he clearly wasn't. She also said she can't keep up herself. She has a nephew who she described as 'mixed race'. She said her nephew told her that term was no longer acceptable. We now have to say 'of dual heritage'. I for one didn't know that.

Has anyone informed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that this civil rights organisation has had an insulting name for over 100 years?

A stick can be used to attack people. It can also be used as a crutch, as a support for a climbing plant, as fuel for a fire, for a lot of other uses. It is a stick in all these uses.

If it has not occurred to someone to use a stick to beat the living daylights out of someone, they will not lift one with aggression. To be arrested for carrying a weapon, when taking home a support for your runner beans would be unfair.

Words are the same. They can be used to attack, to describe, to joke, to poke fun, to provoke emotions, good and bad. The word itself is only as bad or good as the way it is used by someone.

To be accused of aggression and racial abuse when it is not intended is as hurtful as to have aggression intentionally used against you.

"However, my real concerns—I raised them with the Secretary of State in, I think, November, which is why I think that progress has been swift—related to staffing at the school. There are good teachers there who will find it difficult to secure alternative employment, and I am sorry for that. However, as a former senior education officer in the north-east, I was aware that there were very high levels of teachers working at Durham free school that I knew had already undergone competency procedures with other local authorities. A head teacher in the region told me that the school had become a haven for every crap teacher in the north-east. I am sorry if that is unparliamentary language, but that was what he said.

I am concerned about the £4 million that the school has cost in 15 months. I am concerned about the negative impact that the school has had not only on its own intake, but on all the other schools in the City of Durham. I remind Members that it was judged to be inadequate in every respect. Those children have lost 15 months of their education that they will never get back, and for that reason I am extremely grateful for the actions that the Minister has taken. This has gone on for too long, and I am pleased that he has pulled the funding agreement to ensure that it goes on no longer."

From Hansard, janea.
The reason I said that was because Nick Cohen's article said about using crap instead of gay the way youngsters use it. I think she would have been in more trouble if she'd used the word gay in that context.

By the way, I still have my husband's card from the local council. He was registered as disabled, not a man with disabilities. He had six different disabilities, so he would have had a lot of explaining to do every time it was mentioned. Disabled covered the lot and allowed him to get on with the conversation.

Oh good. Thanks, jings

That was to the post before the last

!!!!!! >>splutter<<

My grandmother used handicapped of her thrid daughter, my aunt, who suffered cerebral palsy. No-one could have loved or respected my handicapped aunt more than her mother did. The word itself is not offensive though it can be used offensively. This is the whole point at issue in this thread and in Cohen's article: it's not the expression used that is important but how it is used. Cumberbatch had no intention of being offensive therefore he wasn't being offensive.

I think one would be disapproved of for using handicapped (except in relation to golf, etc) nowadays. The thing about PC diction is that one can't win; it's always changing because some people use some words abusively. The words are still not abusive in themselves.

river, sorry if my reason for mentioning archery wasn't clear. My point was that sometimes it is appropriate to ask people you don't know very well about any disabilities they might have. I understood another poster to be saying that it was never appropriate and was giving a counter argument. I may have misunderstood everything, in which case I am sure you will not mind being so kind as to ignore my remark

anno, I like that.

Actually loopy, several archers I know are what you call well-endowed. They wear chest guards. I'm not and I don't iyswim

It was the word crap that was unparliamentary.

She actually said 'crap teachers', which is slightly different Jend, but when I saw it on television (either BBC or ITV news), the commentator said that parliamentary privilege meant she could say such a thing, which of course was hotly denied by the headteacher of the school she was referring to.

My MP used the word crap in parliament this week, and was asked to withdraw it as being unparliamentary.

Ok loopy! Let's let the "emotional intelligence" thing go now!

A visiting African cleric was constantly referred to by the local minister as 'our coloured brother'. When he got into the pulpit to preach, he began:
'Colourless brethren...'

I heard that from an unimpeachable source more than fifty years ago and believe it to be perfectly true.

Anya, have you never heard of body piercings before?