Well, the original meaning had nothing to do with people and when it's applied to people now it still has nothing to do with colour, so should we really be looking for intent when none is meant?
It's like when they tried to change the children's song "Baa Baa Black Sheep" into "Baa Baa Green Sheep" to prevent anyone being offended. Changing it to something quite obviously ridiculous raises questions in people's minds about why it's been changed. It creates an overtone where one didn't previously exist. Political correctness of this type does more harm than good.
I'd abandon all political correctness and replace it with a single judgement: fairness. In this case, do black sheep exist? Yes. In this case, is the sheep "black" because of a racial slur or is it just a song about a black sheep? It's *just* a song about a black sheep. Is it fair to have a song about a black sheep? Yes.
We can't censor things just for containing the word black or the word white. Words aren't the problem, context is. And, even then, we're often overly sensitive.
Excuse me for not defining what I meant, I suppose where I live the term "white-washed" is always used in the context of someone who isn't white acting "white". I just never got how people could act white.
Ahh, it's not a problem. You should probably discount my answer, though, because I was talking about something else completely. Here a whitewash is either a government cover-up or a high score in sports (like ten nil). Although I didn't say anything, I did wonder why you were so insulted by that. But discovering what it means to you, I agree with you and I don't like the term either.
Is it normal to hate the term "white washed"?
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Well, the original meaning had nothing to do with people and when it's applied to people now it still has nothing to do with colour, so should we really be looking for intent when none is meant?
It's like when they tried to change the children's song "Baa Baa Black Sheep" into "Baa Baa Green Sheep" to prevent anyone being offended. Changing it to something quite obviously ridiculous raises questions in people's minds about why it's been changed. It creates an overtone where one didn't previously exist. Political correctness of this type does more harm than good.
I'd abandon all political correctness and replace it with a single judgement: fairness. In this case, do black sheep exist? Yes. In this case, is the sheep "black" because of a racial slur or is it just a song about a black sheep? It's *just* a song about a black sheep. Is it fair to have a song about a black sheep? Yes.
We can't censor things just for containing the word black or the word white. Words aren't the problem, context is. And, even then, we're often overly sensitive.
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Anonymous Post Author
10 years ago
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Idunnowhy
10 years ago
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Excuse me for not defining what I meant, I suppose where I live the term "white-washed" is always used in the context of someone who isn't white acting "white". I just never got how people could act white.
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dappled
10 years ago
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Ahh, it's not a problem. You should probably discount my answer, though, because I was talking about something else completely. Here a whitewash is either a government cover-up or a high score in sports (like ten nil). Although I didn't say anything, I did wonder why you were so insulted by that. But discovering what it means to you, I agree with you and I don't like the term either.
Look down at neuroneptunians comment
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dappled
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Not sure why you were down-voted just for trying to be helpful. I'll never understand how some people choose to use the thumbs.