I’m gonna take your question at good faith and assume you’re not just trying to be racist or bigoted, and looking for an excuse.
I also did check out your other post on it and my answer is going to go about along the same lines.
The reason some words are considered bigoted and marginalized groups is because… That’s how people use them.
I’m only speaking about English in this example because that’s the only language I know. But this language is extremely flexible, and super tight definitions don’t really exist. So people use words however they intend to use them, which is probably true universally, but again, I only know about English.
It’s weird to wrap your brain around because it’s kind of inverse of what most people think. It took me a while to understand this, and I needed a English major to tell me exactly how to approach this. But all definitions of words and all ways in which words are used are determined by the community. If racists and bigots are using a term in a racist and bigoted way, then it is a racist and bigoted term.
How come “the gays” would be considered bigoted while “gay people” or “lgbtqia+” are not considered bigoted? That’s just how we decided to use that language over time. Now that we use words that way, it would take a looong time, and some major cultural changes, to change that.
I’m gonna take your question at good faith and assume you’re not just trying to be racist or bigoted, and looking for an excuse.
I also did check out your other post on it and my answer is going to go about along the same lines.
The reason some words are considered bigoted and marginalized groups is because… That’s how people use them.
I’m only speaking about English in this example because that’s the only language I know. But this language is extremely flexible, and super tight definitions don’t really exist. So people use words however they intend to use them, which is probably true universally, but again, I only know about English.
It’s weird to wrap your brain around because it’s kind of inverse of what most people think. It took me a while to understand this, and I needed a English major to tell me exactly how to approach this. But all definitions of words and all ways in which words are used are determined by the community. If racists and bigots are using a term in a racist and bigoted way, then it is a racist and bigoted term.
How come “the gays” would be considered bigoted while “gay people” or “lgbtqia+” are not considered bigoted? That’s just how we decided to use that language over time. Now that we use words that way, it would take a looong time, and some major cultural changes, to change that.