wordplay, wordfight, wordwork: my dictionary
i am in love with words. words themselves, their sounds, and their meanings.
but this is a post about a couple of words i hate.
ethnic-along came polly was on tv recently, and i watched it, and although it had its funny moments, i found it excruciating every time ben stiller's character said that polly had him eating ethnic food. ethnic food??? as in food that comes from an ethnicity? i find i hate the word ethnic for implying that there is such a thing as non-ethnic, and i hate this society for encouraging the idea that ethnic applies to non-white, or to some extent non-middle american. ethnic is two-syllable symbol of rather unfortunate exoticism, which leads me to...
exotic-mostly i hate this word when people use it to apply to themselves. how is it that you are exotic? is your skin green? do you come from another planet? because otherwise, as a human being, you are one of a family of billions, from a species that is nearly as old as time itself
(and certainly as old as our concept of time)--in other words, you are nothing new (though that is definitely not to say nothing special)
illegitmate-see previous post
african american-i suppose there is nothing inherently wrong in the term african american, other than it contains way too many syllables and that it its use can be divisive. i call myself black, because black is a color, and i love color, and color transcends nationality, and because the human animal is mostly a visiually oriented thing (as opposed to historically oriented).
politics-i hate the word politics because of what it stands for. i define politics as the process that inhibits justice and, well, common sense.
that's all i got for right now. there are more words, in life, that i dislike, but these are the ones at the forefront of my mind.
but this is a post about a couple of words i hate.
ethnic-along came polly was on tv recently, and i watched it, and although it had its funny moments, i found it excruciating every time ben stiller's character said that polly had him eating ethnic food. ethnic food??? as in food that comes from an ethnicity? i find i hate the word ethnic for implying that there is such a thing as non-ethnic, and i hate this society for encouraging the idea that ethnic applies to non-white, or to some extent non-middle american. ethnic is two-syllable symbol of rather unfortunate exoticism, which leads me to...
exotic-mostly i hate this word when people use it to apply to themselves. how is it that you are exotic? is your skin green? do you come from another planet? because otherwise, as a human being, you are one of a family of billions, from a species that is nearly as old as time itself
(and certainly as old as our concept of time)--in other words, you are nothing new (though that is definitely not to say nothing special)
illegitmate-see previous post
african american-i suppose there is nothing inherently wrong in the term african american, other than it contains way too many syllables and that it its use can be divisive. i call myself black, because black is a color, and i love color, and color transcends nationality, and because the human animal is mostly a visiually oriented thing (as opposed to historically oriented).
politics-i hate the word politics because of what it stands for. i define politics as the process that inhibits justice and, well, common sense.
that's all i got for right now. there are more words, in life, that i dislike, but these are the ones at the forefront of my mind.
Labels: other stuff, so opinionated
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