- cross-posted to:
- leftism@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- leftism@lemmy.world
alt-text: [text saying “aspergers is ableist” next to the autistic pride flag on top of a digital art 2d wooden background]
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And remember. When someone older than you says “aspergers” they’re probably misinformed and they think they’re using the gentler more correct term. Be gentle in correcting them that we don’t prefer or use that term anymore because it was coined by a doctor who sent anyone he diagnosed with it to death camps. It is rooted in a hateful label and autism spectrum disorder is the gentler preferred term.
Trust me, its a way better way to get the point across and effect change. I speak from the personal experience of being 25 when I was told “oriental” is a racist and hateful term. I’d grown up all my life being told it was more respectful and kinder to call someone oriental than Asian. It was “common knowledge” throughout the northeast that entire time. But that wasn’t where I grew up
I encounter a lot of people both in person and online who think because they know something and its common knowledge in their communities that it must be common knowledge everywhere, and that just simply isn’t true. Change and information reaches different communities and different times. Everyone lives in social bubbles and the internet has done more to reinforce this than it has to deconstruct our bubbles
Might not even flag up the origin of the term, unless the person queries why it has fallen out of use.
Mostly because it can lead to them feeling the need to then explain that they didn’t use it with eugenic sympathies, and me needing to reassure them that I knew that they used it in innocence, all of which is a big diversion from the original topic of conversation.
I feel it easy enough to mention a change in terminology where there’s a good deal of consensus regarding the switch, as there is with Asperger’s & Oriental, but altogether more delicate where members of a group are split on which they prefer for themselves. Not because I find it difficult to acknowledge & move to the language the person I am speaking with prefers, but because I see the blinkers come down when gently explaining to others who want a definitive answer that there is no consensus, and to take it gently themselves.
Wait, what’s that with “oriental” and “Asian”?
There is an “Oriental market” shop where I live, close to the “Asian shop” and the “Chinese restaurant” in front of the other one with actually Chinese dishes (with a Sichuan native cook).
Neither term is great from what we understand because they mix together people and cultures across a vast area and treat them as the same.
However, from a quick internet search ‘oriental’ is outdated and creates a false image of what some people from some of those regions are like now because it relies more heavily on outdated stereotypes and ideas about some of the countries and peoples involved in the regions.
In general it is better to be specific about what countries/people are meant if that’s at all possible.
