Just when you thought PC madness couldn't go any further...

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As a fully fledged citizen of the new politically correct age, I like to think that I'm relatively well versed in all of the ins and outs of being PC.  I try not to use terms I know will offend or make people uncomfortable.  Hell, I even attended the Diversity Awareness Training that my workplace held a couple of months ago.

Sure, it was compulsory, but I think I still deserved credit for going.

But even with my vast wealth of  knowledge, I have to admit the latest PC faux pas everyone is talking about took me a bit by surprise.  Did you guys know that it's now considered politically incorrect to call technology experts "techies"?

Yeah, me either.

But apparently it is.  According to this article [link].  Tech experts everywhere are getting their panties in a twist over being called techies, a term which they believe is offensive, reductive and belittling.

Huh, and I just thought it was an abbreviation.

According to the article though, they'd prefer to be called hackers, coders or makers.  I can't really say that I blame them, I wouldn't mind being called a "hacker".  It sounds pretty cool to me, conjuring up images of edgy looking people on pilfered laptops, always one step ahead of the FBI while they try to crack an international drug smuggling ring.

At least, that's what Hollywood has lead me to believe.

Personally, I always just associated the term techie with people who were technology professionals, in the same way I think of journalists as journos and and garbage men as garbos.  Maybe they'd feel better if they were called techos? Or perhaps techers?

I mean, it worked for us Star Trek fans.  Trekkies, trekkers ... potato, potahto...

But then again what do I know, I'm just an accountantie.

Accidental Racism: an exercise in sticking one's foot in it...

Despite my sparkling personality, my impeccable manners and my 100% score on the latest Code Of Conduct training at work, even I find myself sticking my foot firmly into my mouth from time to time.

I am, as much as I hate to admit it, an accidental racist.

I know, hard to believe isn't it.  I'm such a model of appropriate behavior and political correctness that you'd be forgiven for assuming I never say anything that could possibly offend anyone.  But it's true.

I know I use the word gypped all the time, and I suppose anyone who was actually a Gypsy would be mortally offended by the insinuation.  The same with indian giver.  And I even found out the other day that the term peanut gallery has racist origins, referring to when black people had to sit at the back of the theatre.

I know, intellectually, that these are racist comments, but they're so common today that I just say them without thinking.

Bad Kellie!

I guess the question is when does an expression stop being racist and start being just part of our everyday language?  When I don't remember it's origin?  When no one remembers it's origin?  When there's no one left alive who can recall it being used to demean and insult?

The term hooligan, for example, originally referred to a drunk Irishman, or more specifically to a particular family of drunk Irishmen called the Hoolihans, but no one would consider that a racist expression.  Is it because it's further away historically speaking?  Or perhaps because the people it's referring to aren't still being discriminated against?

I suppose it doesn't matter, if someone finds a comment racist then I suppose that should be enough of a reason to not use it.

But I'm hardly the only one to suffer from this particular problem.  Take this song that I remember hearing some of my older relatives singing when I was a kid.

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Go home to your mother

you little black bugger

you don't belong to me...

Awful, right?  Of course, when they sang it they were referring to flies that were buzzing around food on the dining table.  If they'd thought about what it was really referring to, they probably would have been mortified.

So what about you guys?  Any cases of accidental racism to share with the class?