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As I once said, I take advantage of these forums to highlight some notable differences between societies.
Some can be interpreted as characteristics of each individual. You know, there are all kinds of people everywhere. However, there is a very noticeable difference between US's people and the people of my country, Argentina. I'm talking about the personal treatment. I have noticed an excessive respect, or fear of being labeled racist or discriminatory in USA, which does not exist in Argentina.
In Argentina it is very normal to call someone by their physical characteristic. I don't say in formal situations, but at a party or a lunch, it is very common for a friend to be named so, and even if it is not a friend but just an acquaitance. "Flaco, gordo,petiso,pelado..." (skinny, fat, short, bald...), even "negro" (black) is perfectly common and normal. Although in Argentina there is practically no black people by race, it is enough for someone to have light black features or color to be called that.
It is very common for even the members of a couple to call each other that way. I had a co-worker who called her husband "negro".The funny thing is that her husband was blond with light blue eyes. What I mean is that sometimes it even loses its literal meaning to become an affectionate treatment.
I ask this precisely to those who have lived the longest and have the longest memory of other times.
My question is whether this kind of taboo is from recent years, with the rise of being politically correct, or if it was always this way in the United States.And obviously if you consider that to be the case in general, or if it is a characteristic of certain social classes or places, or even if it is an error of my judgment, and it is not so at all.
Political correctness began in earnest around 1990/1992, accelerating over time.
It began mildly with an assertion that all white people were born intrinsically racist and all men were born intrinsically sexist. The premise was that everything obtained by white men was gained by oppressing every other demographic group, and a reverse racism was both required and justified, for punishment and for restitution to the generational victims of white male oppression.
Government policies were installed to correct this "racism" and "sexism".
It was automatically assumed that everyone but white men, were oppressed at the hands of white men, and hence deserved advantageous and preferential treatment to correct the "sins of the fathers", and the current generation of white men had to receive a formal handicap against success in all of their endeavors. All non white males were given preferences whether it was college admissions or bidding for government contracts.
In the past 35 years, political correctness has accelerated, not only with the above, but with attempts at eradicating "racism" and "sexism" by completely hijacking the language to that effect. Manhole became person hole. His/hers became them/theirs. Control the language, and you can control actions to a great extent. Create fear of saying the wrong thing, and you create fear of doing the wrong thing and getting in trouble.
In the past 35 years, political correctness has accelerated, not only with the above, but with attempts at eradicating "racism" and "sexism" by completely hijacking the language to that effect. Manhole became person hole. His/hers became them/theirs. Control the language, and you can control actions to a great extent. Create fear of saying the wrong thing, and you create fear of doing the wrong thing and getting in trouble.
Well... Something similar happened here too, promoted by left-wing groups that had become feminists. With the aggravating circumstance that in Spanish, due to the characteristics of the language, explicitly expressing the masculine and feminine is much more noticeable than in English (and more annoying as well). But that comes and goes according to the government in charge. Now we have a government that doesn't promote that way of speaking/writing.
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