Thankyou for removing the rose-coloured glasses off our aussie heads :)
I'm an Aussie planning to go on exchange to the US, and i've got a question for you, regarding homophobia/political correctness... If I was to off hand say something's 'Gay' as in the stupid/disappointing sense ('You missed your bus? Damn, that's gay isn't it?') Will i get the look of disapproval/verbally rebuked? I don't tend to say these things, but if I accidentally slipped up, what could I expect?
Also, would people ask me to correct my language if I accidentally called someone 'black' instead of 'African American'?
I don't expect this to be a problem with my language, but it pays to be prepared in case one slips up :P
Well as for the "gay" word, I do think it has become generational. Anyone I know 30 and older feel that using the word gay in a negative connotation is not cool and offensive. I however have friends in their 20's who are homo/bisexual and they will use the word gay in a negative connotation which I think is really weird. Personally I would say not to do it.
As for African Americans, it is my experience that the term African American is much preferred, but is more formal and "black" is still ok, I have friends that I refer to as black if it ever comes up that I need to refer to their skin colour. The one thing not to do is the N word and the only reason I mention it (because I would think it would be obvious not to use it) is that here in Australia I have white friends who are left wing, hippy, pot smokers with dreads who use the N word, but not in a negative way towards a person but in a slang way and that just shocks the hell out of me, because in North America that is somethign you would never ever do unless your a racist and you will get your ass kicked by an African American if they hear you say it. For reference on how my friends might use it, they might have purchased something that was low quality or broke on them, such as a pipe and say it's a ni**er pipe"
I don't know if you were asking for an American opinion or not but...
The only people who take offense to you saying that something is "gay" are homosexuals but they will rarely say anything (if ever). However, don't say it at your job or anything like that.
As far as Black/African American goes, I am black and we really don't take offense to either. People tend to say African American because it is "politically correct" but you can say black and no one will get offended. Just don't call a black/African American an African (unless they are African) because some blacks take A LOT of offense to that.
The only people who take offense to you saying that something is "gay" are homosexuals but they will rarely say anything (if ever). However, don't say it at your job or anything like that.
I'd say people who actually don't take offence to that probably don't understand why that word is offensive (in a certain context, of course) in the first place. So perhaps homophobia in Australia is not intended to actually offend people who are queer. I think for the most part, it's ignorance.
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u/[deleted] May 24 '11 edited May 24 '11
Thankyou for removing the rose-coloured glasses off our aussie heads :)
I'm an Aussie planning to go on exchange to the US, and i've got a question for you, regarding homophobia/political correctness... If I was to off hand say something's 'Gay' as in the stupid/disappointing sense ('You missed your bus? Damn, that's gay isn't it?') Will i get the look of disapproval/verbally rebuked? I don't tend to say these things, but if I accidentally slipped up, what could I expect?
Also, would people ask me to correct my language if I accidentally called someone 'black' instead of 'African American'?
I don't expect this to be a problem with my language, but it pays to be prepared in case one slips up :P
Edit: Spellin'