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What PC Incorrect terms did you grow up with?

lurkeraspect84

lurkeraspect84

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Mar 4, 2014
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My parents never corrected me on "Indian giver" or "Honest Ingine"(assume it's spelled that way).

Born in mid 70's I was never corrected. Television was still using those terms even after all the years of suffering.

Any incorrect terms your parents grew up with that isn't PC today.

Maybe Male and Female for the younger crowd?
 
My mother was a Special Ed teacher while I was growing up. You don’t really hear the term anymore but I remember hearing her say “mentally ******ed” in reference to people with disabilities. Well my 7 year old self misunderstood it and thought she would said “middlely ******ed”. So I figured there was like a scale there to measure the differences in disabilities. One time I made the reference to her that somebody was “totally ******ed” because I thought they were on the severe end of that scale. She was appalled and very offended and made sure to let me know just how offensive I was.

That’s about the most politically incorrect thing that ever came from my mothers side. She was a classy southern lady. I had to learn all of the dirty things to say out there from my dad and my best friend + his 2 brothers that lived across the street.
 
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Hm, my grandpa would use the term “chinky eyed” when someone looked tired.

My dad still uses oriental for people, but I don’t think that one is as big a deal.

I think that’s all I remember?
 
Born in '61, so I grew up with most all now non-PC terms of the time. I also grew up in a military environment, where ALL races and national origins were plentiful and common; military kids don't give race a second thought. So, when my family moved to the country in the late 60's, it was hard to comprehend the lack of people who didn't look like me. I remember asking my mom when I first went to 2nd grade in the country, "where do all the "other" people go to school"? Anyways...the "N" was widely used then, and still fairly common into the 80s. But even as a young child, I disliked that word, and told people who used it so. That didn't serve me too well in my first few years trying to assimilate with my new caucasian country friends. Still hate that word.
 
Steelers2012 said:
Born in '61, so I grew up with most all now non-PC terms of the time. I also grew up in a military environment, where ALL races and national origins were plentiful and common; military kids don't give race a second thought. So, when my family moved to the country in the late 60's, it was hard to comprehend the lack of people who didn't look like me. I remember asking my mom when I first went to 2nd grade in the country, "where do all the "other" people go to school"? Anyways...the "N" was widely used then, and still fairly common into the 80s. But even as a young child, I disliked that word, and told people who used it so. That didn't serve me too well in my first few years trying to assimilate with my new caucasian country friends. Still hate that word.
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Hah! I like when kids take a stand. When I was in second grade, I had read the Tintin books, and the bad guy used the word chink describing Chinese people. A kid at school called a new philipino kid named David a chink, and I went over the lunch table after him:) Still friends 35+ years later!
 
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Mostly they words and phrases for gay people and people with disabilities.

However, I've got to say this, I've never understood how or why someone could let a word, or a phrase affect them so much? If its being said in a obvious derogatory manner, then I could probably understand. But, when its being said with obviously zero negative intentions, I honestly don't understand.
 
jace46555 said:
Mostly they words and phrases for gay people and people with disabilities.

However, I've got to say this, I've never understood how or why someone could let a word, or a phrase affect them so much? If its being said in a obvious derogatory manner, then I could probably understand. But, when its being said with obviously zero negative intentions, I honestly don't understand.
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If done with no negative intentions, my guess is that it is simply a reminder... you might not intend bad, but hearing a slur or whatever that has been aimed at you in the nastiest way then used, even without evil intent, could be pretty jarring I would imagine?
 
I heard a segment on the radio this morning about misused phrases and sayings. The DJ said most people think the saying is "If thats what you think....you have another thing coming." Its supposed to be....you have another think coming. So anytime somebody says you have another thing coming...it should be think.
 
bkingUK said:
We called it “knicker knocking” when we were kids when we’d ring people’s door bells and run like hell. It’s omly been explained to me later that the word is not knicker.
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also N*****rigged or jerry rigged. To us it meant you found another way to make something work when you didn't have the right parts or tools....but still made it happen.
 
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toonces11 said:
bkingUK said:
We called it “knicker knocking” when we were kids when we’d ring people’s door bells and run like hell. It’s omly been explained to me later that the word is not knicker.
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also N*****rigged or jerry rigged. To us it meant you found another way to make something work when you didn't have the right parts or tools....but still made it happen.
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Same for me. Actually, it was a compliment because you were smart enough to find a solution without the correct parts/tools.


Another one that I cant believe I never put 2 and 2 together is "you're out of your cotton picking mind". They were talking on stern about this and I couldn't believe that I never put the correlation between cotton and slavery together.
 
KYtotheCore said:
I remember hearing the term "Jew somebody down", meaning to haggle over the price. Pretty much from outsiders though.
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People still say that. I heard a guy tell the judge that she jewed him by securing his bond. It's amazing what some people will openly say without a care in the world.

Growing up we were called jew rats by the black kids. I guess it was a stereotype that if you were white in the hood that meant you were Jewish.
 
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LetsGoDuke301 said:
People still say that. I heard a guy tell the judge that she jewed him by securing his bond. It's amazing what some people will openly say without a care in the world.

Growing up we were called jew rats by the black kids. I guess it was a stereotype that if you were white in the hood that meant you were Jewish.
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KYtotheCore said:
I remember hearing the term "Jew somebody down", meaning to haggle over the price. Pretty much from outsiders though.
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I thought to Jew someone down was negotiating at an expert level.

To negotiate at an Irish level, you're impulsive and don't have room.
 
PC didn't exist when I was young. Up until I was about 7, I wasn't aware of how things really were. I became indoctrinated to racism, segregation that summer. I watched as several black children were turned away from the swimming pool I attended. The police were even there. I was angry as all I could think about was my best friend wouldn't be allowed to come in. I really didn't know why, until I asked my parents about it.

Kids don't see color. They are taught their misconceptions about it.

The world was much different then. It got better, but now I see much worse stuff brewing.
 
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I grew up in the midwest and we had quite a few words: *** (but even in the 1990s ****** was a no-no), jew'd (my friends and I thought it was because Jews got screwed over (i.e. got Jew'd), not because of the stereotype), queer (as in smear the queer, don't recall using it re: sexual orientation), ****** (this was the big one), and oriental. More recently I was using "haji" after learning it in Iraq (as in "I'm heading down to the haji-mart"). I only later learned that it was definitely not what I thought it was.

The military is rife with non-PC word use, especially at the lower ranks but also with officers. I rarely heard the N-word growing up, but I sure as hell heard a lot of it in the Air Force (and every slur against Arabs and/or Muslims imaginable), especially after 2008 (for obvious reasons). When I was at law school we had an Air Force colonel from the NSA begin every story about surveillance with "Abu Bad Guy." I honestly didn't even notice as that's what I was used to hearing almost daily (I was AF then a defense contractor before law school).

One thing I've learned is that it's easy to just be respectful. I had a non-religious roommate that always said "Jesus Christ!" or "God damnit!" I politely asked him to stop, and (eventually, habits are hard to break) he did. And it was that easy.
 
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bkingUK said:
We called it “knicker knocking” when we were kids when we’d ring people’s door bells and run like hell. It’s omly been explained to me later that the word is not knicker.
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Ooooh, yeah, that was also used followed by the word "-rigged," to indicate someone did a cheap, homemade fix instead of being able to afford a proper repair. That was never used in my family, but I heard it somewhere along the line.
 
LetsGoDuke301 said:
Man up. Him. Her. Grow a pair. Vagina... stuf like that.
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I'm not sure how serious you're being, but those qualify in my book.

In recent years, I've made a concerted effort to remove gendered-terms from my insults and profanity. (I curse a lot away from this board, where I've previously been suspended for using the initial representing a curse word.) So I no longer refer to anyone or anything using variations of the "b" word or the "p" word. I'm pretty good at using the "a" and "h" combo word for people of all genders. I tell people to act like an adult rather than to "man up," as if "womaning up" is something negative.
 
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Dattier said:
I'm not sure how serious you're being, but those qualify in my book.

In recent years, I've made a concerted effort to remove gendered-terms from my insults and profanity. (I curse a lot away from this board, where I've previously been suspended for using the initial representing a curse word.) So I no longer refer to anyone or anything using variations of the "b" word or the "p" word. I'm pretty good at using the "a" and "h" combo word for people of all genders. I tell people to act like an adult rather than to "man up," as if "womaning up" is something negative.
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Stop being a pansy.
 
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Big_Blue79 said:
One thing I've learned is that it's easy to just be respectful. I had a non-religious roommate that always said "Jesus Christ!" or "God damnit!" I politely asked him to stop, and (eventually, habits are hard to break) he did. And it was that easy.
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Yeah, "PC" has become code for "unreasonably catering to oversensitivity." In most cases, it's really just being polite, or/and accurate, which does sometimes hinge on changes in society. "Colored" used to be polite, for example.
 
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TheDude1 said:
If done with no negative intentions, my guess is that it is simply a reminder... you might not intend bad, but hearing a slur or whatever that has been aimed at you in the nastiest way then used, even without evil intent, could be pretty jarring I would imagine?
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A lot of those slurs have gone part and parcel with institutional oppression, too. I learned this in middle school playing the game on the bus of what-animal-you-look-like and the one black kid among us wanted no part of it. Maybe it was because it harkened back to the tradition of dehumanizing black people by talking about them and treating them like animals in every way.
 
These are all tems/words/phrases I heard used all the time growing up that are offensive or racist. I used some myself, not really knowing any better. Some are still used today by people who probably don't even know they are offensive:

- eenie, meenie, miney, moe (do you know the rest of that saying kids used to use to determine who was not it?). It has been replaced with "tiger", but still....
- rule of thumb - certainly offensive if you understand the origin
- sold down the river - should be obvious
- gyp or gypped - obvious
- "no can do" or "Long time no see" - definitely derogatory
- paddy wagon - offensive if your Irish
- off the reservation - pretty obvious
- uppity - seems fine, but was used in the past with another word (starts with N)
- peanut gallery - really? Yes, look it up.
 
BlueWorldOrder74 said:
These are all tems/words/phrases I heard used all the time growing up that are offensive or racist. I used some myself, not really knowing any better. Some are still used today by people who probably don't even know they are offensive:

- eenie, meenie, miney, moe (do you know the rest of that saying kids used to use to determine who was not it?). It has been replaced with "tiger", but still....
- rule of thumb - certainly offensive if you understand the origin
- sold down the river - should be obvious
- gyp or gypped - obvious
- "no can do" or "Long time no see" - definitely derogatory
- paddy wagon - offensive if your Irish
- off the reservation - pretty obvious
- uppity - seems fine, but was used in the past with another word (starts with N)
- peanut gallery - really? Yes, look it up.
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Nuppity? a few of those are obvious but I couldn't tell you the rest
 
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