PC, the M-word and cockney rhyming slang
Roger Ebert and Daniel Woodburn have a fruitful conversation about the words for little people. Like Ebert, I had No Idea about “midget,” and would have thought “little people” derogatory. There is an added bonus: some subculture-related cockney rhyming slang towards the bottom.
Being an American living in Europe, I’m sometimes jokingly reminded by others of how “extreme” political correctness is in the US. Maybe so (that wiki entry and especially its talk pages remind me just how broad and controversial that topic is), but what I often find lacking in the easy PC dismissals I hear is any awareness or even interest in how the so-labeled feel about the term. The Ebert/Woodburn correspondence is an especially nice counterpoint.
(via rebecca’s pocket)