OK, so I’m one of the original SJWs
I’m old and have a bit of a reputation for getting in the face of the ignorant, which isn’t always wise, but I’m a principled cunt
But there is a point where the little things don’t fucking matter when the person clearly doesn’t have any malicious intent, and only someone trying to be offended would have a problem
To whit, I was asking an indigenous friend whether they prefer “indigenous” or “aboriginal” when I’m speaking to them.
They said “the fact that you’re even asking means that you’re obviously not a part of the problem, so pull the stick out of your arse”
I suggest you do the same.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
yeah needs to match on both sides either “the americans and the chinese” or “americans and chinese” not this weird othering mix.
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
To be fair, they’re not entirely equivalent. I wouldn’t bristle at all at being called “an American,” but I would never call someone “a Chinese.” In the plural form with a definite article, it doesn’t feel as bad, but I’d probably prefer to say “Chinese people,” whereas “American people” feels a little clunky, though it’s probably the best option if you want to keep both terms the same.
I don’t think this is necessarily a racist thing though, because I’d probably tend to say “the English/ french/ spanish” and “Guatemalans/ Nigerians/ Tibetans.” Demonyms are definitely a weird area of language that feels biased when you see a direct comparison though.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Language is so weird tbh.
Like I’d feel comfortable saying I’m an American, but like “I’m a Chinese” sounds so like… gramatically wrong.
Like, idk if its the -ese suffix. Or ifs its because Chinese can be 中国人，华人，中文，中国的，华裔，汉字，so it feels so like imprecise as a term, where as “I’m Chinese” is obviously refering to ethnicity (or nationality)
When someone say “the Chinese”, like when they refer to China’s success or failures, as in “the Chinese have managed to do XYZ”, idk why, but I half expect the speaker to be subconciously racist for some reason… like I feel like that phrase is categorizing me into the CCP’s decisions… like as if they’re assuming I’m part of a monolith that doesn’t have independent thoughts or something.
Maybe it’s just me and I’m overthinking this weird grammer rules.
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would say “the Chinese invented many things in the last two millennia.” And “China is constantly posturing against Taiwan” to separate the people from their government.
“The Chinese” doesn’t have to be racist it can just include all the people of the region across all times. It can be a bit ignorant but doesn’t flag maliciousness
RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s still generally Hopis and Navajos. Usually you see the “the” definite article added when it’s referring to actual whole groups, example: “The Navajo (tribal govt or tribe as a whole) are fighting against X” as compared to “Navajos (people) are fighting against X”