{"id":127891,"date":"2015-09-05T01:26:05","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T07:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/05\/the-campaign-against-midget.html"},"modified":"2015-09-10T09:52:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T15:52:58","slug":"the-campaign-against-midget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/05\/the-campaign-against-midget.html","title":{"rendered":"The campaign against "midget""},"content":{"rendered":"

So this was an interesting article about an effort by "Little People of America" to change the nomenclature the USDA uses about raisin classification from using the term "midget." And the article notes:<\/p>\n

The term is offensive to little people, who view it as a slur. They won’t even say it. They call it “the M-word.” […] Little people are trying to eliminate the word from the English lexicon. When they find it in use, they ask for it to be changed. For instance, in February 2013, Gedney Foods, the maker of Cains pickles, agreed to change the name of its “Kosher Dill Midgets” after receiving a complaint.<\/i><\/p>\n

There is a USDA grade standard for “midget pickles,” too. And some companies make “midget pretzels.” Both terms are on the advocacy group’s radar. So are schools that use “midgets” as their mascots. The Washington Post pulled a Pearls Before Swine comic strip in April 2014 because it used the word.<\/i><\/p>\n

“We’re trying to eliminate the word whenever used,” Smith said. “Words have an impact on how we think and what we do.”<\/i><\/p>\n

So I feel … conflicted about this.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, I want to respect people who find a term personally degrading. I would not cavil at someone wanting to remove the use of "Nigger" (or "Kike" or "Wop" or "Wetback") from, say, a government classification.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the word "midget" is widely used in a variety of contexts, and if we posit that it should not be applied to Little People (defined, organizationally, as folk 4'10" (say 140 cm) or shorter), that doesn't mean that any<\/i> use of the word is somehow illegitimate or offensive, just, at most, evocative of a now-unacceptable epithet..<\/p>\n

To use a fuzzily applicable equivalency, declining to refer to Germans as "krauts" doesn't mean that we should stop calling pickled cabbage applied to hot dogs as "kraut".<\/p>\n

I dunno. I don't really know or fully appreciate how negative or hurtful a word "midget" is. I know that when I've used it, it's never been meant to evoke little people (let alone in a disparaging fashion), but just as a synonym for a "small" or "miniature" version of something. It no more evokes little people (for me) than the words "small" or "miniature".<\/p>\n

I confess i get a bit hinky, in an Orwellian sense, when folk talk about eliminating the use of words, for whatever reason. I certainly don't want people to feel degraded by a word that is broadly used for a variety of things — but I am also reluctant to eliminate a word from the language solely because a group of people have decided it is offensive (or, if you will, have found the word being offensively applied to them).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nUSDA to stop referring to small raisins as ‘midgets’<\/a><\/span>
\nLittle People of America asked the government to stop calling raisins “midgets.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this was an interesting article about an effort by "Little People of America" to change the nomenclature the USDA uses about raisin classification from using the term "midget." And the article notes: The term is offensive to little people, who view it as a slur. They won’t even say it. They call it “the … Continue reading “The campaign against "midget"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7718,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/13\/running_short_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":127891,"position":0},"title":"Running short of bodies","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Jan-05 7:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"The new Doctor Who series has a need for dwarf midget little people as actors for various extraterrestrials. They're running into a couple of large problems: Bosses wanted them to...","rel":"","context":"In "Doctor Who"","block_context":{"text":"Doctor Who","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-doctor-who"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4211,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/16\/epic_battle.html","url_meta":{"origin":127891,"position":1},"title":"Epic battle","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jan-03 8:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"USA Today has the article based on the survey I mentioned the other day comparing Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. 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But another article along the same lines makes a somewhat persuasive case that the real culprit isn't Colonel...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132593,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/20\/redefining-organic.html","url_meta":{"origin":127891,"position":3},"title":"Redefining "Organic"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Jan-17 12:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure that animal welfare requirements are appropriately lumped under the term \"organic\" (maybe we need an official \"humane\" label) -- but I think they are valuable in their own right, so good for the USDA. The USDA Updated Its Definition of \u201cOrganic\u201d Words like \u201corganic\u201d and even \u201cfree-range\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132971,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/03\/the-usda-has-put-a-few-animal-abuse-records-back-online-a-few.html","url_meta":{"origin":127891,"position":4},"title":"The USDA has put a few animal abuse records back online. A few","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Mar-17 2:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No official word (but plenty of informed speculation about the Trump transition team) as to why the federal records were made unavailable (except for lengthy FOIA requests) in the first place, or why just some records are back. U.S. Backtracks on Purge of Animal Abuse Records\u2014What We Know Following public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41982,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/14\/based-on-this-canadair-jet-i-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":127891,"position":5},"title":"Based on this Canadair jet, I …","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-May-14 4:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Based on this Canadair jet, I can only assume all Canadians are malnourished midgets.","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127938,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127891\/revisions\/127938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}