Nice post. ;D
Pom is how the Brits are referred to in Australia. Nobody know for certain how they arrived at it, though. Would Americans call us limeys? I know how we got that name!
I think honky might have come from American tv shows, to be honest.
Americans are really copping it at the moment. The irony is that those willing to travel are usually the open minded ones and every one I've met has been lovely. My daughter was visiting England last year and she was mortified by how rude the Brits were towards American tourists. It wasn't always that way, so it shows what unsettled times we're in. Maybe it's a response to Brits being the bad guys after the fizzling out of the British Empire. Now America is becoming the bad guy we can divert the world's attention towards them. So much easier to blame the whole nation, isn't it?
That's interesting with the re-use of "queer". Does it have a new meaning to it? Growing up in England, "queer" referred to homosexuals, but lesbian and gay already cover that in the initials of the movement.
I'm curious, have you ever come across someone saying that disabled parking is a privilege? It seems odd to think of it that way and I'm pretty sure most don't. People mostly express disgust at none disabled using the spaces, but then I guess some people's definition of disabled vary. Sometimes disability isn't always apparent. It's a good example, however, and brings to mind the elastic line drawn between equity and privilege. At what point is someone abusing equity in order to make it a privilege? Those are the people who get others riled up.
I love what you say about facing your privileges. Without acknowledging the benefits of where and how we live, we're really just whining about everything. Nearly everyone has times in their lives where they see what others have and envy that. When I'm frying about paying the next bills or having to replace broken items, it helps to remind myself that some don't have the privilege of being able to worry about replacing a washing machine or fridge. They still manage to survive, though. Counting our blessings is a very good idea.
Isn't family funny. You can't choose them, though. I sometimes wonder if us offspring are fate throwing lessons into the workings for the parents. Apparently, my father said, before I was born, that if he ever had a red haired child he'd disown it! Then I came along. I've never heard him say anything against redheads, but I know his younger brother used to rib him about me, saying I was the milkman's despite me obviously having my father's traits. His brother's third child was a redhead too! This uncle was also rather racist and his redhead daughter now has a black partner. It made me roll when I first found out, because he adores her, so he'd never reject her over it.
Exposure and education probably works to a point, but often it can take a few generations. Even then there will still be those who it don't necessarily get it. Weird example, but cannibalism wasn't uncommon at one point, but even the last cultures to move away from it would be appalled by it now. However, there is still that odd one that crops up in what I guess we'd call a perversion. It's also not beyond being considered in crisis situations, when hunger overrides disgust.
I don't think you come across as lecturing. I love that you're making me think. Although I really should get some cleaning done instead of writing essays! Lol.
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Limeys is rather old timey and nobody says it anymore, but everyone would know what it meant. ;) Nowadays we'd just say Brits. Though if the UK breaks up because of Brexit, that will probably change, too - speaking of evolving language! LOL There's a song called Honky Talk Blues, so maybe that's where that came from, too. LOL
Yeah, America has been the colonial bad guy since probably WWII, when Europe had to rebuild and America started playing World Police and tinkering in other countries' business. Well, we were involving ourselves in other countries' business before that (cough Philippines cough), but we were really just doing what a lot of other European countries were doing, basically FOMO catch up scrambling trying to be like Big Daddy UK; it wasn't until the empire started breaking up and Europe was a major warzone that we really took over as The One With All The Resources And Nobody To Stop Us. It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans are shocked, shocked I say about the whole Russia scandal, while I'm like - do you know what the US has been doing since the cold war? Especially in Latin America? READ A HISTORY BOOK. A real one, not a rah-rah 'Murica one.
Queer still means gays, but it also applies to the whole spectrum - gay, trans, nonbinary, bi, etc. A lot of us that fit more than one letter in the alphabet soup acronym like it because it's more like "I'm in the gender/orientation rainbow" generally without having to run through a list of "I'm gay, ace, and trans."
Yeah, I've seen people actually say that accessible parking was a privilege, usually as they park there without being disabled and ranting about it to justify themselves. But as you say, more often I see people getting attacked because people think they are doing that, when really they ARE disabled, they just don't fit that mental image of being in a wheelchair, or even being paralyzed in a wheelchair. Like I've seen memes making fun of people in wheelchairs as faking it because the person in the chair stood up to reach something on a high shelf at the store. Like, they think the only reason to be in a wheelchair is if you're paralyzed and unable to stand at all. Um. People have all sorts of reasons to be in wheelchairs. It means you can't walk all over creation under your own steam just then, not that you absolutely can't move your legs. Like some days a friend of mine with CP needs a chair, and some days she needs a crutch, and on really rare occasions (but only really for short, indoor distances) she can manage without if it's a good, low pain day. She's not faking it, that's just how CP works. That's how a lot of things work. I just wish people wouldn't jump to conclusions!