PC is Hard For Me
I am having a hard time keeping up with all these PC rules. I finally figured out it is because PC has not made its way into Spanish.
There are also too many exceptions and the rules change too often. Why is it called the Congressional Black Caucus and not the Congressional African American Caucus? Is that too much of a mouthful or are the rules different depending on who says it? I never can keep up with the way groups want to be identified, and which words are positive and which are negative.
Latinos still call flight atendants “azafatas”, the word for stewardess. It does not even exist for a male flight attendant — I have never heard “azafato”.
On one unfortunate flight, when I had an adult beverage or two – I tried to summon the flight attendant by calling across the plane for the “air maid”. I really meant no disrespect, but my English skills disintegrate rapidly in proportion to the number of cocktails I consume. (There’s another one — cocktail – how come we have not cleaned that one up? What the heck does the tail of a cock have to do with my libation? Or is it that I’ll more easily trade tail for… never mind…)
A darker color person is affectionately called “El Negro”, or “negrita” if she is a close friend. There is even a very famous song where a young girl tells her mother her boyfriend is trying to jump her, and she sings a colorful description of how he’s chasing her around the house, trying to get her into the sack. The chorus is: “Mami que sera lo que quiere el negro…” Which sounds great lyrically but translates to: “Mom, what does the black dude want…”
Older people still call me amorcito, or linda o corazon, even if I don’t know them (although I must admit, that is happening less often these days…) And all Asians are called “chino”, whether they’re Japanese, Korean or Filipino. My mother used to call me “chinita” when I misbehaved. She would say: “When I get my hands on that chinita, I’ll show her!” Does not sound too good in retrospect.