The One Word We’ve All Used Before That’s Now Offensive, SMH
I'm going to go out on a limb today and say that most of us at one time or another have used this one word to describe someone we know.
Over the years, most of us respectable adults have had to adjust the way that we use the English language. The adjustments were definitely needed because there are a bunch of words that many of us used back in the day that have since been labeled as derogatory, so we can no longer use them.
I'm the first person to say that I will avoid using any word that someone might find offensive. I've been called out numerous times for using common words that some find offensive. Now I'm not going to bore you with the list of words, but I will say that after getting an email from a fan of the radio show, I think I might need to add this word to the list.
While on the air last Friday I was talking away with my good-ole CB radio trucker accent. If you missed it, just imagine the most country-sounding, twangy voice you've ever heard. While I was yapping away, I guess I said something along the lines of we are all sounding like "hillbilly's" today.
If you know me, when I said hillbilly, I meant no offense and honestly, I never thought for one minute that 'hillbilly" was considered derogatory. After doing a little research (I simply googled the definition of hillbilly), wouldn't you know it, it's labeled as derogatory.
According to the Oxford/Lexico English dictionary, the definition of a hillbilly is,
"DEROGATORY•INFORMAL. an unsophisticated country person, associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians."
Moving forward, I guess I need to do what I can to refrain from using the word hillbilly ♂️. Not to get any more people mad at me, but I think this might be another example of some people having a problem with everything?
Thoughts?