I was taking a group of building service engineers through the 18th. We were discussing the use of Appendix 5. One chap was very exercised about the BA3 category which is described as utilization-capability-handicapped. He claims the latter word was exorcised from common parlance years ago and would be offensive to many. I am not that politically correct but maybe he has a valid argument,.
In the 1970’s “spade” was used as a derogatory term to describe Afro Caribbean and mixed race people, the guy was laid out with a single punch around ten o’clock on a Saturday evening whilst out drinking for baiting another guy using the phrase “I believe in calling a spade a spade” and everyone else present thought he deserved it.
Forty years later you see it as an innocent thing to say, as with so many words in the English language there’s not really a problem with the words themselves, but stringing the words together into a sentence then use them to intentionally verbally abuse someone is just as wrong now as it was in the 1970’s.
So even now in the 2010’s you do actually still need to stop and think what you are saying and where; and you won’t always get it right, but hopefully your intentions won’t be misinterpreted.
In the 1970’s “spade” was used as a derogatory term to describe Afro Caribbean and mixed race people, the guy was laid out with a single punch around ten o’clock on a Saturday evening whilst out drinking for baiting another guy using the phrase “I believe in calling a spade a spade” and everyone else present thought he deserved it.
Forty years later you see it as an innocent thing to say, as with so many words in the English language there’s not really a problem with the words themselves, but stringing the words together into a sentence then use them to intentionally verbally abuse someone is just as wrong now as it was in the 1970’s.
So even now in the 2010’s you do actually still need to stop and think what you are saying and where; and you won’t always get it right, but hopefully your intentions won’t be misinterpreted.
