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Diversity
Knowing
what to call people can be a really difficult area when it
comes to ‘diversity’. We’re all sensitive
types, right? We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
So when we’re talking about people from different ethnic
backgrounds, or different sexualities, then what do we call
them? Gender is relatively easy: you’ve got your boys
and your girls, your men and your women. Sure, you can get
yourself into trouble by calling people of the female persuasion
‘chicks’ or ‘babes’ (or, worst of
all, ‘chicky babes’ – and we won’t
even go into what you might call males), but in general you’ve
got a pretty good idea what’s acceptable and what’s
not. It’s a bit harder when it comes to other areas
though.
For
instance, should you say, ‘Aboriginal people’,
or ‘Aborigines’, or ‘Indigenous Australians’,
or ‘Koories’? Well, you should keep two things
in mind when you’re talking about other people:
- What
do the people themselves want to be called?
-
What is the most accurate term?
(Those
questions actually come from the Affirming
Diversity book mentioned in the introduction to this
section, so maybe it’s not all bad.) So, bearing that
in mind, maybe you should ask Aboriginal
students or teachers at your school which term they prefer.
But you should recognise that they may not all agree. Also,
think about the accuracy element. Some Aboriginal people might
like to refer to themselves as ‘Blacks’, or ‘Blackfellas’,
for example. Fair enough, but what about people who identify
as Aborigines but have fair skin? (But
wait, there’s more…)
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