Topic: Use of the word "Mong" Acceptable?

[Northerngimp]

Or does it still offend people?

It has been raised in the match thread from last night, whats peoples thoughts on it.

[Rocker]

I never actually knew the derivation of the word until recently, and it's origins. I use it to describe someone acting up, or being a c*** on purpose.

Doesn't offend me like, but I'm not the most PC of people.

[Northerngimp]

Same here, I only use it at people who are being dicks or acting up.  I sometimes use "Monger".

[Rocker]

Who's getting offended by these like? I'm sure Gervais got in trouble for saying the word mong on twitter.

Have you seen those adverts in America about saying the word 'gay'? 

That's so gay- Hilary Duff and Wanda Sykes

[thomas]

It's PC gone mad, Stu.

[ykmkmdd]

Not a word I use myself but can't say it particularly offends.

[Ian W]

I didn't even know it was potentially offensive until very recently, didn't know the origin at all. I think it has been so long since it was genuinely used to refer to downs syndrome sufferers that it's now OK.

[thomas]

Not Acceptable R-word PSA

I'm sorry little retard girl but i cannot help it, it's a funny word and I will not change.  And I don't think "retard" carries the same weight of centuries of oppression that nigger does, but bless your little retard heart for trying.

[Craig-NUFC]

Part of my regular vocab when I'm kicking off about someone. Never knew it was offensive until the whole Gervais thing, but I've never used it or heard it being used in any other way than to describe someone being a dickhead.

[Ian W]

We're almost in post-modern times with words like that I reckon, everyone knows so deeply that it should never be used as an insult that it's now fine to use it as a joke. Pretty sure that's the Gervais view too, he obviously isn't trying to insult anyone.

Not sure about 'retard', that's more American I suppose, never really heard it used over here.

[Dave]

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php?topic=76287

[Inochi]

Not Acceptable R-word PSA

I'm sorry little retard girl but i cannot help it, it's a funny word and I will not change.  And I don't think "retard" carries the same weight of centuries of oppression that nigger does, but bless your little retard heart for trying.

What the f***? Absolutely no need for that, like, whatever the sentiment.

[Dr.Spaceman]

Use of the word "Mong" Acceptable?

Yes.

[Crumpy Gunt]

If a discussion is getting heated and words like 'mong' and 'retard' rear their ugly head then who is generally out of their depth? The accused or accuser?

Would the person typing it say it to the persons face?

[Big Geordie]

It's not a term I use because given the nature of my job and the people I care for, they would probably find it offensive. It's a cheap retort and I believe when someone says it, they are fully aware of what it has been used to refer to in the past.

[Andy]

Personally think it depends on context. If someone said "don't be a mong" to me if I said something stupid I wouldn't be offended. If someone with Downs Syndrome walked into the room and someone else said "look there's a mong" I'd find it offensive.

[Inochi]

Personally think it depends on context. If someone said "don't be a mong" to me if I said something stupid I wouldn't be offended. If someone with Downs Syndrome walked into the room and someone else said "look there's a mong" I'd find it offensive.

This.

[80]

Personally think it depends on context. If someone said "don't be a mong" to me if I said something stupid I wouldn't be offended. If someone with Downs Syndrome walked into the room and someone else said "look there's a mong" I'd find it offensive.

'You're as thick as a nigger' vs. 'You're thick because you're a nigger'? /devil's advocate

[je85]

It doesn't offend me, but I wouldn't go using it loudly in public places.

[Ian W]

It's not a term I use because given the nature of my job and the people I care for, they would probably find it offensive. It's a cheap retort and I believe when someone says it, they are fully aware of what it has been used to refer to in the past.

I can honestly say I've used the word in the past without a clue as to its origins.

[Andy]

Personally think it depends on context. If someone said "don't be a mong" to me if I said something stupid I wouldn't be offended. If someone with Downs Syndrome walked into the room and someone else said "look there's a mong" I'd find it offensive.

'You're as thick as a nigger' vs. 'You're thick because you're a nigger'? /devil's advocate

Comes down to how socially acceptable the word is, really. It's pretty much always taboo to use "nigger" regardless of context, whereas I wouldn't say it's always taboo to use "mong". Whether that's right or wrong is another argument, but the word "mong" when used in the context of "idiot" doesn't have the same shock value as the word "nigger". Not to me anyway.

[POOT]

So what are its origins?

I always put it in the same ballpark as mongrel (as in dog). Looking around there seems to be no indication that mong was a word invented to describe a disability.

Retard is to describe slowness. Just because people used the word to describe disabled people in the past doesn't mean someone using it now, to call out someone being slow, is bad. It's those who used the word previously to hurt disabled people that should carry that guilt.

These are words that don't belong to disabled people. They were once used to insult them. But they don't belong to them like the N word does to Black people.

Being used as a jibe at daft people isn't an insult on disabled people. Although it would be insensitive to use around disabled people.

What about calling someone and idiot? Same thing. Ugly? Same.

I remember when I was teaching and we were told we shouldn't use the phrase "brainstorm" in context to idea generating...because it would be insulting to someone with epilepsy etc. Ridiculous.

[Bad Mongo]

Should I change my name? (It's short for mongoloid, POOT, and as such a racist term for describing people with Downs.)

[POOT]

Mongoloid is not a word to describe people with Downs, though.

It's a word to describe race. Mongolian etc. I believe an old and outdated term to describe far eastern Asians. Can't see the word being invented to describe Downs Syndrome people. But it was obviously used as a derogatory term towards them because of "epicanthic folds". Obviously that's wrong on all of those levels. More so for the racial overtone.

But mongoloid is not a word created to describe Down's Syndrome people.

[Bad Mongo]

It's an old and racist term for describing certain traits of Asians, which then was attributed to people with what we now call Downs. Quoting Wikipedia:

since people with Down syndrome may have epicanthic folds, Down syndrome was widely called "Mongol" or "Mongoloid Idiocy".[82] John Langdon Down, for whom the syndrome was named, said in his book Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots (1866) that the Mongol-like features represented an evolutionary degeneration when manifested in Caucasoids.