Using nondiscriminatory English – Part 2

NOW let's focus on the success of contemporary English in avoiding asymmetrical treatment of people on account of their age, ethnicity and social standing. To begin with, it is no longer socially and politically correct to label people past middle age as "the old," "the aged," or "septuagenarians"; they are more properly referred to now as "older people," "seniors," or "senior citizens." In the same token, to call people in the lower age bracket as "youths," "juveniles," "adolescents," "greenhorns," or "neophytes" would be insensitive; the socially acceptable generic terms today are "young persons" and "young people." Then, when referring to ethnic group members in negative situations, it is now unthinkable for the mainstream mass media to run a discriminatory headline like this: "Lithuanian [Polynesian, Armenian, Dane, Filipino, etc.] Nabbed in Miami Multinational Drug Bust." The era of gratuitously stereotyping ethnic people for shock effect is long over.

Here in the Philippines, however, we are still prone to using dangerously unfair English-language stereotypes, particularly when referring to the disadvantaged sectors of our society. Take this recent headline of a leading national newspaper: "Old building collapses; 10 looters feared dead."