Oh, dear, oh, my. When I pointed out that the people formerly known as Hottentots found that particular ethnonym offensive, I was not admonishing Bran to eschew it. I was just telling her, that in the unlikely event that she found herself face to face with a Khoisan, she might ixnay on the ottentothay. I realize that many people get all riled up when somebody points out that some other body finds some bit of language offensive. (Shouts of "cry havoc" and don't you dare legislate my language, unless of course it's ungrammatical.) I will digress, as is my dithering wont, into an anecdote. I was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by a friend of mine that was being held at his parents house. I'd had never met them, but they seemed like a nice old couple once I had. At some point during the turkey dinner: the mom is all n-word this and n-word that, and because I'm a guest and there are no African-Americans present I let it slide, because I figure, she's old and set in her ways and nothing I can do will change any of that. During a later course I mentioned that the main ethnic slur I'd encountered in my tender youth was Oakie. The temperature in the room dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit. My friend's mother stopped talking. Full stop. Later, he told me that he was amazed that his mom hadn't bitch-slapped me and walked me out to my car. I was shocked. I felt that a white lady who dropped the n-word with abandon wouldn't blink at a little grapes of wrath opprobrium. My bad.
