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From A Noun To An Adjective

John F McMullen

I was at an
online luncheon recently
when a historian said
        I was at an online conference
        the other day and someone
        kept saying ‘enslaved’
        rather than ‘slave’
        It makes sense because
        the person is more than
        a slave that has no freedom

I hadn’t thought of it before
but it made sense to me too
        Frederick Douglas was as different from
        a captive fieldhand as I am from Vladimir Putin

If we continue to use the terms
        Black
        Gay
        Jew
        Hispanic
as nouns when describing people
we are taking away their individuality
and just lumping them with others
with that characteristic

Each of these groups have within it
        criminals, rapists, misogynists, drunks, and other lowlifes
but they also have
        judges, clergy, elected officials, college professors, and writers

A therapist in the group joined in
        We don’t call people schizophrenics
        they are people with a schizophrenia disorder

So it is time for us to recognize this and
while it may seem to be a subtle change
it may change our whole worldview
as we eliminate using characteristics
of groups to define individuals who
are really a combination of many

For instance
I know a person who is
        Catholic
        Lesbian
        of Italian descent
        recovering stroke victim
        performance artist
        poet
what would you call her?
I call her a close friend

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