It has come to my attention that a reader (I have a reader!) contacted the editor of PATCH to tell her that they were offended by my use of the term "greenhorn" in my last blog entry.
Let me begin by apologizing to that reader. I did not intend offense and before using that term I went and looked it up in the dictionary where there was no indication that it was an offensive term. Additionally the dictionary did not indicate that it referred to any particular ethnic group, but rather generally to newcomers.
As someone who was raised to be respectful of people from all races, creeds and nationalities, the idea that I would use an offensive term to make a point was repugnant to me. After mulling over the fact that someone had been offended, I took an informal poll and for every person who said that term was not offensive to them, there was one who said, "Oh, yes. That is an insult." So my guess is that the word in and of itself was not offensive, but had been used derogatorily so that some people now view it as an epithet.
Words are powerful. Any one who reads poetry or descriptive writing knows that words can paint pictures, create imagined worlds and introduce you to characters you may know better than your family members. But words can also wound.
Every kid who has been called stupid or fat or ugly knows how much words can hurt. Too many kids are bullied with words. A bully never has to land a punch, but can inflict lasting scars with words. Words that are used to tell lies can never be taken back. The lie may be proven to be just that, but the words will always linger in the air. Words can be tools or weapons and it is important to remember that.
There is a story circulating on the internet about a waitress at a seafood chain restaurant whose customer wrote "None, N*****" in the area for the tip on a meal receipt. Did she give them poor service? We will never know, but a note saying "No tip, your service was poor" would have expressed a very different message than the one that was left. To me that message is "You are different than I am and that gives me the right to denigrate you." That message expresses hate and ignorance. As I said, words are powerful. More importantly a poor choice of words often says more about the content of your character than you intended.
I am not really sure whether an obviously offensive comment such as the diner left on his receipt is worse than the casually cruel comment that a speaker utters without any idea that they are being hurtful. Is it just as bad without the bad intent? I suppose it is if you are on the receiving end.
I've lived long enough to have heard just about all the terms that can describe a particular ethnicity or race. If I had used them in my house when I was growing up, I would have had my mouth washed out with soap. Now that I have been schooled on the word "greenhorn", if I find myself uttering it again, I will wash my own mouth out with soap. Mea culpa.
