"The meaning of mongol"

[ArsenicSoup]

On Radio 4 now (and doubtless available on iplayer later)

AIBU to think this should be played in every secondary classroom?

[cardamomginger]

Just read the article. Bloody hell . I knew the word was vile and offensive to use to refer to people with that particular genetic condition. But I just hadn't jointed the dots to realise that is profoundly racist as well.

Nice. Very, very nice.

[diddl]

That article!

I had thought the word had been used because of a supposed similarity of features.

Never realised it was possibly also because they were also thought to be considered "an earlier state of humanity"

[ChickenMe]

Cringe that people use words like this.
An ex-colleague used to use the term "flids" about people with disabilities. And people would laugh. I had to say something.
My SIL says paki and I'm the only one who picks her up on it. She still says it tho! Even my 90-something nan knows not to say that. It's fucking cringe and purposely ignorant.
I think it makes people look cheap and nasty using such terminology.

[Jux]

I grew up next door to a boy with Down's Syndrome. This was back in the 60s. We all used mongol then, but by the 70s we had all stopped.

I'm not at all surprised that people younger than I had no idea. Why would they? I wouldn't condemn people who used the term as it is used these days, but would make sure I told them about it's origins. Plain ignorance is OK and can be changed easily enough. Wilfull ignorance is tougher.

[DoraGora]

Presumably, if anyone is to be blamed for this dreadful and racist classification, it's the doctor John Langdon Down, who invented it. He linked the condition with the race on purpose. Language moves on. So, I'm guessing that, in time, today's racist insult will disappear and something equally appalling will take its place. I'm guessing that people who use the expression are meaning to be offensive and that the origin of the term means very little to them.

[Gruntfuttock]

diddl "I had thought the word had been used because of a supposed similarity of features. Never realised it was possibly also because they were also thought to be considered "an earlier state of humanity""

Same here. That was very shocking.

[DoraGora]

The Radio 4 programme does say that even in Langdon Down's time, several scientists were writing supposedly mongoloid, because they didn't believe in his classification. And, later on, with the discovery of the extra chromosome, it was shown to be false. This wouldn't the the first time that leading scientists have put awful notions of race into the public arena. I gather, that once, awful scientific theories were all the rage.

[newyorkminute]

DS2 has Down's Syndrome. "Down's Syndrome people/boy/girl" makes me so sad. You wouldn't call a child with cancer "cancer boy" and it feels the same to me, yet I hear it weekly, including from education professionals. There is a great campaign that I would strongly recommend Losethelabel. DS is 16 months and I have yet to hear mong used but am fully aware that he is likely to face this kind of language.

[itiswhatitiswhatitis]

Well I dislike the term label in this context, my child has a diagnosis not a label and yes there is a difference. People use the term label quite disrespectfully all the time, usually combined with knobbish air quotes that suggest the condition they are referring to is not real or valid in someway.

[CattyCatCat]

All I hear lately is 'I'm going to mong out' or 'you mong' or 'there's a lot of mong about/out there'. It really fucks me off as all are offensive phrases, imo. These remarks are coming from adults and teens. Especially on Facebook. God only knows how the term 'Mong' has come to be so widely used with no apparent embarrassment on their user's part.