Today our many issues that arise within our society occur because of racial tensions that exist within our country.  Many of the issues that occur are shown through the poem “There Once Was” by Margret Atwood.  We see the connection between this story and the development of racial slurs by the author having to recant her statement every time she says something.  By doing this we see how almost anything that is said by people nowadays can be seen as a slur or demining to them. In many cases slurs are used to describe a particular group or set of people.  It is okay for one group to call another group a certain term, but it is not allowed for a separate group to call the same group the same name.  When reading Atwood’s piece, you begin to think, at what point are demining adjectives okay to be used to describe people?  Those demining adjectives today are used to describe, hate, and communicate within a certain group of people. Today in society people need to more understanding of terms used and not be so sensitive so people can have ways to describe what is going on in a certain situation.

In Atwood’s piece we find many words that can be considered to all types of people weather they are meant to be or not.  For example, the word “stepmother” (510) is offensive to some stepmothers because they find themselves as a negative image which is how the press portrays stepmother. The term is how we are forced to describe stepmothers, which is as not the actual mother of the step child, they are the stepmother, because they are not the child’s actual mother. Another term is beautiful (511) the term is allowed to be used only on certain people.  Why can it not used on anyone who is seem as pretty.  That goes to people seeing women as being objects and not actually people, which is what some men think of women nowadays. Another word in Atwood’s piece that some people see as “poor” (511).  The word poor gets thrown around all the time.  The word is very subjective to where you are from.  You can be poor in American and be poor in African… it is two very different meanings.  But the word is not an insult, it is used to describe what happens to a certain society.   The word is trying to describe the financial situation of someone and while it might be low the word is true in their eyes. 

Many demining adjectives originated with the group who it is used to describe.  In Atwood’s story we see the author try to use certain words that are not deemed appropriate for this society. For example, she uses the term a little overweight (512).  Atwood cannot describe the girl at all when she is trying to examine what she is like.  We see this in society as well, people will try to say “look at that guy over there” Then no one will know which guy you are talking about so they will have to describe him based on skin color or another physical feature.  By doing this the person can be seen as racist for trying to describe the person in the society.  This is the problem that Atwood kept running into, the second voice in the story would not let her say things that people say to each other because they were “mean.”  There is a point in society when people will say things to each other and then other people cannot say it to them.  

Nowadays many people say the n-word, to each other or even to certain African Americans.  The origin of the word comes from the Latin word “niger” which is just a word for the color black.  The word “n*gger” was originated when the slaves tried to pronounce “negro” but were not able to say it so the said “n*gger.”  Many historians believe that term “negro” was actually just a term to describe African Americans (Fogle 96).  The term nowadays is used as a demining term for African American, that anyone can say to them, and it offensive.  When we see the term used today it is okay for African Americans to say to other African Americans, but if anyone of another race were to say that it would be frowned open for that group to do that.  This is similar to what Atwood was struggling with in her peace.  She could not find a word that was not frowned upon for her to say.  Any word that she said was considered “not nice” and she should not be able to say it.  Overall the words she was using were used to describe the girl or the situation that was occurring.  Nowadays people say you are not allowed to say certain things they are demining to them.   It has now become hard for people to describe what someone looks like.  For example, in Atwood’s peace, we see “don’t make fun of the girl’s appearance” (511).  Atwood struggled to find a way to describe the girl at all because she could not say one thing about her.  

People today can find anything you say as offensive.  For example, if I say that I don’t like sushi.  People find a way to twist it to you not liking Asian people and therefore that is why you do not like sushi.  This happen a lot in modern culture but many of us are just trying to describe something that we find we do not like.  People nowadays have become to sensitive on certain issues and it does not allow us to describe or even show people something.  Atwood tries to show us that throughout many times in her story what she is saying is perfectly okay it is just how she conveys it.  The peace by Fogle talks about the where the origination of the word negro came from, but the rest of highlight the same amount of ideas that Fogle’s peace deals with.  In the peace by Jeshion, we see that Asians deal with the same kind of the issues of slurs being used against them, this is also relevant in Atwood’s peace where they cannot even call a girl skinny or else that is considered offensive to the girl.  The terms that we are calling people as a society are for meant to describe the person.  Some terms though that can be used to describe people can be demining to the person and in that case should not be said.  The pieces are trying to show us how each different slur/ demining adjective has a purpose and not all should be used, but each of them allow you to describe a person.

Another racial issue that occurs within our society is that of Asians and being called Chinks.  The word originated in China and is meant to describe the Asian culture (Jeshion 87).  The word is now seen as way to being Asians down and to make fun of them. Some people see it as offensive to people but other people can see it as a way to describe the culture and where the people are from. I am not saying people should just walk around saying “hey chink” but the word originated as a way for them so show where they are from and about their culture.  The words somehow can be seen as demining to the people to whom they are said too. The point is that the origin of the word did not have a bad and was originally meant to describe the culture.  The true meaning of the word was not to hurt Asians but to allow them to look into their culture and to understand what was happening. opinion that is ridiculous because I understand that you cannot call some people certain things, but other things you just should not say it at all. Why would you say something about someone that you would not just say to their face?  This talks about if you have an Asian and he can call his friend a chink, but if you have a normal white guy who calls an Asian a chink it is unacceptable and it does not make sense for the Asian to be able to say it to the Asian and for the white person not being able to say it to the Asian.  Another example that can be used is how the n-word is thrown around by African Americans, but if an Asian says it, it is unacceptable. If you cannot say something at all than you should not say it all. I do not think it would be acceptable for certain people to be able to say certain things.  Such as not being able to say certain things that another group is allowed to say. 

In addition, we see how the Native American experience the same sort of racial issues when people call them “Redskins” or “Indians.”  When this happens we notice that most of these terms originated because of description of the people and what they are like.  The origin of the word Indians is seen as a misconception which was caused by explorers in the late 13th and 14th Century.  The explorers thought they were in Indian and just called the people what they thought they were which was Indians and that was incorrect.  The name stuck.  But as a result it was not in spite of hate that the name Indian was enacted.  The name was just put into place to show how the people thought these people were and not what they actually were.  The word Redskins originated on sort of the same lines that “negro” originated, it came about as a way to describe a certain group of people that they could not put a tag onto.  They just called them show they looked.  As it demining nowadays, then it was not meant to harm the group, it was meant for the people to be able to describe the group.  Atwood attempts to do the exact same the thing, but it unable to.  Therefore, she is forced to not be able to tell the story at all, because of her inability to describe people.  People nowadays do not want you to say anything because they do not want to hear about how you will even dare to describe someone.  The meaning and origin of the slur/ adjective is used to describe and was not originally meant to be harmful.  

There are words in our society that are allowed for one group to say but another group is not allowed to say them.  When are they said by the group that they are about, it is okay for that group to say it to each other, but when another group tried to say it to each other it becomes an all-out war.  The words that are being said throughout society were originally not offensive which can be seen all throughout examples of all this.  If it is okay for you to say to each other why is it not okay for another group to say it to you.  Every word in the English language is somehow offensive to someone which is the problem that Atwood runs into in her piece.  She cannot find a word that is not offensive to someone in society.  

The racial slurs that happen around America, are because America is still a melting pot.  We bring in so many immigrants and have so much diversity in our country that sometimes people do not feel comfortable with allowing different kinds of people into the country. And when people feel like they are being taken over by a new group they do what they feel like they should and they make fun of the group to try and get them to leave.  They do what people and think that if they make fun of them it will make them superior to the people that they are bullying.  In reality the bullying allows the people who are being bullied to be on top of the bully because they are stronger inside than the bully is.  Another topic that happens is the history in our country.  In our history we have done some bad things to people which the article hits on.  It talks about how we used to call people n*ggers by using this we were dehumanizing African American Slaves and were making them, objects and not people.  In my opinion the slurs come from hate, jealousy, and meanness.

Overall I think this can connect to “There Once Was” because it shows us how the word originated and if you know the origins of a word you can better use the word. In “There Once Was” we all see how certain words cannot be said because they are too mean and are not the right meaning of the word, when in reality they are words that we say every day. The article by Fogle shows us certain words used by people mean something and that they not always correct, but they do have a purpose.  For example, in “There Once Was” the girl is described as “poor” and she probably is, but it is refuted that she is not poor and that she has life pretty good compared to some people.  Fogle shows us that n*gger used to be a word that was just said by African American slaves because they could not say negro.  This allows us to see that certain words do have certain meanings but the meanings do not always mean what we think they do.  Now n*gger is a racial slur, but back then it was a language error. All it is saying is not all words can be taken for face value.   

Many times in a situation we see that a word is used to describe and that may be true or it may be false.  The origin and the use of the word is not used to harm someone it is in face used to try and help describe the person that you are talking too.  Many instances that we see throughout the story and through the articles show us the origin of the word and what the meaning of the word.  Many times the origin of the word has more to do on what is meant than how it is used today.  The people that are saying these things are being able to think through all the ways that a word can be used, but in reality the word has a large meaning which is to show us how the word is supposed to be used.  The origin generally never uses a negative meaning while what we turn in into now does have a negative meaning.  

Fogle, Croom, Hozeski, and Jeshion all talk to each other through their pieces.  They all try bring in the origin to talk about where to piece originated from.  They all say that words that we say come from the origin of the word.  One of the ways we can see this throughout our culture is in Atwoods piece where people cannot say what they want to say.  Even though they want to say it they are not allowed and it frowned.  All the pieces point out that society has gotten too “easy” and people are being too scared to say things to describe people.  Now while it is bad to say mean things about people sometimes you do have to describe the person so that you know what you are talking.  All the pieces try to explain at what point you should stop and at what point it is okay to call a person something. 

In conclusion, the basis of slurs from a particular region are from the culture and used to describe the culture and to show how the culture is and what it is like.  They can describe skin color, appearance or tendencies.  The origin of most these words came from how the words are meant to be seen and how they are used within the language.  Many terms originated within the group itself and most are meant to show you how the group operates and what the group is like.  Many people inside of the culture also play a part in deciding what the word means. They see the word as meaning one thing or another.  The culture of the people determines how the word will be used within their culture.  In Atwood’s piece we see the speaker did not like to use really any adjectives in her speech because they all had some sort of demining term in them that meant something negative to another group or to that group itself.  The words are originally not bad and not meant to harm a particular culture, and were meant to describe the culture just like Atwood is trying to describe this situation.  And by restricting this it becomes hard to see the culture the way it is meant to be seen because you have no way in describing it.  Overall the adjectives that are seen today were originally used to describe the group and did not have any intention to be mean to the group or to hurt the group at all.  
