Social Justice Warrior?

[rowyn]

grrm has been writing about the Hugos lately, and one of his side issues has been that he finds the term "SJW" very offensive, and wants "his side" to be called "liberals" or "progressives" instead.

I am fascinated by this, for a couple of reasons. One: I rather like the term "Social Justice Warrior". I prefer "social justice cleric" for myself, but I'm fine with SJW. I find it a convenient term for distinguishing those with a keen interest in social justice and tolerance of diversity in many and varied forms. I know SJW was originally a conservative jab at us, but I thought it had been reclaimed, like "gay" or "queer". The other is that I think of myself as an SJW, but not a liberal or a progressive. So the substitution doesn't work for me. I suppose SJWs could claim "egalitarian" instead, but who would claim to be anti-egalitarian?

Then again, who wants to come out as antisocial injustice pacifists? As insults go, SJW has never had a lot of sting. n_n

EDIT: I've locked comments to this entry, 'cause I'm not enjoying some of the conversation the topic is generating. Y'all feel free to carry on in your own journals if you've more to say. :)

Comments

[rowyn]

"Occidental" certainly doesn't have the same stereotypes attached that "oriental" does, but it's not in much use any more, true.

Y'know, I don't generally see why it's a problem to just use someone's prefered term when talking to them. I don't need to know why they prefer it; that they do is sufficient in most cases.

... I admit, I am not gonna use "African-American" to describe people who aren't American, though. -_- I am pretty sure they wouldn't want me to, even if some third party might consider it the proper appellation.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

... I admit, I am not gonna use "African-American" to describe people who aren't American, though. -_- I am pretty sure they wouldn't want me to, even if some third party might consider it the proper appellation.

You do know there are people who would consider you a "racist" for that?

Yes, I know, that's one of the more egregious manifestations of Only America Is Real in the modern USA.