Of course, were I to use it, I'd be denounced for being "insensitive." There's a whole host of rhetorical land mines out there that are unknown to people who grew up in a different era or different geographic location and were not subjected to either the real bigotry or a later indoctrination, the kind that keeps its power alive.
Education begets offense. These things are *learned* and the longer we keep these trigger points alive, the longer we allow ourselves to be divided and distracted from real problem solving and genuine dialog.
I saw a piece of "outrage" piece today because a new hit song has the term "oriental" in the lyric. The writer, a college student majoring in Asian/Pacific/American (APA) studies, was "offended."
Even though the writer acknowledged the term's compliment "occidental," and how many others have expressed they are not offended by the lyric, he insisted he was right and we should all be offended, just like him, because he knew how the term was colored in the context of APA studies.
His rationale made me want to put my head through my desktop.