NewTime wrote:
i heard someone insult someone recently by called them a mongoloid ret*d. isn't this offensive to those with down syndrome?
It IS offensive to people of east Asian descent.
To folks with Down's Syndrome its an archaic inaccurate nonsequitar.
In the early 20th century "Mongoloid" ( also called "Mongolian idiocy"- lovely term) was the accepted term used by scientist for what we now call "Downs Syndrome" because children with Down's syndrome (regardless of what race they were born into) have vaguely east asian looking head features (flatish faces, and folded cornered eyelids).
At the same time the accepted term for the whole "race" of people of east asia (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese) was also "Mongoloid" ( they all look like Mongols from Mongolia, so lets call them all "Mongoloid").
It wasnt until around 1970 that the scientific community dropped the term for folks with Down Syndrome, and replaced it with the term "Downs Syndrome".At about the same time they also began using different terms for human races, and began calling East Asians -"East Asians".
But you may have nonscientists neighbors or relatives who still use the archaic term "Mongoloid" for Downs Syndrome.
02 Oct 2016, 9:18 pm
