Why are some people so easily offended by words that are not meant to be offensive?

Question

I'm talking about all kinds of stuff-race, sexual orientation, gender, etc. It seems like people are WANTING to be offended sometimes. I saw a girl at the store get mad the other day because an elderly lady used the "no longer correct" word for a certain race. She used the term "*****" not the N word. In her day, that was the word that people used for African Americans, and it was clear that the elderly lady wasn't trying to be offensive. If someone said a potentially offensive remark out of ignorance, would you try to educate them, or be automatically offended?

Answer 1

I agree with you totally! However we really don't know the back ground that they came from and what they had to put up with. I know with myself, I was taught in college that the proper name for black people was "African American", however I found out that some were offense to that, and said that they wanted to be called Brown, so I used Brown and some were offense to that and said they wanted to be called Black. I don't mind myself to be called White, cause thats what I am, but then again I was never persecuted for being White. I was personal educated by the Black race, and it absolutely got me nowhere. But, back to your question, yes they should be educated.