“Midget” is Offensive… Who Knew?
I really had no idea that Little People consider the word “midget” to be an insult, and apparently neither did Roger Ebert until someone corrected him.
personally, I still feel, as many do, that the term midget is akin to “nigger.” I am forty and grew up in that Dwarf Power era as Mr. Sawisch discusses. I do believe that it would be great to claim “the word” as our own in much the same way as African Americans and Blacks have claimed “nigger.” The truth is, if I say “nigger” I am getting my head cracked open, but not too many LP’s or Dwarfs are doing any head-crackin’ after being addressed as a “midget,” (just out of sheer self-preservation). Nor are they standing up for their right to be addressed as human beings in a verbal way.
[via an exchange on rogerebert.com