The term is unknown in the sighted community.  Thus, it is by definition
not one which can be equated with some familiar ethnic slurs and other such
labels.  Some have taken it to mean something for wanting a term to hang a
label of oppression, it doesn't work.  When the sighted want to demean we
blinks, they attach "stupid" or other such label unto "blind" as a
demeaning term.  It is , on the other hand in my experience, a term of
mutual endearment and a recognition of belonging to a distinct community of
shared experience.  I have also heard it decried by some who have a
particular political ax to grind within the blind community, something they
sometimes pick up as a label from others of a like mind,to identify
themselves as a member of such subgroup.  A better question is why it is
taken as a term of self hatred, for it seems as such to those who try to
make of it what it is not.


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