Monday letters: At least use the right pejorative

I was surprised to see Sen. Katrina Shealy refer to the hard-working folks in cotton mills as “Lent Heads” (“Get past race and fix current problems,” Dec. 7). The word “lent” has little to do with the “lint” that found its way into the workers’ hair, clothes and bodies. The appropriate term is “lint head,” though I prefer to refer to these hard-working folks as “cotton mill workers.”

Way too often, we use seemingly harmless descriptions of the hard work performed by folks when a more accurate description could be used. To me, those words are used to keep people “in their places,” as if their jobs are not as important as other jobs.

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 3:17 AM with the headline "Monday letters: At least use the right pejorative."