Little People Lobby FCC

An advocacy group for Little People are trying to get the word "midget" off the public airwaves. But unlike a lot of advocacy groups, they are going beyond what is normally associated with this kind of thing.

Usually in these cases, they protest and boycott and generally exercise their power as consumers and rabblerousers to get some attention for the issue they want looked at.

That's not the tack that is being used. Instead of trying to discourage people from using the word "midget" through those means, they are instead lobbying to get it onto a list of words that are deemed unfit for the public airwaves by FCC standards.

They are also equating the term "midget" with racial slurs. I am sure generations of African-Americans would rankle at that comparison, people who are more than familiar with the treatment that surrounds such terms.

I am not a little person, so perhaps I don't understand how hurtful being called a midget is. From my perspective, it seems that being called a little person would be worse. Just the use of the words "little person" seems insulting to me. Put it this way, is it worse to call someone a midget or to tell them that they are a small person, meaning they are petty and all those other negative connotations.

I mean, Hervé Villechaize insisted on being called a midget and not a little person.

So once again, I say no to unnecessary censorship and to a more pervasive FCC presence in the American media.

*your host starts chanting a line from PCU* We're not gonna protest... we're not gonna protest...

Tags: little people, herve villechaize, midget, fcc, censorship, advocacy group