This reminds me of a scene in my favorite movie, "The Big lebowski". IIRC, the dude is complaining about a 'chinaman' peeing on his rug. Walter goes on one of h

This reminds me of a scene in my favorite movie, "The Big lebowski". IIRC, the dude is complaining about a 'chinaman' peeing on his rug. Walter goes on one of his rants and ends with "By the way, Asian-American is the preferred term". It always struck me as curious that the peeing guy, that Walter is presumably advocating for wasn't even present in the scene. All this hullabaloo and most times, the affected person isn't even there. Indeed, pronouns are instructions for how people must refer to you when you are not present!