You are right. Turning an adjective into a noun tends to make it more degrading because you’ve focused on the characteristic rather than the person. That’s why referring to people as “blacks” or “females” feels icky. It’s why we saw “deaf people” and not “the deafs” or “old people” and not “the olds.”
You are right. Turning an adjective into a noun tends to make it more degrading because you’ve focused on the characteristic rather than the person. That’s why referring to people as “blacks” or “females” feels icky. It’s why we saw “deaf people” and not “the deafs” or “old people” and not “the olds.”