General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If you are the member of a privileged group AND call yourself progressive [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)the point of over-sensitivity is that the person imagines something is there when it is not there. It is a spectrum of over-sensitive, sensitive and insensitive. The sensitive person sees things that the insensitive person does not, but the over-sensitive person imagines things which are really not there. They may have a reason or reasons for doing so, but those reasons don't make them any less wrong. Which is the point, maybe a white person can tell them they are wrong, being over-sensitive.
Let me try another example. For many years of my childhood, from the age of 5 through college, I suffered from iron deficiency anemia. Now, often in writing, people will use the word 'anemic' as a synonym for 'weak' or 'bad'. When I am reading along and I see that, it is a little bit like some nails being dragged across a chalkboard for me. My hackles get raised a little bit. Most people, not associating themselves with the word anemic, are gonna read right past that. They are insensitive to it.
However, in a way, I would be over-sensitive if I tried to make a huge issue out of this use of the word. It is not like there is a class of anemics who are discriminated against and suffer deprivations and need a champion to advocate for them. So although my hackles get raised, I never make an issue out of it.