Little people combat society's midget mentality

Quote:
As the Oscars are awarded tonight, Hollywood has reached the last frontier of apologies. One of the few groups entertainers can still insult freely is "midgets."

I am a person with dwarfism and I get offended every time I hear someone in Hollywood use that word. After Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and Isaiah Washington, calling a person a "midget" is about the last thing anyone in Hollywood has left to apologize for saying.

Midget is a word that is misunderstood by most people. I hear it yelled at me out of car windows, both as an insult to my being short and sometimes as a threat to my safety. It is also frequently heard on television. I'd like to help set the record straight about this annoying, biting word that has followed me around my entire life.

The outcry over bigotry, homophobia and racism during the past six months in Hollywood has been admirable. But why should someone apologize for using the word midget?

We must first look at where the word comes from. Midget was created from the combination of the word midge, meaning "small fly" and the suffix -et, so that etymologically the word midget means a "very small small fly."

• February 27, 2007