Calling someone an illegal immigrant to their face can be an insult
So why would it be ok to refer to a person that way just because they’re not around?
This meme is a commentary on how to teach kids to treat others in a dignified and respectful way.
The same way retard became handicapped and suddenly out of nowhere handicap is not dignified enough, so it became disabled.
That’s true. The progression of language in this way is well documented. It doesn’t diminish someone’s entitlement to feel offended at being referred to as a retard. It’s just how dignity, respect, and language works.
When referring to other people, it’s a common courtesy to consider how they might like to be addressed, and to use that term. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the phrasing or what you would have called them a few decades ago.
Just because you don’t intend to insult someone doesn’t mean you’re not ignorant.
It doesn’t take really any empathy at all to recognise that someone might prefer to be called an undocumented immigrant rather than an illegal one.
I think people really are used to being called the wrong thing, or the wrong pronouns. In reality, if you accidentally misgender someone they often won’t bother to correct you if you’re merely a passing acquaintance, but if you’re more than that they might politely correct you in a non-confrontational way.
People being upset about someone making a genuine mistake and calling them the wrong thing is not the norm, and if someone did that it would be pretty weird.
The term “illegal immigrant” may be a description, but I’m sure you can recognise that it’s not a very dignified one. You probably don’t refer to people you like as “that fat guy” or “that woman with the huge ass”, despite those phrases being descriptive.