Trump's putting kids in cages and all that. Can't get mad about one foreigner (myself) referring to another foreigner by the word used for foreigners in the country I'm discussing (myself) at the time.
Edit: and as a living embodiment of white privilege (myself) of course this is white privilege
I'm not mad, but I also don't think "worse things are happening" is a legitimate argument against me questioning the practice.
I've had some time to reflect, and I believe what bothers me is the exclusivity of the terms.
What I mean is:
Remember that one brit who said something like "A Brit is never a foreigner, wherever he goes"? This reminded me of it. These terms don't simply mean foreigner, they usually mean "foreigner.. to me", in a way. This way of phrasing things in English makes it so that its always a term for "others" (when used by a native speaker), never for yourself.
I'm not entirely sure why, but that rubs me wrong. And like I said, I see no purpose in using these terms in English besides "othering".
Sorry about the derail though, feel free to retort via PM if you want to argue semantics with me, I feel bad distracting from the discussion.