I graduated some time before that and I cannot remember any identity stuff or any expectation to be sensitive to anyone other than cripples and retards.
We could use all of the slurs for women, fatties and gays and most of the slurs for colored folks without getting into any official trouble. Though you did want to stay away from the n-word. Other than that though, bombs away.
I started to hear the phrase "developmentally disabled" a lot in the mid-eighties and "retarded" disappeared rather quickly from normal conversation at that point. Same with the word "cripple" being replaced by "disabled". But X-American didn't gain currency until the 90s. And gays and fatties had it rough into the mid-2000s.
My mom was not racially enlightened when it came to blacks and even she wouldn't use the n-word. And would freak if she heard it from me or my friends. Though she could be pretty free with other slurs. She tolerated Latinos but still, in private, was willing to use slurs. And she adored her Asian friends but would still, again in private, pull her eyes back and go "ching-chong-ching-chong when some Asian leader or diplomat or such would show up on TV. As for gays, well if she could have donated to AIDS, NOT AIDS research, but to AIDS itself, she would have.
She was a lifelong Democrat by the way. Though she hated unions. People can be a bundle of contradictions.
I, of course, am perfectly enlightened. A veritable saint.
