A member of a group that is marginalized in some way and not okay to
joke about. Basically you can't make jokes (or employment decisions) based on any of the following variables: race, color, religion, national origin, age (40 and over),
sex, veteran status, employment status, pregnancy, citizenship, having a
family, having disabilities, and last but not least; DNA content.
So pretty much everybody is protected in some way.
Person
1: Get a job you lazy fuck.
Person 2: You can'
t say that. Unemployed persons are a protected class.
Person
1: How else am I supposed to tell you that you are a neanderthal?
Person 2: Did you really just make a comment about my DNA status? That's also a protected class. Go look up protected classes.
Person
1: looks it up that
literally means that everybody in the world is a protected class in some way.
Person 2: I know. Isn't it great? Everybody is special!