Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[b7lake]

There are some reasons for a group's intense preference for one word.
Certain jobs, minorities, and special-interest groups often have a history
the public is not sensitive to.
When that history has too much pain attached to it,
people use another word that doesn't have bitter cannotations.

What does the pronoun 'it' indicate?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Sirius]

it refers to the history or background experiences of the group.

Also it should be connotations not cannotations.