It's a black day for the English language, unless you work in Great Britain.
I recently read on The (London) Times website that a number of public organizations, commissions, and nonprofits are all dropping certain words because they could be construed as sexist or racist.
Normally this would be an admirable effort. I'm all for getting rid of racism and sexism. But these organizations are just making knee-jerk responses to the words "black," "white," and "man."
Some of the words that have beenblackballed are "whiter than white," "gentlemen's agreement," "black mark," and "right hand man."
Are you kidding me? This is what you're worried about? Rather than actually eliminating sexism and racism, you're going after this ticky-tack little crap? It's like putting a Band-Aid on a migraine, but only half as intelligent.
The Times reported that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has dropped the phrase "black day" with "miserable day," because certain words carry a "hierarchical valuation of skin colour."
The fancy spelling of "colour" notwithstanding, the only people who seem to be putting that hierarchical valuation on it is you guys. The only people who are miserable are the people who have the misfortune to have to put up with this nonsense.
Oh, but it doesn't end there. The National Gallery in London has dropped the phrase "gentleman's agreement" because it could be potentially offensive to women, as could "right-hand man."
Meanwhile, the Learning and Skills Council doesn't want anyone to "master" their skills, but rather "perfect" them. And Newcastle University doesn't want you to call the biggest bedroom in the house the "master bedroom."
I guess we can no longer go around saying "I am the master of my domain."
It's this stupid behalfism practiced by these politically correct dunderheads that kills language for writers. People accuse texting and IMing as being the death of the English language, but it's not. All those have done is hurt spelling and punctuation, but there are still accepted norms for "correct" punctuation and grammar.
What these butchers have done is slowly chipped away at some of the poetry of our language by speaking on behalf of people they don't represent. Instead of saying something might be offensive to someone, why don't you ask them, and then come up with something acceptable instead? Instead they presume to speak on behalf of other races and sexes, because they know what best.
I don't know, sounds a little imperial to me.
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I recently read on The (London) Times website that a number of public organizations, commissions, and nonprofits are all dropping certain words because they could be construed as sexist or racist.
Normally this would be an admirable effort. I'm all for getting rid of racism and sexism. But these organizations are just making knee-jerk responses to the words "black," "white," and "man."
Some of the words that have been
Are you kidding me? This is what you're worried about? Rather than actually eliminating sexism and racism, you're going after this ticky-tack little crap? It's like putting a Band-Aid on a migraine, but only half as intelligent.
The Times reported that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has dropped the phrase "black day" with "miserable day," because certain words carry a "hierarchical valuation of skin colour."
The fancy spelling of "colour" notwithstanding, the only people who seem to be putting that hierarchical valuation on it is you guys. The only people who are miserable are the people who have the misfortune to have to put up with this nonsense.
Oh, but it doesn't end there. The National Gallery in London has dropped the phrase "gentleman's agreement" because it could be potentially offensive to women, as could "right-hand man."
Meanwhile, the Learning and Skills Council doesn't want anyone to "master" their skills, but rather "perfect" them. And Newcastle University doesn't want you to call the biggest bedroom in the house the "master bedroom."
I guess we can no longer go around saying "I am the master of my domain."
It's this stupid behalfism practiced by these politically correct dunderheads that kills language for writers. People accuse texting and IMing as being the death of the English language, but it's not. All those have done is hurt spelling and punctuation, but there are still accepted norms for "correct" punctuation and grammar.
What these butchers have done is slowly chipped away at some of the poetry of our language by speaking on behalf of people they don't represent. Instead of saying something might be offensive to someone, why don't you ask them, and then come up with something acceptable instead? Instead they presume to speak on behalf of other races and sexes, because they know what best.
I don't know, sounds a little imperial to me.
---
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