Stanford University’s IT department created a list of offensive terms and phrases, along with suggested alternatives. The list was not made public until recently, but the university’s website has made it password-protected after strong criticism.
“The Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI) is a multi-phase, multi-year project to address harmful language in Stanford IT,” the listing states. “(EHLI’s) goal is to eliminate harmful language in its many forms, including racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, racial bias, racism, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language on Stanford’s website and code “
the list is recently discovered—and mocked mercilessly— wall street journal It will feel familiar to anyone who has touched the university micro attack Report protocol. It includes questionable outdated expressions of racial origin that few remember, such as “lower people on the totem pole” and “long time no see.” It also contains a lot of innocuous words and phrases that could be interpreted as race or gender if you squint long enough: “white paper,” “webmaster,” etc. The term “United States” is technically disfavored because not all Americans are U.S. residents
Then there are a bunch of expressions that the IT department opposes because they are too graphic, including “kill the horse” and “stab it”. I would say it’s stupid or crazy to argue against these terms, but “stupid” and “crazy” are on the list.
The list also includes at least some terms that were themselves more popular than supposedly more offensive options until recently. A good example is “survivor”, which once appeared as an acceptable substitute for “victim”, but is clearly outdated: IT now prefers “people affected by it”.This is a good example of how attempts to make language more politically correct almost always involve make it more troublesome.
But the most puzzling inclusion of runaway winners on this list is:”Karen’, a term that’s only recently entered the cultural lexicon. Rather than saying “Karen,” it’s more about the IT department wanting people to say “demanding or entitled white female.” A Stanford, uh, person.)
wall street journal The story went viral — like entries in this category — and was widely covered by conservative media. As always, it is important to note that neither Stanford nor other campuses are forcing students to stop saying these things. However, dozens of schools do have whistleblowing hotlines that explicitly allow students to report each other and their teachers for using harmful language. As expected, Stanford is in it.
