School's IT department suggests inclusive replacements for offensive terms like 'picnic' and 'brown bag'

Every since Twitchy launched, we’ve been updating our Handbook of Racist Code Words, which includes such entries as urban, heartland, breadbasket, aloof, thug, crime, and chair. You can attempt to be woke by referring to someone by their preferred pronouns, although that’s also problematic; it’s better just to say “pronouns.”

Where did we learn that? A list of inclusive words has been going around that claims to come from the IT department at the University of Michigan — the same place that spends about $11 million annually on its force of around 100 diversity staffers. Take a look:

The IT department at U of Michigan has released a list of inclusive terms, to replace problematic ones.

For example, rather than the harmful term "picnic," it recommends "gathering." And why engage in violent word violence like "brown bag," when you can use "lunch and learn"? pic.twitter.com/ifh7qMV7wq

— A New Radical Centrism (@a_centrism) December 23, 2020

A couple of standouts are “picnic” and “brown bag.” We don’t know why brown bag would be problematic, but even Snopes has looked into (and debunked) an email going around claiming that the word picnic came from “pick a nic,” with nic being an abbreviation of the n-word; a picnic was actually a lynching.

The picnic thing is particularly bizarre; some email meme long past claimed its etymology was racist (it's not), and now we all have to stop saying it because some jerk got bored on the internet in 2001 and made crazy, ahistorical claims? https://t.co/l4lT1W9CKY https://t.co/oAe8trAEcw

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 23, 2020

I'm all for excising racial slurs from our language, but I draw the line at outsourcing the editorship of our dictionaries to internet trolls.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 23, 2020

Who outside a university is offended by “picnic”? The etymology is FRENCH. It meant bringing your own wine to a restaurant.

The Germans have a word for this: “Beschessinewortfolter.”

That means “fucked up word torture” in German. https://t.co/yh1wzH9e5q

— Patrick Nonwhite (@NonWhiteHat) December 23, 2020

“Long time, no see” has become unspeakable now? Hahahahaha!

— The Duke of Omnium (@plantypalliser) December 23, 2020

That one actually was making fun of Chinese people originally.

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) December 23, 2020

https://twitter.com/CooperBibaud/status/1341797875110461441

Easily. Get Titania McGrath on the case.

Brown bag??

— HoodlumDoodlum (@HoodlumDoodlum) December 23, 2020

So are they objecting to “brown bag” just because of the word “brown”? Because paper lunch bags *are* actually brown.

— Ampzilla (@Terraphant) December 23, 2020

Brown bag? That is the color of the bag. How is this offensive? Seriously, the real danger is that they are teaching (erroneously) that some people are so fragile that they can't hear colors that could possibly represent a skin tone.

— John McDonald (@jhnmcdnld43) December 23, 2020

As a brown person, it is offending to me that someone thought "brown bag" offends me.

— My Two Cents (@twocentvoice) December 23, 2020

Why are universities run by such placeholders, samples.

— mitrebox (@mitrebox) December 23, 2020

I see what you did there, person!?

— Whisky.mtns (@Mtns_Whiskey) December 23, 2020

I imagine the person that wrote that is probably not doing much other useful work in the department.

— Luke Chimes (@quantum_bam) December 23, 2020

We’d guess they just found it on the internet, but a lot of those terms are pretty specific to IT, like whitelisting and blacklisting.

My university changed the name of the Spring Picnic, even after it was acknowledged that term was not racisthttps://t.co/OXZyP12sf4 pic.twitter.com/W0oh3t4sbV

— Jeremy Horpedahl ? (@jmhorp) December 24, 2020

“Concerns have been raised over the origin of the word ‘picnic’ as the current name could make some faculty & staff feel excluded and harmed.”

Seeing things like this with regard to universities makes me not want to support requests for college 'education' (eerily similar to what Jordan Peterson rightly fought against in Toronto).

— ClaireAnn (@freethinker_usa) December 23, 2020

It's the same as 4Chan idiots trolling the world into believing the OK ? hand sign is a white supremacist symbol, and they just….get away with it in certain quarters.

— j crc (@SkepticalinNC) December 23, 2020

Quick, find video and tweets of everyone who put the word "preferred" in front of the word "pronouns" BIGOTS!!

— Rand Putterman (@rand_putterman) December 23, 2020

"wHaT'S WrOnG wItH JuSt uSinG TeRmS tHAt doN't OfFeNd aNyOnE?" https://t.co/Bkgl6f7h7c

— Cranky Gordon (@StillCrankyAF) December 24, 2020

So I am supposed to use "thrown under the bus" with the inherent violent imagery of throwing a person under a bus? I am so triggered right now.

— Job (@JobTate) December 23, 2020

How is “Thrown under the bus” a replacement for sold down the river? It’s offensive to bus drivers.

— Sisolak Sucks and Hates NV (@TomputerBot) December 23, 2020

The only honest part of the document:

"This is not an exhaustive list and will continue to grow."

Yeah, we know.

— I identify as COVID-immune (@james_gasaway) December 23, 2020

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