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Stanford's Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative targets harmful words like 'American'

Usually, when we do posts like this it’s because the AP Stylebook has come up with a new rule, such as don’t use “illegal immigrant” in a news story you’re writing about illegal immigrants. Capitalize Black but don’t capitalize white because, you know, white supremacists would like that.

It turns out that Stanford University has something called the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, and the Wall Street Journal has an opinion piece about it Monday. Among those words that have been deemed harmful, and therefore pegged for elimination on all university documents and websites, are “American,” “immigrant,” and “master,” among others.

Why American?

Call yourself an “American”? Please don’t. Better to say “U.S. citizen,” per the bias hunters, lest you slight the rest of the Americas. “Immigrant” is also out, with “person who has immigrated” as the approved alternative. It’s the iron law of academic writing: Why use one word when four will do?

You can’t “master” your subject at Stanford any longer; in case you hadn’t heard, the school instructs that “historically, masters enslaved people.” And don’t dare design a “blind study,” which “unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.” Blind studies are good and useful, but never mind; “masked study” is to be preferred. Follow the science.

It was 2020 when alleged sports website Deadspin argued that the Masters golf tournament needed a name change:

So don’t use American to describe yourself as a U.S. citizen or you might upset Canadians and Mexicans, who are also Americans.

https://twitter.com/craigbrucesmith/status/1604998459852980225

We need to make sure people who would like to become immigrants know they’re headed for the U.S. border and not America.


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