College issues list of offensive terms: Gift, bunny, America, Christmas treeBy Rikki Schlott
March 30, 2023
Gift. Bunny. Female. America. Christmas tree.
Do any of these words offend you? They should — at least according to Michigan State University.
If you’re confused as to why these deceptively innocent terms are actually very offensive, the school’s Inclusive Guide is here to help get your vocabulary into “alignment with strategic efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Referring to classmates as freshmen or upperclassmen is a no-no.
Instead, the guide suggests you swap those for “first-year” and “advanced” to avoid “male-centric and western father-son language.”
Evidently, the word female is a “pejorative term [that] reduces women to their assumed biological anatomy.”
Don’t refer to anyone as “crazy,” “nuts” or “loony.”
That’s “ableist language.” But don’t worry — you can still call them “silly,” “absurd” or “outrageous.”
This list of “offensive” words, which MSU has published on its website “to inform general communications” at the school, is just the latest symptom of the war on free speech that’s being waged on campuses.
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And don’t even think of mentioning Rudolph.
Reindeer is apparently a bad word, too.
This all might be confusing, but rest assured it’s for the sake of “inclusion.”
“The origins of seemingly innocuous idioms or words may be racist, sexist or ableist in nature,” the guide warns. “Consider the origins of everyday language before freely using it in communications.”
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/03/30/gift-bunny-and-christmas-tree-are-offensive-words-on-campus/
