University of New Hampshire's "Bias Free Language Guide"

[TristramShandy]

The University of New Hampshire has created a "Bias-Free Language Guide," which it says "is not a means to censor but ... presents practical revisions in our common usage that can ... break barriers relating to diversity." It includes a long list of "problematic/outdated" words, along with a "preferred" alternative. A search suggests the guide was posted in late May, but it's just today grabbing headlines. Why the interest? For one, as Jonathan Chait puts it at New York, the guide "indicates that the list of terms that can give offense has grown quite long indeed." A sampling:

Preferred: people of advanced age, old people*
Problematic/Outdated: older people, elders, seniors, senior citizen
*Old people has been reclaimed by some older activists who believe the standard wording of old people lacks the stigma of the term “advanced age”. Old people also halts the euphemizing of age. Euphemizing automatically positions age as a negative.

Preferred: person who lacks advantages that others have, low economic status related to a person’s education, occupation and income
Problematic: poor person, person from the ghetto
Note: Some people choose to live a life that is not connected to the consumer world of material possessions. They do not identify as “poor”.

Preferred: person of material wealth
Problematic: rich
Being rich gets conflated with a sort of omnipotence; hence, immunity from customs and the law. People without material wealth could be wealthy or rich of spirit, kindness, etc.

Preferred: people of size
Problematic/Outdated: obese*, overweight people
"Obese" is the medicalization of size, and "overweight" is arbitrary; for example, standards differ from one culture to another.
Note: "Fat", a historically derogatory term, is increasingly being reclaimed by people of size and their allies, yet for some, it is a term that comes from pain.

Preferred: US citizen or Resident of the US
Problematic: American
Note: North Americans often use “American” which usually, depending on the context, fails to recognize South America

Preferred: First-year students
Problematic/Outdated: freshmen

Preferred: Other Sex
Problematic/Outdated: Opposite Sex

[The Dark Enlightenment]

Ha, ha, the president of UNH has issued a statement disavowing this guide which appears on the university's official website.

Bias-Free Language Guide | Inclusive Excellence

That's what happens when you start creating positions like "Dean of Diversity". What are those people going to do all day but sit around and write crap like this?

[TristramShandy]

Originally Posted by The Dark Enlightenment

Ha, ha, the president of UNH has issued a statement disavowing this guide which appears on the university's official website.

Bias-Free Language Guide | Inclusive Excellence

That's what happens when you start creating positions like "Dean of Diversity". What are those people going to do all day but sit around and write crap like this?

Yeah, he pretty much has to justify his job.

[PedroMartinez]

I'd love to see them add:

Preferred: place where people go in order to receive unfair privilege
Problematic: university
Since not everyone has the access or means to attend a university it should be noted that attending such a place grants an unfair advantage over all others and leads to economic injustice

[uggabugga]

'people of size'

huh? what size? big? little?

and yet they complain that the term 'overweight' is arbitrary?

[HappyTexan]

European-American now instead of just White ?

[Mr_Geek]

lol @ people of size

We are all people of size, some just much bigger size than others.

[bus man]

One reason why the "preferred" terms won't gain much traction in general usage is that, in most cases, they are longer and more unwieldy than the terms being replaced. Americans -- oh, sorry, "U.S. Citizens" -- tend to like to shorten and abbreviate things. Thus, Federal Express became FedEx; Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC; Provident National Bank became PNC Corp.; Consumer Value Store became CVS; and so on.

Now, if they can find terms that are shorter than the ones being replaced, they just might succeed. Maybe "U.S. Citizen" could become "User," though we'd have to know based on the context that it's pronounced "Us-er" (that's "us" as in "us vs. them") instead of the already existing "uze-er" (that is, one who uses something). Oh heck, let's just leave it as "American."

[MPowering1]

This one doesn't even make sense:

Preferred: person who lacks advantages that others have, low economic status related to a person’s education, occupation and income
Problematic: poor person, person from the ghetto
Note: Some people choose to live a life that is not connected to the consumer world of material possessions. They do not identify as “poor”.

You could have a great education and make a lot of money and still choose to live a life without a lot of material possessions. The preferred describes status one was born into, while the note refers to choice.


Preferred: People hailing from other lands
Problematic: Foreigner

Preferred: Person's misguided attempt to do something meaningful
Problematic: Moron who wrote the "Bias Free Language Guide"

[Magritte25]

How stupid.

Holy doublespeak, Batman!