On Thursday, LU noted that the human resources department at Princeton University had added the word man to its list of forbidden terms. If you thought that was the last word on political correctness, you were wrong. The words politically correct have themselves been banned by social justice warriors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee“
HeatStreet explains:
[Politically correct is] just one of the words or phrases highlighted in the Center for Inclusive Excellence’s “Just Words” campaign, which is hanging posters around campus.
Proscribed words or phrases on the Just Words posters include: “lame,” which “ridicules and ignores the lives of amputees”; “man up,” which “suggests there is only one way to be a man, also suggests that women can’t be courageous, strong, etc.”; “third world,” which “reinforces hierarchical attitudes toward nations around the world, establishes Westernized (industrialized) countries and cultures as the ‘standard,’ upon which to measure national well-being or economic status”; and “crazy,” which “creates a negative and demeaning perspective of people with mental health diagnoses.”
The center, we are told, expended considerable effort to determine which words might be “microaggressive.” University spokeswoman Michelle Johnson detailed the process used:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
The team used multiple sources to explore the origins, context, and impacts of the terms and phrases, including multiple dictionaries and people’s experiences with words. Once the team arrived at an initial description of the origin and impact of the term, we asked colleagues, peers and experts to review and offer their input.
“The goal” Johnson continued, “is to raise awareness of the impact of the words and to encourage students, staff and others to think about the words that they use. We hope they will ask themselves, ‘Are the words I am choosing truly conveying what I want to say?’”
There are some words I’d like to say at this point, but none would be appropriate in a family publication.
