Stanford University has published an update to its list of “harmful language” which places “American” among words and phrases the college deems to be “offensive.”
The vaunted California institute of higher education published the index of “harmful language” as part of an initiative to eliminate and replace words it deems offensive.
According to the guide, the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative is a “multi-phase, multi-year project to address harmful language in IT at Stanford.”
The guide’s purpose is to eliminate “many forms of harmful language,” including “racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, ethnic bias, ethnic slurs, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language” on Stanford’s websites.
The college divides up so-called “harmful language” into ten sections: ableist, ageism, colonialism, culturally appropriative, gender-based, imprecise language, institutionalized racism, person-first, violent and additional considerations.
The guide was rolled out in May but has been gaining notoriety in recent days.
Stoking much of the controversy is one word the university deems inappropriate: “American.”
Americans shouldn’t say they’re “American,” Stanford warns.
Instead, they should say they are “U.S. citizens” because “American” often refers only to “people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the U.S. is the most important country in the Americas.”
“Immigrant” is also verboten.
Instead, the college wants people to replace one word with four and use “person who has immigrated.”
The university wants to do away with the word “abort,” as in to end something.
Stanford says to use “cancel” or “end” to avoid the moral connotations of abortion.
“Child prostitute” becomes “child who has been trafficked” so as not to imply the child has chosen the profession.
And “Karen” is out. Instead, use “demanding or entitled white woman.”
The “ableist” section also raises some eyebrows.
The university asks people to use “accessible parking” instead of “handicap parking” and “anonymous review” instead of “blind review.”
“Blind review,” Stanford says, “intentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.”
People also shouldn’t say “tone deaf” but rather “unenlightened.”
And “addict” must be replaced with “person with a substance abuse disorder.”
“Gangbusters” is banned because the university says it “invokes the notion of police action against ‘gangs’ in a positive light, which may have racial undertones.”
And “beat a dead horse” apparently “normalizes violence against animals,” the index says.
Colleges are where most fragile “woke” liberals reside.
In 2020, a college professor declared “low-hanging fruit” racist, even though the Oxford Dictionary defines the phrase as “a thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort.”
“For African-Americans, if you say ‘low-hanging fruit,’ we think lynching,” said Mae Hicks-Jones, an adjunct faculty member of Elgin Community College in Illinois.
“Grandfathered” is also racist, she said, according to a report in The College Fix.
To Hicks-Jones, the phrase “grandfathered in” is reminiscent of a grandfather clause, which privileged white people’s right to vote over that of black people during the Jim Crow South.
