Want to express what country you’re from by saying that you’re an “American”? Well, if you want to avoid the rage-filled yells of woke university dwellers, now you’re going to have to say “U.S. citizen” rather than American.
That’s because Stanford University just released a guide on “harmful” language this week. The guide is meant to help it remove offensive or otherwise now verboten language from its online properties, and one of the words treated as a no-no word by it is “American”, which the language guide says needs to be replaced with “U.S. citizen”.
Writing on that, the guide says “[‘American’] often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas”. So because other countries exist in a geographic region, you’re not allowed to say what country you’re from…makes total sense.
The New York Post, reporting on the new Stanford language guide, said:
The language guide, which was published Monday, aims to “eliminate many forms of harmful language, including racist, violent, and biased … language in Stanford websites and code.”
Launched in May, the project, known as the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI), lists the prohibited terms under 10 categories including racism, homophobia and ableism.
The New York Post reported on some of the other terms included in the harmful language list as well, saying:
Other listed terms include “immigrant,” which should be replaced by “person who has immigrated” or “non-citizen,” to avoid referring to people by single characteristics, while “walk-in hours” is swapped out for “open hours” in order to include those with disabilities. The common phrase “beating a dead horse” is also cautioned against, based on the idea that it normalizes violence against animals.
In addition, the 13-page list outlines several slurs against black individuals, indigenous groups, wheelchair users, LGBTQ+ individuals and others.
Why the list would include slurs is unclear, as it’s meant to be used to tidy up Stanford’s online properties and make them even more politically correct, and it seems doubtful that Stanford was using slurs on its website.
Stanford was skewered for the language guide on Twitter. For example, Gabriella Hoffman, a writer for Townhall, said:
"*" indicates required fields
“I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.”— Daniel Webster
Take that,@Stanford! 🇺🇸
Leland Stanford would be ashamed of the institution he cofounded. It just forbid “harmful” language such as calling yourself an American and/or an immigrant. 😳
Guess my naturalized legal immigrant American parents and relatives are harmful now! 😑
Another pointed out that, regardless of the political correctness nonsense, the idea that “American” refers to all of North and South America rather than the United States is patently absurd. That commenter said:
“American” is a nationality, as in USA i.e., United States of America. Someone from France is French; from Germany, German, etc. Someone from USA is American. It does not refer to the continents of North and South America. It is patently insulting to Americans to list the term.