Tuesday, August 25, 2009

European Tax Funded Organizations Purge Common Phrases to 'Not Cause Offense'

It is not as bad as calling some one racist for using the term 'black hole' (Berman Post: Black Hole = Racist ... What?), but is still pretty ridiculous. As long as we are changing around the english language, I submit that the months in our year should correspond to their correct numerals. OCTober and DECember are just two examples to explain what I mean. Oct means eight so October should be moved to the eighth month of the year instead of being the tenth. December should be the tenth because Dec means ten.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6806502.ece



"It could be construed as a black day for the English language — but not if you work in the public sector. Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.



Among the everyday sayings that have been quietly dropped in a bid to stamp out racism and sexism are "whiter than white", "gentleman's agreement", "black mark" and "right-hand man".

...

It points out that certain words carry with them a "hierarchical valuation of skin colour". The commission even urges employees to be mindful of the term "ethnic minority" because it can imply "something smaller and less important".

...

Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider children's spy books, said: "A great deal of our modern language is based on traditions which have now gone but it would be silly — and extremely inconvenient — to replace them all. A 'white collar worker', for example, probably doesn't wear one. An 'able seaman', under new regulations, could well be neither. 'Spanish practices' can happen all over Europe. We know what these phrases mean and we can find out from where they were derived. Banning them is just unnecessary."



Marie Clair, spokeswoman for the Plain English Campaign, said: "Political correctness has good intentions but things can be taken to an extreme. What is really needed is a bit of common sense." "

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