A Stanford “language guide” has the Internet up in arms after it discouraged the use of words like “American,” “Hispanic” and “cakewalk.”
STANFORD — From the Internet to the national media to the holiday dinner table, much of the country has seemed to be up in arms in recent weeks over a newly discovered Stanford University “language guide” that discourages the use of words like “American,” “survivor” and “freshman” — steps too far for many jaded by the culture wars.
“The purpose of this website is to educate people about the possible impact of the words we use,” the guide’s preface reads. “Language affects different people in different ways. We are not attempting to assign levels of harm to the terms on this site. We also are not attempting to address all informal uses of language.”
In the guide, the IT writers suggest using “U.S. citizen” instead, partly because American “often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating the U.S. is the most important country in the Americas,” ignoring the other 42 countries that make up the continent. For many on social media, including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya — a professor at Stanford School of Medicine — the guide goes too far at times.
In a statement, Stanford Chief Information Officer Steven Gallagher said the university actually encourages the use of the word “American.” He sought to distance the institution from the work of its IT experts. The statement also said “the guide for the university’s IT community is undergoing continual review,” and that “the spirit behind it, from the beginning, has been to be responsive to feedback and to consider adjustments based on that feedback.”
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