Seriously, these people are nuts. The meaning of the word goes back thousands of years, in meaning, and to the middle ages for the German and English words
California University will no longer use the word ‘field’ over racist ‘connotations’
The University of Southern California’s School of Social Work will no longer use the word “field” because it “may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign,” according to a letter from the department.
USC’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work will make the change in order to ensure the use of “inclusive language and practice,” according to the letter.
“Specifically, we have decided to remove the term ‘field’ from our curriculum and practice and replace it with ‘practicum,'” the letter said. “This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that would be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language.”
“Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ maybe have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign,” the letter continued.
The goal of the change was to “to honor and acknowledge inclusion and reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies,” according to the letter.
I wonder if these people bothered to ask any blacks or illegal aliens if the word bothers them? Overall, the faculty for the School of Social Work is pretty darned white. Seems rather racist/bigoted for them to make this assumption, wouldn’t you say?
Additionally, the USC’s School of Social Work states that the “bedrock” of its values and principles is “to work together to train social work students today who understand and embody social and racial justice.”
So, their values and principles is to patronize all the black and brown folks that they think are going to be the primary recipients of their work? Huh.
These people are truly stupid.
My family have been farmers in Tennessee for over two hundred years. Non-slave owners. Do they get to be triggered too?
No slaves? WHY? Were your family racist?
Depends upon where he was in the Volunteer State. The eastern, Appalachian counties were opposed to secession, because, in the hills and hollers, the small farm holdings were really not economically suitable for slavery. The same thing happened in the Appalachian areas of the Old Dominion, which was how West Virginia left Virginia and joined the union.
According to George Washington’s memoires, there was pretty much no place that was economically suitable for slavery. Slaves required constant upkeep, just like owning horses. In Virginia it was considered immoral (as well as illegal) to release a slave for the same reason people today think it is immoral to turn your dogs loose. Slave owners had responsibilities for keeping slaves and smaller farms simply could not afford it.
Sorry, USC School of Social Work, but you pooped the bed on this one.
Many idioms DID originate from racist uses: “cotton-pickin'”, “sold down the river”, “off the reservation”, “wetbacks”, “honkie”, “redskin”…
But “field”?
Dear Elwood:
The word racist is deemed to be bad because it infers that person judges another person to be inferior because of their race.
Overuse of the word has effectively ruined its ability to accurately pinpoint totally unacceptable people.
James,
We’re all racist. It’s our actions that are important. And the intentions behind our actions.
It’s hard to imagine the case where “this field of study” or similar is significantly offensive to anyone.
We’re all racist. It’s our actions that are important. And the intentions behind our actions.
No, we’re not all racist and to declare something that stupid is closed minded. I can understand why you would say that since I find you the most racist, bigoted, prejudiced and hateful person on this blog so you want the rest of us to be like you. Misery wants company and all that.
You might venture to say we are all bigoted in one way or another but that comes with liberty. Just like “hate speech” comes with free speech, bigotry comes with free association. We can’t be forced to like someone for any reason (as much as you’d love to).
I find it ironic that Elwood, a democrat and member of the party of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, the KKK and segregation has the cojones to call anyone racist. LOL.
I think it’s time for the democrat party to pay reparations to blacks for slavery and reparations to Republicans for the death and destruction of the Civil War.
L’Roy,
It’s time for you to move into the 21st Century! Slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, the KKK and segregation were conservative policies.
I didn’t call any ONE racist, I said we were ALL racist. And some worse than others. LBJ was famously racist yet promoted civil rights and voting rights!
Words speak louder than thoughts and actions speak louder than words.
That doesn’t mean that all men and women are equal in abilities, genetics, intelligence, talents and temperament. We’re not, but that’s not the point.
Racism presumes the inequality of position or rank. Black hooligans in Camdem NJ who choose to rob black citizens over white citizens because they presume the police will pursue the murderer of whites with enthusiasm is a symptom of racism.
The evidence is overwhelming that systemic racism suffuses America – look at the statistics on familial wealth, home ownership, income, school quality, urban ghettos, marijuana arrests*, police shootings of blacks** etc. Blame the KKK of 1920 if you want but that was only part of the problem.
Everyone has some measure of bias based on race or origin (black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim-ish). This bias doesn’t necessarily manifest overtly by actions.
In general, conservatives consider blacks to be more violent, less intelligent and lazier than whites. Does that translate into personal or institutional actions? It may.
__________________________________________
*Marijuana arrests – Despite roughly equal usage rates (whites slightly higher), Blacks are some four (4) times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana!
**Blacks are victims of fatal police encounters at a higher rate (deaths/million) than whites. A black arrestee is 4 times more likely to be killed than a white arrestee. But why? Is it because blacks are more often armed? Unarmed black arrestees are 5 times more likely to be killed than unarmed whites. Is it because blacks are more associated with violent crimes? Fatal police encounters does not correlate with the violent crime rate.
This of course means that the word “cotton” is also triggering, traumatizing and racist. Also, using any cotton-adjacent language like “T-shirt” is a micro-aggression. Sensitivity trainers need to also be aware the word “Democrat” is racist and harmful, due to the old Dixie days.
Funny-just saw a clip where Gov. Newsom declared “California as the true freedom state”.
He must be doing comedy on the side now..
It’s time for you to move into the 21st Century! Slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, the KKK and segregation were conservative policies.
No Elwood, they were democrat policies. No democrat of that time identified himself as “conservative”. They were in fact called Rebels. Because, like all leftists they fancied themselves as rebelling against the oppressive enemy in their case the federals.
In today’s America the fascists have wormed their way into every government agency, every industry, sport and bank, every business (except small privately owned business which is why they closed them all during the scamdemic), and everything even the now pathetic military.
What bigots and racists such as you want is:
https://youtu.be/tce_WNUawnU