Author of Be Ready for Anything and Build a Better Pantry on a Budget online course
Remember the little rhyme you probably told your children to remember when someone said something mean to them?
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
Well, unless you’re part of Stanford University’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative. They’ve got a list of worst that are apparently hurtful, including… American.
The EHLI website is geared toward helping individuals recognize and address potentially harmful language they may be using. It focuses on terms used in the United States, starting with a list of everyday language and terminology that can be searched for and addressed at the individual level. (source)
There are 10 “harmful language” sections: ableist, ageism, colonialism, culturally appropriative, gender-based, imprecise language, institutionalized racism, person-first, violent and additional considerations.
Read on for more information on the mean words you’re probably using without realizing the inconceivable damage you may be inflicting on your more delicate acquaintances. Apparently, there are 300 offensive terms but the Stanford site requires a log-in so the following have been gathered from around the internet.
“Harmful” words
Here are some words and phrases that might offend someone. Is it okay to say that I’m gobsmacked?
Let’s kick this off (whoops, violent language!) with a warning from the site: Content Warning: This website contains language that is offensive or harmful. Please engage with this website at your own pace.
Cultural Appropriation
- Brave – which “perpetuates the stereotype of the “noble courageous savage,” equating the Indigenous male as being less than a man.”
- Guru – “In the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the word is a sign of respect. Using it casually negates its original value.”
- Spirit animal: Equating it with an animal that guides or protects “is to demean the significance of the term.”
- Tribe – “Historically used to equate Indigenous people with savages.”
Imprecise Language
- Abort: This term can unintentionally raise religious/moral concerns over abortion. You should use cancel or end instead.
- American: You should use “U.S. citizen,” due to the insinuation “that the U.S. is the most important country in the Americas” even though the Americas are composed of 42 countries overall. (Note: I’ve traveled extensively outside the United States, and lived in two other countries in North America. Nobody EVER said “I’m an American too, you jerk!” or “You aren’t the only people in America.” Nope, everyone called me “an American.” Period.)
- Karen – This term is used to ridicule or demean a certain group of people based on their behaviors. However, it’s A-OK to use “demanding or entitled White woman” instead. Ummm…
- Thug – Although the term refers to a violent person or criminal, it often takes on a racist connotation when used in certain circles.
Ableist Language
These are all examples of “ableist language that trivializes the experiences of people living with disabilities.”
- Lame
- Spaz
- Tone-deaf
- Walk-in
But that’s not all.
- Insane/Crazy: This term trivializes the experiences of people living with mental health conditions, so consider using words such as surprising or wild.
Gendered Language
- He / She: Unless you know the person you’re addressing uses “he / she” as their pronoun, it is better to use “they” or to ask the person which pronouns they use.
- Ladies, Landlord/Landlady, Gentlemen / Freshman / Congressman/woman, you guys: “Lumps a group of people using gender binary language that doesn’t include everyone.”
- Man Hours: “This term reinforces male-dominated language.” Use “person hours, effort hours, labor time” instead.
- Preferred Pronouns: It’s no longer enough to use someone’s “preferred’ pronouns,” because “preferred” suggests “non-binary gender identity is a choice and a preference.”
- Seminal: This term reinforces male-dominated language.
- Transgendered: This term avoids connections that being transgender is something that is done to a person and/or that some kind of transition is required.
Violent Language
- Beat a dead horse: This expression normalizes violence against animals.
- Killing two birds with one stone: See above
- Trigger warning: The phrase can cause stress about what’s to follow. Additionally, one can never know what may or may not trigger a particular person.
- War room: Unnecessary use of violent language
- Pull the trigger: Unnecessarily uses violent imagery to encourage another person to do something.
Racist Language
- Apple: This can be a derogatory term for a person of Native American descent (what???)
- Black Mark/ Black sheep: These terms assign value connotations based on color (white = good and black = bad), an act which is subconsciously racialized;
- Grandfather: This word has “roots in the grandfather clause adopted by Southern states to deny voting rights to Blacks.”
- Long time no see: This phrase was originally used to mock Indigenous peoples and Chinese who spoke pidgin English.
- Whitelist/Blacklist: These terms assign value connotations based on color (white = good and black = bad), an act which is subconsciously racialized; consider using the words allowlist and denylist.
- Whitespace: This also ‘assigns value connotations based on color (white = good), an act which is subconsciously racialized.’
- White Paper: White is just racist. Period.
Sources:
It’s not university policy.
It’s important to note that this list is for Stanford’s IT department.
Steve Gallagher, Stanford’s chief information officer, said that the website isn’t university policy.
“First and importantly, the website does not represent university policy. It also does not represent mandates or requirements. The website was created by, and intended for discussion within, the IT community at Stanford. It provides ‘suggested alternatives’ for various terms, and reasons why those terms could be problematic in certain uses. Its aspiration, and the reason for its development, is to support an inclusive community,” Gallagher said.
Currently, it’s just being used to comb through all the university web pages, both “internal-facing and external-facing”, to clean them up on a three-tier priority level.
- Tier 1 – Egregious language that needs to be removed (or annotated with why it can’t be removed).
- Tier 2 – Language we don’t expect to see, but will scan for out of due diligence.
- Tier 3 – Potentially harmful language used in a non-harmful way (e.g., “apple” can be a derogatory term for a person of Native American descent, but it’s also a computer vendor)
So it’s not university policy.
Yet.
What do you think?
Are you offended by this list of offensive words? Did the blacklist above trigger you to want to kill two birds with one stone? Did you want to go to your war room and pull the trigger on a seminal white paper of your grievances so you can share it with your tribe?
Let’s talk about it in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
Is “Hair Trigger” offensive or aggressive towards bunnies?
(asking for a friend)
“Hair trigger” has nothing to do with bunnies. That would be “hare,” not “hair.” Ditto for “hare lip.”
Nevertheless, “hair trigger” could be triggering to bald men. Or women. Or is it “womyn” nowadays?
Whoa-man as opposed to woman, as to indicate a male who identities as a woman or is it a woman that identifies as a man. Little white lie and black Friday.
Sound to me like the idiots are alive and well, at Stanford.
What a bunch of B.S. Just pure hogwash, garbage. I am NOT going to change the way I speak. I’ve been speaking what I speak for many years now. I would NEVER even remember all of these new names, so for me it’s NONSENSE!!! IS anyone with me?
I’m wit-cha Wandakate. 🙂 Not changing a thing.
The guys at Stanford can consume guano and expire for all I care.
OMG this country has become a country of wimps, pussies, ignorants, obsessives, wish I could think of some more!!!!! everyone has become offended at every word in our English language! what about slang??? I abhor the word FUCK, yet it comes outa everyone’s mouth with no thought at all!!!! even my husband, SICK OF IT! where did it come from anyway? and what about the language used in the songs nowdays, the rap, etc? totally disgusting! but will that change or be shot down? no way hosea…….
Did anyone expect anything less coming out of “WOKE” Commiefornia? Go “WOKE”, go broke. “WOKE” is the death of public education. Get out while you still have common sense.
BELIEVE ME; there are MILLIONS of us Conservative thinkers in California. Let’s just put it this way; the farther you get from the urban manure piles, the less $h!t get on your shoes…
It’s hard to say which of these locutions is the stupidest, but I’m gonna hafta say that it’s “they” as a *singular* pronoun. And this from Stanford U, *presumably* one of the world’s most prestigious universities. But it is clear that basic literacy is a thing of the past at prestigious universities–just like learning of *any* kind. which explains why it costs an arm and a leg to matriculate there so that one may learn how not to use the English language. Next on the agenda: Abolishing speech itself and replacing it with compulsory use of sign language.
And I know what you are thinking, so let me go ahead and say right now that NO, use of the middle finger will not be tolerated when we are required to use sign language. Everybody will be required to have both middle fingers amputated before being allowed to get the digital (heh!) vaccine passport that will also store your social credit score.
It has not yet been decided when or whether we’ll have to have our tongues surgically removed, but I’m sure that Daisy will keep us posted.
Just when you thought is was safe to go back into the water, these woke loons come back with even more absurdities.
Wife was on a telecon, and some woman introduced herself and declared her pronouns, proudly!
My wife and I are pretty sure at least half a dozen people rolled their eyes and then add in the two of us.
I cannot take anyone seriously who takes this crap . . . seriously.
Agreed. My husband left a big corporate company this year because of all this crap. They pressured him to use his pronouns under his signature on emails so he put ‘Me, Myself, I’. H.R. quickly came to his desk and told him to change it. He never did and stood proudly on that hill. Left shortly after.
I will not change my language for a bunch of thin skinned Dr. Spock raised kids who never got spanked. Nope, not doing it.
Jennifo,
Good on your husband!
IF, I were still in a big corp, I think I would of gone with,
“My pronoun is Mr. KA-Bar Stabby! Using his powers for the good of mankind!”
Jennifo can you tell us the name of this company so we can all avoid it?
If you go to your circuit breaker box you will most likely see they/them/their (I couldn’t resist) name. The company started moving the operation to Mexico the day Biden got into office (timing was coincidental he thought). The company started demanding the engineers to go to Juarez (‘you’ll have security’, ‘usually there isn’t trouble getting back in’), my husband said Hell to the NO. The thing is what they thought was going to be cheaper labor to make their components has turned out to be so lost in translation & retaining employees in Mexico, they are dropping customers left and right. My husband bailed at the right moment. It’s a shame but couldn’t happen to a better ‘woke’ company. Don’t break what ain’t broken as the saying goes!
If an individual demanded to be called a “they” I’d ask if that person had a mouse in his/her/its pocket. Or, would that be cruelty to animals?
“MAP…” Mouse Attracted Person…
…God only knows what goes on in that individual’s bedroom… God, and the mouse…
Tom MacGyver,
Okay, that was funny!
That was the best laugh I’ve had in months. Laughed til I cried.
Do these people have nothing better to do with their time? How many take these idiots seriously? OMG!
When they have to have mental toughness to survive the coming tough times, they simply will not make it.
Honestly SMH and RME’s! I pretty much have a constant headache and my eyes just twitch from all the exercise they get these days! 🙂
I am offended by those who find offense in every day terms.
They are the problem. They are the persons trying to remake our society and not in a good way.
Once words lose their meanings, they become meaningless as do the intent the words were meant to portray. Just as the word, Man refers to a male and the content with that is typically male attributes. Such as; Physical strength, a warrior attitude, a protector of families, logical, etc.
Just as I have a problem when people misuse or water down the term SHTF.
It losses it’s true meaning and the terrible impact of distress and calamity that it implies, which is just short of TEOTWAWKI.
Since TEOTWAWKI is the total destruction of the world as we know it, into something along the lines of, or worst than a Mad Max world. SHTF is more of a “The Postman”, type of world, where some semblance of Society and it’s norms still exist. However dystopian and rare they might be. It is also a decade or longer type event, not short term like natural disasters are.
When people apply these terms to lessor events, they take away the sheer horror, depravation and troubles that these terms should be associated with in a persons mind. Scenario’s that no one, even Preppers, should ever feel totally “prepared” for. By using them for lessor events it allows us to become complacent and smug in our belief that we can easily prepare for and survive, either one of these scenario’s.
Deranged! I will not conform. Absolutely laughable! Flipping pansies. Not sorry for offending the flowers either. ????
Our society has become way to delicate. When we have reached a point that words in common usage are now offensive we can no longer express ideas, or more importantly, express dissent with the accepted narrative. Everybody is sssooooo worried about hurting peoples feelings that we have reached the point of absurdity. We are, in effect, creating our own, new Tower of Babel, where we cannot understand each other.
I try my best not to be rude, or intentionally hurt somebody’s feelings, but if someone is offended by my speech, that is their problem – not mine. To quote a very wise man, “Fuck ‘em, if they can’t take a joke!”
Lone Canadian,
That right there.
As a society, we have gotten to a place where we can now indulge in the absurd. The stupid. Dumbing down our own children all in the pursuit of so-called progress (studies have found public schools that put a priority for social justice issues over traditional education, those students fall behind in reading, writing, the sciences and math).
Can you imagine if these people had to actually endure a real crisis? How would they survive?
Seems to me their default is not to help themselves, but run to the government and demand the government to save them.
Thanks, Stanford, for compiling this wonderful list of American colloquiallisms for me! By making clear the threat to our heritage implied by the pending elimination of these harmless and expressive terms from our colorful and widely admired language, I just can’t thank you enough for providing me with the precise means to ensure the preservation of these wonderful words and expressions through the HENCEFORTH CONSTANT USAGE OF SAME! It’ll be my own white list, the apple of my eye, and a real sweetheart of a deal seeing I used ZERO man-hours to compile it!
If “the woke” are too sensitive to deal with everyday reality, they should just suicide. We will make good use of the stuff they leave behind……what? Still here?
Good article, Daisy. This would be hilarious if it weren’t SO SERIOUS! Instead, it’s (trigger warning!) insane!!! The only karens who would take this stuff to heart are they/them I have no intention of associating with. I’ll stick with my own colorful language (can I say that?) and, not to beat a dead horse, but avoid relationships with those who want to be in that tribe. Can I still feed apples to my spirit animals, uh, I mean my horses? I know, that was lame. You know, it reminds me of the book/movie, “The Giver”. He got in trouble for using imprecise language, also.
What do I think? I think the whole thing is as stupid as it gets. ‘Dangerous, too. This is nothing less than crowd-sourced Newspeak, and will eventually encompass all words that don’t say “I love Big Brother…”
Tom MacGyver,
Great Orwell 1984 reference!
Am I racist against myself since I call myself the black sheep of the family? haha. And I think my grandfather would be sad to know that I cannot call him that anymore. Guess Apple better change their company name.
Michael,
Good points.
How would one of these woke ones deal with someone whom proudly declares they are the “black sheep” of the family?
I know I would look at them point blank (violence trigger?) and say,
“F-You snowflake! Deal with it!”
And watch them melt.
Language nazis don’t care about the words, they care about randomly disassembling the language so we don’t know what we can even say. It’s part of the psyop to give you no anchor.
1984
I hate this hypersensitive PC. However, the first time I went to Mexico, several people were annoyed when I said Soy americana. They said Yo tambien soy americano. Tu eres NORTEAMERICANA. I said so were Canadians. So were Mexicans. One said Mexicans are NOT Norrh American, but South American. South America starts at the Mexican border with the US. I sang a song with many Latinos at International Night at the university. Si somos americanos, somos hermanos, senorhes, Tenemos la misma sangre,…Whatever. Yo soy americana.
South America starts at the Isthmus of Panama, not the US/Mexico border. From the Isthmus North to the US/Mexico Border, it’s called Central America by cartographers.
Geologically, North and South America are two separate Continents connected by the Isthmus, as one lies totally in the Northern Hemisphere, and the other lies totally in the Southern Hemisphere. Since Mexico is attached to the US on the same tectonic plate, Geologically Mexico is a part of the North American Continent. Mexicans might call themselves South Americans, but technically they’re not, as their country is firmly in the Northern Hemisphere.
That’s what I said. I don’t know if the division by culture with South America starting at our southern border is universal in Latin America or ideosyncratic with the individual.
And some call this progress.
The rest of us call this the demise of common sense.
Daisy, those “people” are Nucking Futs.
This just proves that too many people have way too much time on their hands. It’s time for our lives to get too difficult to spend our leisure time fussing about what words might hurt the easily offended.
Oh no the Brave Stanford University language police are On the Warpath against bad words. Sounds like the Stanford IT department will soon be requiring word processing software that not only does spelling correction but also does harmful language correction. That way they can kill Two Birds with One Stone. Where is their Christmas Spirit? So un–American. Just a bunch of language Thugs. I think they should Abort this Lame Language Initiative. It”s Insane/Crazy. How many Man Hours did they waste on this. If White paper is a racist term then there is no hope for any of us. Poor Snow White. And to think this whole thing started when Adam and Eve ate that Apple in the Garden of Eden. The Preferred Pronouns for these would be word Gurus is dumb and dumber. And lastly I noticed the word Progressive which is a word they like to refer to themselves as is not on their list. They should refer to themselves as Regressives.
George Orwell:
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
Mrs A always refers to the new puppy as my Spirit Animal because she (the puppy) is my shadow and has pretty much adopted my lifestyle. Yesterday, she mentioned that and, just to mess with her, told her “That’s Racist” When I told her why, she laughed and then said a few things about Stanford that I can’t repeat here…
Wow and here my children are considering going to Stanford for their University education. Perhaps they can get a grant to study GRIT, RESILIENCE and what it means to be ANTI-FRAGILE.
it’s all by design. destroying western societies. generational changes through the public indoctrination system. very sad future. the illegals crossing the border will laugh at them. look what they’ve done to our military. just saw a van at a flying j gas station that unloaded 20 military age replacements this morning. the van had foreign plates from south of the border and was towing a 6′ trailer.
It seems to me that the best way to handle this lunacy is to get as far away from it as possible and let them eradicate critical thinking amongst their own kind. Besides, going to a trade school to learn to weld, serving an apprenticeship on a farm, or as an electrician is a much better investment of time and treasure (trigger to pirates) than paying tuition to the ilk of Stanford.
Holy Mother of God. Instead of working in REAL world problems, those scholars make the bed for the crystal generation.
Jeez.
We (they!) are doomed to oblivion.
The woke left, and really the whole left, is so idiotic and insane, it’s hard not to want some big event to beam them up or something. They’re destroying western culture because of their rank stupidity.
I love language and have studied three besides English. Wonder how all of this non-binary stuff is being handled in French, Spanish and German? I love words and studying their roots and origins. However, if this new way of speaking and being outrageously aware of how words can effect those around us became the only way one could speak, I would probably express myself with actual words less and less until I became silent. Sign language would become my method until they edited the life out of it too.
its called mental illness