Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
It&#x27;s pretty remarkable that this conflates:<p>- Well-known slurs like &quot;Jewed&quot;<p>- Outdated, now-offensive terms like &quot;hermaphrodite&quot;<p>- Touchy metaphorical language like &quot;slave replica&quot;<p>- Gendered terms that if you&#x27;re being assiduous you probably want to avoid, like &quot;manpower&quot;<p>- Words that have long since lost any stigmatizing meaning by virtue of the original use being so ancient (&quot;lame&quot;, &quot;dumb&quot;, &quot;stupid&quot;)<p>- Words that, if you look into their history, originally had something to do with some racist practice (&quot;grandfather&quot; something in)<p>- Words that never had anything to do with racism, but someone who was really on high alert might wonder if they ever did (&quot;tarball&quot; for &quot;archive made with the tar tool&quot;)<p>- Anything that might be derogatory to anybody (&quot;Karen&quot;: &quot;This term is used to ridicule or demean a certain group of people based on their behaviors.&quot;)<p>- Terms that I genuinely have no idea how anyone could view as harmful in their actual context: &quot;user&quot; (&quot;it can also negatively be associated with those who suffer from substance abuse issues&quot;), &quot;submit&quot; (&quot;Depending on the context, the term can imply allowing others to have power over you.&quot;)<p>Very much an &quot;arson, murder, and jaywalking&quot; approach.