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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSeattle officials want to ban potentially offensive language- like "citizen" & "brown bag"
If a group of Seattle officials gets its way, terms like citizen or brown bag wont be used in government rhetoric anymore.
KOMO reports an internal memo at Seattle City Hall revealed members of the Office for Civil Rights want to throw out terms deemed potentially offensive.
For example, member Elliot Bronstein says, for citizens, how about residents? Bronstein also told KOMO by phone that the term brown bag used to be a way people judged skin color and shouldnt be used the way it is now. City leaders typically use brown bag when talking about brown bag lunch meetings an opportunity to bring ones own lunch to a city event, often times a meeting seeking public input.
According to the memo, people should use the term lunch-and-learn or sack lunch in place of brown bag.
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http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2013/08/02/seattle-city-officials-aim-to-ban-potentially-offensive-language/
for fuck's sake, Eliot, get a life.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,483 posts)buying it by the drink, but I've never heard anyone use it referring to people.
cali
(114,904 posts)as a term indicating whether one's skin was "light enough".
The phrase brown paper bag test has traditionally been used by African Americans throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century with reference to a ritual once practiced by certain African-American sororities and fraternities who would not let anyone into the group whose skin tone was darker than a paper bag.[22] Also known as a paper bag party, these lighter-skinned social circles reflected an idea of exclusion and exclusiveness. The notion of the paper bag has carried a complex and obscure meaning in black communities for many decades.[22] The reason for the usage of the "paper bag" is because the color of the paper bag is considered to be the "center" marker of blackness that distinguishes light skin from dark skin on a continuum stretching infinitely from black to white.[22] Also, the brown paper bag is believed to act as a benchmark for certain levels of acceptance and inclusion.[22] Spike Lee's film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities.[23] Along with the "paper bag test," guidelines for acceptance among the lighter ranks included the "comb test" and pencil test, which tested the coarseness of one's hair, and the "flashlight test," which tested a person's profile to make sure their features measured up or were close enough to those of the Caucasian race.[22]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color#Brown_paper_bag_test
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)But, then, many things are.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)... having been replaced by "consumer".
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)active in our governance. "Citizen" makes reference to being a active part of one's own government. "Resident" just means you live here but have no power in the running of your government. How about if we residents stop using the term politician and just call them corrupt a holes? I don't know about brown bag. A paper lunch bag is brown. I have no idea if this is used in a derogatory manner or not. I've never heard of it referred to in that manner, but maybe I've just never been around someone who uses it that way.
cali
(114,904 posts)this is clearly about political correctness and immigration.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)What are you going to ban next? The inflection in their voice? How about if we just focus on the policies that actually affect people's day to day lives? If they want to help immigrants then they can help fix the broken system we have. One of the BIGGEST problems we have with immigration and most nations have this problem is that governments only want to legally let in immigrants that will bring big money with them. The people that already have money and education are the ones that are legally let in. The ones that don't have those things are put on a list and have to wait years, sometimes even decades to get in legally. And the ones that come here illegally are treated like slaves. If the politicians want to help them make employers pay a living wage and benefits to all employees whether here legally or not, and make it easier to come here legally. These are real things that can be done.
cali
(114,904 posts)is that it could offend non-citizens.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Perhaps they are making preparations.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)in a moldy green police state, run by and for the rich.