USC issues newspeak proclamation

The University of Southern California (USC) Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work this month issued a newspeak advisory banning the word “field” from the school’s approved lexicon. 

In a memo dated January 9^th, the school announced that “field” would be replaced with “practicum” effectively changing the school’s “Field Education Department” to “Practicum Education Department”. 

The reason for the change, said the university, was racism though the school did not explain how the word is racist. 

“This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that could 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’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign,” said the memo. 

The school then flagellated itself over its “biases” and “complicity” in injustice, though it failed to describe how it was guilty of such accusations. 

“We are committing to further align our actions, behavior and practices with anti-racism and anti-oppression, which requires taking a close and critical look at our profession – our history, our biases, and our complicity in past and current injustices. It also means continuing to work together to train social work students today who understand and embody social and racial justice.” 

The letter noted that its “goal is not just to change language but to honor and acknowledge inclusion and reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies” and that it was doing so “in solidarity with universities across the nation.” 

This reference to universities may have included Stanford, which came under fire last month for its own newspeak advisory in which it recommended against using a host of words and terms, including the word “American”. 

Stanford published a list of semantics for people to follow as part of its Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI) which began in 2020.  

“The goal of the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative is to eliminate many forms of harmful language, including racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, ethnic bias, ethnic slurs, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language in Stanford websites and code,” wrote Stanford in its EHLI missive.  

The list was sectioned into categories, the first of which is “Ableist”. People are told not to use the term “committed suicide,” for instance, because it is “Ableist language that trivializes the experiences of people living with mental health conditions.” The term “basket case” should also not be used, because it “Originally referred to one who has lost all four limbs and therefore needed to be carried around in a basket.”  

“Blind study” and “blind review” were similarly discouraged.  

To avoid sounding ageist, a person should steer clear of the word “senile”.  

To avoid sounding colonialist, a person should refrain from saying “Philippine Islands,” and instead say “Philippines”.  

Suggesting a “pow wow” is harmful because it “demeans a term of cultural significance to Indigenous peoples.” The same goes for the terms “brave," “chief” and “on the war path”.  

The list also contained a more general category titled Imprecise Language. Among the harmful terms included in that category is the term “American”.  

“This term often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas (which is actually made up of 42 countries),” said Stanford, which recommended saying “U.S. citizen” instead.  

Rather than use the word “abort,” say “cancel” or “end”.  

Rather than say “child prostitute,” say “child who has been trafficked.”  

The university also cautions against using the word “Hispanic”. Instead, one should say “Latinx,” a racist term considered offensive by most Hispanics.  

Instead of referring to someone as an internet “user,” one should say “client” to avoid an association with those who abuse substances.  

Instead of saying someone is a “rape victim,” one should say they are a “person who has experienced rape” or a “person who has been impacted by rape.” This is to avoid defining people “by just one of their experiences.”  

Any negative use of the word “black” (e.g., “blackbox”, “blacklist”) is frowned upon, as are the words “master,” “slave labor” and “red team” (because red might be offensive to “Indigenous peoples”). Conversely, any positive use of the word “white” should be avoided.  

The list contained additional categories with many other unapproved terms, such as “no can do,” “long time no see,” and “hip hip hooray” which, despite originating in the 19^th century, is offensive because it “was used by German citizens during the Holocaust as a rallying cry when they would hunt down Jewish citizens living in segregated neighborhoods.” 

Stanford was forced to walk back its advisory following intense backlash. Just 48 hours following the backlash, Stanford hid the list behind a login page so that it is no longer publicly accessible.  

Stanford Chief Information Officer Steve Gallagher then published an apologetic letter in which he admitted “we clearly missed the mark” when advising against the use of “American”.