Monday, August 24, 2009



More official speech bans in Britain

We read:
"It could be construed as a black day for the English language — but not if you work in the public sector. Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.

Among the everyday sayings that have been quietly dropped in a bid to stamp out racism and sexism are “whiter than white”, “gentleman’s agreement”, “black mark” and “right-hand man”.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has advised staff to replace the phrase “black day” with “miserable day”, according to documents released under freedom of information rules. It points out that certain words carry with them a “hierarchical valuation of skin colour”. The commission even urges employees to be mindful of the term “ethnic minority” because it can imply “something smaller and less important”.

The National Gallery in London believes that the phrase “gentleman’s agreement” is potentially offensive to women and suggests that staff should replace it with “unwritten agreement” or “an agreement based on trust” instead. The term “right-hand man” is also considered taboo by the gallery, with “second in command” being deemed more suitable.

Many institutions have urged their workforce to be mindful of “gender bias” in language. The Learning and Skills Council wants staff to “perfect” their brief rather than “master” it, while the Newcastle University has singled out the phrase “master bedroom” as being problematic.

Advice issued by the South West Regional Development Agency states: “Terms such as ‘black sheep of the family’, ‘black looks’ and ‘black mark’ have no direct link to skin colour but potentially serve to reinforce a negative view of all things black. Equally, certain terms imply a negative image of ‘black’ by reinforcing the positive aspects of white. “For example, in the context of being above suspicion, the phrase ‘whiter than white’ is often used. Purer than pure or cleaner than clean are alternatives which do not infer that anything other than white should be regarded with suspicion.”

Source

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is simply further proof that this nation of socialist pansy's is dying. In fact, it may already be dead. And yet, we see no signs of outrage from it's people as their freedoms are taken away. Apparently, they don't mind.

Of course, now we'll see comments from the brits who post here. Once again, they'll try to make excuses for why their country is now the world capital of PC'ism. FCUK 'EM!

Anonymous said...

Why not simply ban the English Language in it's entirety. That's where they're headed.

Anonymous said...

Why not simply ban the English from the free world since they are no longer free?

Anonymous said...

Anon #1. Why don't you condemn the whole of the United States whenever Jay posts silly things going on there - you are so stupidly xenophobic and chauvinist - and a poor advertisment for Americans in general!

Anonymous said...

lets have a gentlemens' agreement that normal people will kick the shit out of the muslim loving politically correct dumbass prime minister,..than maybe we can do the same to baroke odamna.

Anonymous said...

What about a company whose finances are in the black? I do hope they aren't going to try to whitewash such important issues.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh. What happens if you get a black eye? Those blemishes can't be blackheads, can they? Are roads no longer blacktop? Ever go to the pub for a Black and Tan? Reruns of Boston Blackie will have to be overdubbed. No more black tie affairs. South Dakota will have to cut down all the trees that make up the Black Hills.
Excuse me while I go have my Black Angus hamburger cookout.

Anonymous said...

When will it ever end! They are going to sterilize the English language to the point there will be no COLOR left, emphasis intended.

Anonymous said...

When will it ever end! They are going to sterilize the English language to the point there will be no COLOR left, emphasis intended.

G.S. Patton III said...

Political correctness is a far greater threat to freedom and liberty than is terrorism.

Anonymous said...

That old Black magic will have to go away. Then again in a Snow Storm, we will never again have White out conditions either.

Mobius

Anonymous said...

The bingo world is in turmoil over loss of the "Black Out Bingo"