La France est une République
indivisible, laïque, démocratique et sociale. Elle assure l'égalité devant la
loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion.
But now the French President, François Hollande, wants to
suppress the phrase that guarantees equal treatment to every “race”. -- What,
does he wish to introduce racially invidious policies? No no no, au contraire. Rather, he wishes to suppress the word “race”, to deny the very existence
of the fact itself.
~
Absurd, you smile.
But similar doings are
afoot, this side the Atlantic.
The other day, NPR broadcast a longish segment about the
Civil War era, in which they refused to use the word slaves, using instead the circumlocution enslaved people. I think I shall write them an indignant
letter, saying that the phrase is very offensive, and that we should only ever
say “Americans With Enslavement” (AWEs).
[Update 27 September 2013] That euphemism comes from the
political-correctness side of the aisle.
For a euphemism from the opposite camp, we turn to Mauretania, where
slavery is still very much alive, though its existence is denied by the
government:
Da die genaue Zahl der versklavten
Menschen im Land unbekannt sei, könne die Regierung behaupten, Sklaverei
existiere nicht. Die Behörden sprächen vielmehr vom Phänomen der «Gens de
Maison».
*
Für psychologisch
tiefgreifende Krimis,
in pikanter
amerikanischer Mundart,
und christlich gesinnt,
klicken Sie bitte
hier:
[Update 17 Oct 13] India also a major offender:
*
For a related case, cf. this:http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/10/word-of-day-n-updated.html
[Note: You must be at least 86 years old to access this post. Honor system, now...]
[Update 8 Oct 2013] The leading Swiss
newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, offers a quite informative
politico-linguistic picture, of the knots that German speakers are tying
themselves into, to refer to “gypsies” without giving offense:
For another word forbidden in parts of Europe -- too sensitive for me to dare write down -- click here.
[Update 17 November 2014] The Spanish
cognate for ‘race’ is raza. Hispanic activists have long referred
to themselves, pridefully, as La Raza. For this, they get a pass;
no-one whispers so much as a murmur. Can you imagine if German-Americans were to
refer to themselves as Die Rasse ?? (Once again, the goose-sauce must not splatter the gander.)
And, fait-divers:
India tops global slavery index
with 14.3 mn people enslaved
[Update 1 Feb 2015] P.C. editors
execute some delicate steps, in dancing around the subject. Thus, a headline in this morning’s New
York Times -- specifically from its Review section, a hotbed of
politically-correct headlines (which sometimes ill-match the content of the actual
article):
Closing the Math Gap for Boys
Immediately, this accomplishes three things:
(1)
Reinforcing the doctrine that our first educational priority is not to raise an
educated generation, ready to meet advancing challenges, but to scumble any
too-conspicuous distinctions in achievement and ability among groups.
(2)
Implying that girls are better in math than boys.
(3) Highlighting
extra services aimed specially at males (who do not generally, as a group, benefit
from affirmative action), and directing our attention to that lamentable
gender, and away from race for a change.
The editors hope that you will stop reading right
there, taking away with you only points (1) - (3); the intrepid might read as
far as the subhead, “A tutoring program in Chicago lifts test scores” (Worthwhile Canadian Initiative).
Only … If you actually read the article, the
premise evaporates. The cohort
being tutored here, are not boys, as
such, but “African-American and Latino boys”. As for whether (cohort for comparable cohort) there
exists any “math gap” between the genders, we are offered to evidence one way
or the other; we learn merely,
that apples pass more naturally into pies than do oranges (“The average reading
and math scores of eighth-grade black boys are barely higher than those of fourth-grade white girls”).
. 
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