The University of Southern California has declared that it will no longer be using the term “field” as in “field of research”, because field has racist connotations.
According to The Telegraph:
In a letter explaining the decision the University of Southern California’s school of social work said: “This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that would be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favour of inclusive language.
“Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ maybe have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”
The department offers online masters degrees in social work and nursing, and doctoral programmes.
In its letter the department said it was “acting in solidarity with universities across the nation” and wanted to “reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies.”
It said the decision to change “field” was made after “taking a close and critical look at our profession – our history, our biases and our complicity in past and current injustices.”
The move was to “honour and acknowledge inclusion,” it added.
Its aim was to train social work students who “understand and embody social and racial justice”…
A spokeswoman for the university’s social work department told Fox News there was not a “list of ‘banned’ or discouraged words”.
Last month, Stanford University in California identified a host of words and phrases as part of an “elimination of harmful language” initiative.
Following an 18-month consultation the university – whose alumni include Elon Musk – unveiled which should be removed from its websites and IT systems.
That included the phrase “bury the hatchet” because it appropriated “a centuries-old tradition among some North American indigenous peoples.”
