[lbo-talk] 'Master/slave' Most Politically Incorrect Phrase

[Samuel Waite]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&e=13&u=/nm/20041203/od_nm/life_words_dc

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The computer term
"master/slave," which was banned as racially offensive
by a Los Angeles County purchasing department, was
named the most politically incorrect term of the year
on Thursday.

Among other terms on the top 10 list of politically
charged words and phrases, issued by the word usage
group Global Language Monitor, were "non-same sex
marriage" to describe heterosexual unions, "waitron"
for waiter or waitress and "higher being" for God, a
term some people found too religious.

"We found 'master/slave' to be the most egregious
example of political correctness in 2004," said Paul
JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor.

"This is but one more example of the insertion of
politics into every facet of modern life, down to the
level of the control processes of computer
technology."

In computer terminology, "master/slave" refers to
primary and secondary hard disk drives. But a Los
Angeles county purchasing department told vendors in
late 2003 that the term was offensive and violated the
region's cultural diversity. The county's department
of affirmative action undertook a hunt to replace it
on packages.

After a public uproar, the county backed down. Payack
said that while the incident took place in late 2003,
debate about it grew enormously in 2004.

The phrase "non-same sex marriage," was used by a
former congressman who did not want to offend gay
people by using the term traditional marriage, Payack
said.

Also on the list this year were "Red Sox lover," to
use in place of "Yankee hater," "progressive" for
classical liberal, "incurious" rather than more
impolite invectives for President Bush, "insurgents"
instead of terrorists in Iraq, "baristas" for waiters,
and "first year student" rather than freshman. 


		
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