Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

I'm actually glad someone puts it into one list.

I grew up in a society that used words like "disabled" left and right, as an insult. As a child I never saw ramps for the wheelchairs, and seldom saw people on a wheelchair (only in hospitals). That was part of the culture of ostracising "different people" and making sure "normal" people don't see them.

It's still the case for mental issues though, and I have friends with kids at different levels of ASD who are literally prohibited to enter cafes so they "don't scare normal people". Using "autist" as an insult is still widespread in my country.

And I'm glad to see how this is changing. Accessibility becomes a topic of discussion and a new norm. I was glad to learn to use "people with disabilities" instead of "disabled". Somehow I felt like I'm a part of this change, undoing wrongs that were common in our society towards that group of people.

I have the same feeling towards gender pronounces. When I use "person-hours" instead of "man-hours", even if it sounds the same to me, I feel like my communication becomes a little bit better and respectful to everyone. I have no troubles learning doing something in a new way.

I also embraced "master" to "main" default branch naming switch at Github, and I like it. Main is shorter and makes more sense. Branch renaming is not painful, so why not, if it makes someone's experience a bit more pleasant.

In figure skating, for example, almost century old names of "Choctaw" and "Mohawk" steps where renamed recently to S-step and C-step, because the history of those names where rooted in the history of oppression of Indian tribes in North America. I then read a reddit comment from one of the indigenous people from skating community in Canada sharing her experience and feelings about this change - in short, she was extremely happy. There are 1.6 million people like her in Canada alone. And guess what, many coaches reported that kids where super happy too, because making sense and remembering words like "choctaw" and "mohawk" was difficult for them. "S-step" and "C-step", instead, make a lot of sense, because those steps looks exactly like S and C on the ice (hence the naming). Those names were never good.

So to me changing language is a reflection of changes in society. I understand that sometimes it can go too far, but I disagree with majority of comments here that this list is something "absolutely disgusting". I think it's fine, and serves a good purpose as a recommendation.

I know you're being sarcastic, but they do indeed still have "Masters degrees": https://online.stanford.edu/masters-degrees

Imagine wanting to live in an environment where the foundations are always shifting, never knowing if something you say now will lead to your downfall in a decade, constantly having to devote mental capacity to policing the thoughts in your head, social structures entirely built around the policing of acceptable words.

Fuck that.

Speaking of Indigenous Americans... the list has Brave (noun), with the reasoning: "This term perpetuates the stereotype of the "noble courageous savage," equating the Indigenous male as being less than a man."

I actually think Brave ("the Braves") would have been a good name to refer to Native Americans. I don't feel like "noble, courageous" is much of a slur. It's pretty honorable in fact. I don't see how calling someone brave equates them with less than a man.