Student Manual (2012-2013 PDF) - Newberry College

6. Find substitutes for problem words [Examples: “ancestors” or “forebears” for“forefathers,” “humanity” or “people” for “mankind,” “manufactured” or “produced”for “manmade”]. An alternative choice of words often not only avoids giving offense,but is [also] more accurate.7. “Girl” refers to a female person of pre-teen years. Teenagers generally prefer “youth”as a term to refer to both boys and girls in their teen years. Beyond these years, everyoneis either a man or a woman; references to adult women as “girls” or adult men as“boys” are unacceptable.8. Avoid all joking roles to male or female roles or preferences.9. Don’t limit the roles men or women can play.10. Don’t assign emotional or moral roles exclusively to one sex.11. Be sensitive about sexual labels. Current usage is “gay” for male homosexuals,“lesbian” for female homosexuals, and “homosexuals” for both. Even if the writer orspeaker does not condone homosexuality, language should not dehumanize or vilifypersons.Racial Bias1. Racial stereotyping must be avoided. Sensitive people will avoid the now clearly outmodedracial “types” that were once common. Pejorative or joking references of a racialnature should be removed from all writing or speaking. Terms such as “Jap,”“Chinaman,” or “Asiatic” are offensive.2. Be careful with the point of view presented. Do not imply that minority persons areconsidered “the problem” in certain circumstances. Do not suggest that solutions tosocial problems depend upon the benevolence of those who are white or rich. Alsoavoid “civilized” and “uncivilized” or “primitive” in international references, since theterms pass judgment on cultures that may be thousands of years older that the writer’sown.3. Be conscious of norms that can limit a person’s aspirations or self-concepts. Thinkwhat it would do to a black child to be bombarded with images of white as beautiful orclean or pure or virtuous and black as dirty and menacing. It is equally unproductiveto create guilt in the mind of the socially concerned white middle-class youth by insistingthat he or she is “one of the oppressors” or “the focus of evil.”4. Mention of the race or nationality of an individual should be made only when it is necessaryor important to the sense of the material. When race or nationality must becited, it should be done in a non-pejorative way. No one should be presented as“typical” of his or her ethnic group.40