We’ve always liked Seattle.
Clean, cool and not quite as off-the-deep-end liberal as Portland.
Until this came along.
They have got to be kidding.
Government workers in the city of Seattle are being told that the words “citizen” and “brown bag” are potentially offensive and may no longer be used in official documents and discussions.
The city’s Office of Civil Rights put out a memo saying workers must stop using the words because some may find them offensive.
The memo goes on, “Luckily, we’ve got options. For ‘citizens,’ how about ‘residents?'”
In a radio interview, Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights director said the term “brown bag” has been used historically as a way to judge skin color.
“For a lot of particularly African-American community members, the phrase brown bag does bring up associations with the past when a brown bag was actually used, I understand, to determine if people’s skin color was light enough to allow admission to an event or to come into a party that was being held in a private home.”
This is nuts.
The memo goes on – city employees should use the terms “lunch-and-learn” or “sack lunch” instead of “brown bag.”
And the reason “citizen” should be avoided because many people who live in Seattle are residents, not citizens.
“They are legal residents of the United States and they are residents of Seattle. They pay taxes and if we use a term like citizens in common use, then it doesn’t include a lot of folks.”
What’s left unsaid is “citizen” leaves out illegal immigrants and that might hurt their feelings.
There’s more…
The New York City Department of Education avoids references to words like “dinosaurs,” “birthdays,” “Halloween” and dozens of other topics on city-issued tests because they could evoke “unpleasant emotions” among the students.
Dinosaurs, for example, brings up the topic of evolution, which could upset fundamentalists and birthdays are not celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Halloween, meanwhile, suggests an affiliation to Paganism.
Officials said such exclusions are normal procedure, insisting it’s not censorship.
We agree – it’s not.
It’s just plain-ass stupidity.
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