On 8/30/21 3:36 PM, sebb wrote:
If the analyses are to be useful, *all* the flagged words and phrases need to be linked to potential replacements. Very few are listed on the INI word list [1]. The following need suggested replacements: - sanity check - dummy value - grandfather - gr[ea]ybeard - insane - lame - man hours - retarded - whitehat, blackhat I think the fact that the INI initiative has only listed 4 words so far indicates that this is a non-trivial problem.
Yes, you are right. This is, indeed, a non-trivial problem. It is, in fact, a very difficult problem, since context is so important.
People expect to have a "replace this with that" list - it's indeed one of the questions that comes up frequently in this conversation. But it's seldom that simple - nor should it be. Again, this is why we call it "conscious language", because word choices should be conscious, intentional.
Some of these words, such as lame, insane, dummy - are just lazy word choices, and *typically* should result in the sentence/paragraph being rewritten to say what it means. A simple "swap this word with that one" is seldom a useful answer.
Others, such as "grandfather", are going to require some understanding of what was trying to be communicated before an appropriate word could be chosen.
It's a hard problem, if all you're looking for is replacement word that works everywhere, because in each of these cases, there's no universal answer that will work for every project.
On the other hand, if the answer is "step back a bit, think about what you were trying to communicate, and don't use lame or retarded in the sentence", then it's a different mindset entirely. Not easier. Just different.
-- Rich Bowen - rbo...@rcbowen.com @rbowen --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: diversity-unsubscr...@apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: diversity-h...@apache.org
