Seattle officials want to ban potentially offensive language- like "citizen" & "brown bag"

[cali]

If a group of Seattle officials gets its way, terms like “citizen” or “brown bag” won’t be used in government rhetoric anymore.

KOMO reports an internal memo at Seattle City Hall revealed members of the Office for Civil Rights want to throw out terms deemed “potentially offensive.”

For example, member Elliot Bronstein says, “for ‘citizens,’ how about ‘residents?” Bronstein also told KOMO by phone that the term “brown bag” used to be a way people judged skin color and shouldn’t be used the way it is now. City leaders typically use “brown bag” when talking about “brown bag” lunch meetings — an opportunity to bring one’s own lunch to a city event, often times a meeting seeking public input.

According to the memo, people should use the term “lunch-and-learn” or “sack lunch” in place of “brown bag.”

<snip>

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2013/08/02/seattle-city-officials-aim-to-ban-potentially-offensive-language/

for fuck's sake, Eliot, get a life.

[winter is coming]

1. ??? I've never heard "brown bag" used to refer to anything other than sack lunches. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

3. I've also heard it in reference to sneaking a bottle of liquor into a bar instead of

buying it by the drink, but I've never heard anyone use it referring to people.

[cali]

5. it used to be, and may still be, used by AA folks

as a term indicating whether one's skin was "light enough".

The phrase “brown paper bag test” has traditionally been used by African Americans throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century with reference to a ritual once practiced by certain African-American sororities and fraternities who would not let anyone into the group whose skin tone was darker than a paper bag.[22] Also known as a paper bag party, these lighter-skinned social circles reflected an idea of exclusion and exclusiveness. The notion of the “paper bag” has carried a complex and obscure meaning in black communities for many decades.[22] The reason for the usage of the "paper bag" is because the color of the paper bag is considered to be the "center" marker of blackness that distinguishes “light skin” from “dark skin” on a continuum stretching infinitely from black to white.[22] Also, the brown paper bag is believed to act as a benchmark for certain levels of acceptance and inclusion.[22] Spike Lee's film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities.[23] Along with the "paper bag test," guidelines for acceptance among the lighter ranks included the "comb test" and “pencil test,” which tested the coarseness of one's hair, and the "flashlight test," which tested a person's profile to make sure their features measured up or were close enough to those of the Caucasian race.[22]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color#Brown_paper_bag_test

[MineralMan]

2. Well, that's pretty silly.

But, then, many things are.

[The Straight Story]

4. Didn't he used to post here in Meta?

[jberryhill]

6. Well, there goes the Colostomy Support Group brown bag lunch

[Scuba]

7. "Sack lunch" sounds like something a teabagger would enjoy. "Citizen" is of course, archaic ...

... having been replaced by "consumer".

[liberal_at_heart]

8. I can see why they want to do this. Our government wants us to live here but not be

active in our governance. "Citizen" makes reference to being a active part of one's own government. "Resident" just means you live here but have no power in the running of your government. How about if we residents stop using the term politician and just call them corrupt a holes? I don't know about brown bag. A paper lunch bag is brown. I have no idea if this is used in a derogatory manner or not. I've never heard of it referred to in that manner, but maybe I've just never been around someone who uses it that way.

[cali]

9. well, that's an interesting take even if it's clearly flat wrong

this is clearly about political correctness and immigration.

[liberal_at_heart]

10. Just because some people use the word citizen wrong doesn't make the word citizen a bad word.

What are you going to ban next? The inflection in their voice? How about if we just focus on the policies that actually affect people's day to day lives? If they want to help immigrants then they can help fix the broken system we have. One of the BIGGEST problems we have with immigration and most nations have this problem is that governments only want to legally let in immigrants that will bring big money with them. The people that already have money and education are the ones that are legally let in. The ones that don't have those things are put on a list and have to wait years, sometimes even decades to get in legally. And the ones that come here illegally are treated like slaves. If the politicians want to help them make employers pay a living wage and benefits to all employees whether here legally or not, and make it easier to come here legally. These are real things that can be done.

[cali]

11. I completely agree citizen isn't a bad word, but the reasoning behind banning the word

is that it could offend non-citizens.

[Downwinder]

13. Citizen implies voting rights.

Perhaps they are making preparations.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. Washington state, the worst of both liberal and conservative notions mashed up

in a moldy green police state, run by and for the rich.