the word american removed from ps textbooks

Okay, I see what you are saying. I took it the other way.

I found a whole list of banned words... look at one of them:

Adam and Eve: replace with Eve and Adam to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females (APhilA)

That seems like indoctrination to me.

I would post the link, but it might offend some... I noticed a bad word at the top of the page.

 

That's what I always thought an American was and if someone needed to be more specific, then they could.

 

I wasn't aware that public school textbooks talked about Adam and Eve or Eve and Adam. If they did, I think the order of the names would be the least of my concerns on how they presented information about them. Either way it is indoctrination. It just depends on what type of indoctrination you want to expose your child to.

 

This list is a bunch of banned words from The Language Police and the girl who presented it was talking about the FOX news special. I tell ya, some of the words on the list are insane! I'm going to post the link, but with the warning that there is a bad word in the introduction:

http://www.freewebs.com/bannedwords/

 

It is true, U.S. citizens are not the only Americans, but we are Americans. Actually, the only "Americans" would not have referred to themselves as Native Americans either, but I think this is just going beyond "being nice," really.

I agree that as a writer, I am very careful in how I word descriptions of people and putting the person before the description of the person seems nicer, because society is bent that way now, but I also do not really see a difference in where the adjective is placed other than one uses more word space in my articles.

I live near Atlanta and I have yet to figure out if someone rather be called African-American (uh-oh! I used "American" and by the way some are not from Africa either, they would say) or black. Frankly, we don't use either in my home. The person is dark skinned, but most people tell me that it is okay for me to say "black." BTW, I found far more racial tension where I lived in Ohio and in Florida than I have in Georgia, surprisingly.

I think it is far more important to read how the description is used in context than to worry about being offending or being offended because the adjective becomes before the noun.

 

And what is that to prove? First, any "person with idiotic tendencies" can post/edit Wikipedia. Second, the very FIRST definition is "A citizen or something of or from the United States". So even according to Wikipedia, the people of this country ARE AMERICANS. Do Canadians (or, more correctly "persons from Canada") refer to themselves as Americans? Or do "persons from Mexico" refer to themselves as Americans? I seriously doubt it (unless they are perhaps "persons from Mexico living in the United States outside of the statutory regulations).

 

Well, I describe myself as 1/2 black (banned), 1/8 Native Ameican (banned) and the rest white (banned). I guess I am banned!

 

No - white is OK. It replaces Anglo-American. You're not completely banned - just 5/8 of you.

 

I don't think it was bad reporting because it was FOX I think it was bad reporting because it was the media once again manipulating us.

I am ashamed to admit it but after reading all of the posts mine included I feel that they have succeeded in doing just that. I know that I fell hard for it and now feel foolish. Granted many of you won't feel the same and will stand by both the report and your opinions and that is fine because that is what being an American is bout. I for one will not do either and not because I am less American but because I feel that once again the media has duped me into a debate when there is nothing to debate.

The segment was made to sound as if it was about words that were being banned from the english language through the replacement of words in our children's textbooks. It was made to set off alarms in the heads of American parents and to bash the Liberals for doing it. This is not fact.

The segment, without the twists, was about a woman's book which she compiled after much research to find a list of words that may be deemed offensive to some people and may POSSIBLY at some point be REPLACED by words deemed less offensive in textbooks. Nothing is being banned!!

Now this does not in fringe on anyone's freedom of speech however that is what they would like you to believe. If you want to call someone deaf by all means go ahead no one is saying you can't. They are merely looking into POSSIBLY finding other terms for deaf in school books. This does not mean that any or all of these words will ever be replaced.

And besides who cares honestly how such terms are worded in textbooks? I mean I spent 13 yrs in PS being told Ain't isn't a word and in not a single textbook was ain't ever found but guess what I am 28 yrs old and I still say ain't.

Just because they replace terms like American to Citizen of the United States in textbooks does not mean that the word American will be phased out of our vocabulary all together.

Now ain't it a shame that I have put so much energy into debating over something just because the media, so notorious for manipulating what we hear and say, duped me once again!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

 

The definition of the word is all the entries, not just the fist, so technically, any person in the America's (including Mexico and Canada) can call themself an American and I don't have a problem with that.

 

LOL!!! :lol: :love:

So then people can argue that if white is not banned then black shouldn't be either. ???

No, I am completely banned:

White/whites: banned as a noun (HAR2, SF-AW)
White: banned as an adjective meaning pure (CT)

 

Cnjwilliamson is right... the "banned" words are from a book... I posted the link on page 5 of this thread.

 

Logically, this makes sense. In the context of comparatively recent history, though, it would open some painful sores. I can understand why one is avoided and the other is not and would agree with that.

 

Both are banned according to the list of banned words.

White/whites: banned as a noun (HAR2, SF-AW)
White: banned as an adjective meaning pure (CT)

 

No, they don't typically. But this is about textbook usage. Textbook usage should be specific in order to convey the intended meaning.

 

There are some rather interesting ones. For example, 'extremist' is banned and should be replaced with 'believer'. There's no way I would equate these two words.

 

lets try it, lol. right wing extremist or right wing believer, lol.

 

Yes. You guys have totally ruined it for the rest of us on this side of the world. I don't call myself an American. I'm a Canadian or perhaps, a North American. To be called American is to risk people thinking you're from the US.

 

lol

 

They reviewing the term. They're not telling people they're wrong. As much as I think "American" is a decent term for US citizens I don't think there's anything wrong the idea of calling yourselves Americans being questioned, debated and discussed. There may well be a time when it doesn't work anymore. I don't think people that decide the term isn't sacred need to have their patriotism or mental capacities questioned.