Never, ever, ever, whatever you do, get together with coworkers and “brainstorm” an idea.
Trainee teachers are being told to avoid the word for fear of offending pupils with epilepsy. Instead they are being advised to use “word storm” or “thought shower”.
Should I ever find myself suffering (if I can use that word) from a condition like epilepsy, I expect I’ll have bigger things to worry about than whether people are mistaking “brainstorm” (getting together and throwing around a lot of ideas) with “brainstorm” (a misfiring of neurons characteristic of an epileptic attack fit episode.
Of course, this may be a “word tempest” in a teapot:
However, charities working with epilepsy say “brainstorming” is not offensive. “We had several inquiries from teachers about it so we did a survey of our residential home,” said Gemma Baxter from the National Society for Epilepsy.
“We also contacted people with epilepsy in the community and the overwhelming response was that ‘brainstorming’ implies no offence to people with epilepsy, and that any implication that the word is offensive to people with the condition is taking political correctness too far.”
People found it more offensive that the question was being asked of them, she said.
Now that I like.
(via Volokh, who has some other info on “Native American” and “handicapped“)
We had that order from the HR/legal people when I worked at the Flats…everybody ignored it. In fact one of the Smart-asses in my gruop (no, not me) said that we shoud brainstorm up some Ideas on how to correct this…in front of the HR weeny.
Dave…did you mean to have the “Nativeamarican” thing active or not?
Well, the “Native American” item was referred to in-stream at the Volokh link, so there wasn’t a need to link it separately. The “handicap” one is a separate link that Volokh had, so I included that link here.
Some more commentary (and amazing examples) here, via here.
Be careful with your use of the word “American,” which even now is disappearing from certain texts. Unless you are referring to everyone in North, South or Central America, you are displaying geographic chauvinism. When referring to a person of the United States, try replacing “American” with “person of the United States.”
Excise “Eskimo,” a word some have complained isn’t authentic.
What words can you use instead? Try Inuit, Yupik, Yuit or native Arctic people. Everyone will know to whom you are referring. Really, they will.
Forget about “fat.” The chances are slim an overweight person won’t be offended by this word. As a fat substitute, some texts have adopted “heavy,” or “obese.” Much less offensive, no?
Eliminate “elderly” from your vocabulary. It’s as ageist as calling older persons “gummers.” Better to call them “older persons.”
Yeesh.