The Indiana Daily Student noticed recently that ginger-flavored cookies for sale at Indiana University in Bloomington are called "ginger persons" instead of the more traditional "gingerbread men."
The cookies are reported to have been stripped of their gender in order to appease the gods of sensitivity.
Mary Frohliger, an IMU employee of 23 years, wonders what the folks who wrote the Mother Goose rhymes would do today.
"You can't go, 'Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm a gingerbread person.' That doesn't work; you can't do the rhyme without 'man,'" she said.
Rhyme-Master Jesse On the Case
Jesse Jackson says use of the term "refugee" to describe victims of the hurricane in Louisiana is racist, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The paper says use of the term is another example of the bias permeating coverage of the Katrina disaster in the national media.
"The use of the term refugee doesn't benefit anybody," said Richard E. Vatz, a professor of rhetoric and communication at Towson University.
"It's another way of depicting African-Americans as hierarchically low, and I understand why they wouldn't want to be associated with that."
Even President Bush bought into it.
So That Explains It!
The Associated Press says hundreds of firefighters from across the country who volunteered to help out in New Orleans were delayed in Atlanta for days of sensitivity indoctrination by federal authorities.
The firefighters were told by FEMA that it would take two days to train them before they could carry out their community service and outreach duties. Part of that training included classes on sexual harassment and lessons on how to deal with ethnic groups.
Female Chauvinism
A county official's comments to the effect that men tend to do things at the last minute was decried as sexist and unnecessary by her colleagues in Erie County, Pa., reports the Associated Press.
Erie County controller Sue Weber was writing to officials at Wachovia Bank, chiding them for turning in late the bank's bid on a bond issue.
She wrote: "if you can just learn to think more like a woman, you won't have this problem in the future."
Weber's colleagues said they were appalled by the display of female chauvinism, but she said people need to lighten up.
"I think we have to accept the differences between (the sexes) and appreciate them. It was just kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing," she said.
Heroes of the Week
The Anchorage Daily News says residents of an isolated Alaskan village who have named their high school sports teams 'The Half-Breeds' aren't doing any hand-wringing over the mascot.
The village of Aniak, pop. 532 people, is 317 miles west of Anchorage and accessible only by air or riverboat. Nearly three-fourths of its residents are Alaskan Native, primarily Yup'ik Eskimos and Tanaina Athabascan Indians.
The name Halfbreeds was chosen by students in the late 1970s in honor of the community's origins -- white settlers who intermarried with Yup'ik Eskimos, said Wayne Morgan, a graduate of the school and the school board president. The symbol of the school is a traditionally dressed Alaska Native man holding a spear next to a white man holding a rifle.
"Most people are of mixed race, mixed background," Morgan said. "We're proud of it. The kids are still proud of it."
For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over to the TongueTied daily edition.
Mailbag:
Katherine W. writes:
Someone needs to explain to the NAACP that Commissioner Silverman cannot be held responsible for what other people think. He spoke clearly and if the phrase 'city mentality' immediately caused the blacks in the audience to think of the N-word perhaps it is them, and not the Commissioner, who are racist. After all, as Abraham Lincoln said, "If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will."
Scott H. writes:
I am a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. The "spin" on your Gee Thanks segment seems to show that the proposed Air Force directions are somehow anti-religion.
As a member of the Air Force, I serve ALL Americans, not just members that lean toward a certain religious following. People placed in positions of leadership and trust at the U.S. Air Force Academy, as made evident in documented and proven statements by academy cadets, abused their authority by verbally attacking and ostracizing members who held to different faiths.
As an American, I see this as unacceptable. As a military member, it is doubly so. We are a volunteer military, and we are expected to show tolerance to all faiths.
David J. writes:
I'm glad the Air Force has taken steps to prevent proselytizing and religious observance in its ranks. People are free to believe whatever they want, but freedom of religion is also freedom FROM religion.
Joseph S. writes:
I am offended that a would-be thought cop named Haza, who is described as being on something called the cultural diversity committee of my hometown of Columbus, Ind., wants to get James Alexander Thom's novel "Follow the River" dropped from an official community reading project.
The reasons given: An Indian character is depicted with a negative appearance, a main point-of-view character (a white) has mistaken thoughts about Shawnee culture, and the word squaw is used.
I had hoped Columbus had given up this kind of silliness a couple of years ago after it became a national laughing-stock because the principal of Columbus East High School banned the student production of a dramatization of Harper Lee's great novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" because it depicted the ugliness of racism by using the ugliest of words used by racists.
Phil N. writes:
PC in this country is a very useful tool for those who do not want to actually come up with a solution or are not intelligent enough to argue their stance. With the case of the "racist" view of Latinos being dirty, I believe I read that the person in question said it was because of multiple families living in one home. That's called logic.
More people, more trash. Latinos are well known the country over to live together in higher numbers than others. How is a statement of fact racist? It's not. The opposition just can't come up with an argument and takes a "moral" standpoint against it to hide their own inadequecies. Thinking for yourself is no longer acceptable.
Jerry C. wonders:
Isn't "liberal elite media" an oxymoron?
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