US university bans the word ‘field’ in claim that it is a racist term
The University of Southern California has banned the term “field” as chiefs say the phrase may have racist undertones.
It will be removed from the curriculum after the university declared that the term “field work” has negative connotations for descendants of slavery.
Academic references such as “field of study” will be replaced by the word “practicum”.
The University of Southern California’s school of social work stated in a letter: “This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that would be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favour of inclusive language.
“Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ maybe have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”
The university’s decision to change “field” was made after “taking a close and critical look at our profession – our history, our biases and our complicity in past and current injustices”.
It said it was “acting in solidarity with universities across the nation” and wanted to “reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies”.
Bosses at the institution say its aim was to train social work students who “understand and embody social and racial justice”.
The ban has received backlash from former graduates of the University on social media.
One said: “I am so embarrassed at what’s happening there. I wonder how much of my money they spent on coming up with this amazingly useful change.”
A spokeswoman for the university’s social work department told Fox News there was not a “list of ‘banned’ or discouraged words”.
The prohibition of the word comes after Stanford University in California established a range of words and phrases as part of an “elimination of harmful language” project.
