[Ads-l] diverse-owned Re: ADS-L Digest - 8 Sep 2022 to 10 Sep 2022 (#2022-225)

Amy West medievalist at W-STS.COM
Wed Sep 14 12:32:23 UTC 2022


On 9/14/22 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> Date:    Tue, 13 Sep 2022 15:04:10 +0200
> From:    Z Sohna<zrice3714 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: diverse-owned Re: ADS-L Digest - 8 Sep 2022 to 10 Sep 2022 (#2022-225)
>
> Regarding the following:
>
>       "a group that has been oppressed, marginalized, or underprivileged"
>        (and "underprivileged" right there is similarly problematic)"
>
> It doesn't even seem to have that meaning (in my opinion); otherwise, I
> would expect that the Irish and eastern Europeans would fall into that
> category of "diverse", but they do not (in present-day US speech / thought).


Yes, we have to recognize that that the groups encompassed under that 
shift over time, as you nicely pointed out. Those groups certainly would 
have earlier (19th, early 20th c.), and I think we also have to add 
southern European (Spanish, Italian) as well.


>
> It seems more to me as if it is a euphemism for "colored" / "of color",
> "other", or "non-white".


Yes, I agree.

One of the terrible things I used to have to do in my previous job was 
either ask or assign racial/ethnic identities according to 
government-issued categories, which are inadequate and problematic. My 
Middle Eastern (Iran, Iraq) students were labeled "White", and where did 
our Indian, Bangladeshi, Burmese, etc. students go, "Asian"? "White"?  
Same question for our Afghanis. Are our Moroccan and Egyptian students 
"African American"?

Our Middle Eastern students may be labeled white, but they sure as heck 
ain't treated that way.

I work with one literally Caucasian student: She's from Georgia, the 
country.

---Amy West

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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