Paging Mr. Orwell...Mr. George Orwell, please pick up the white...er...European American Courtesy Phone...

What follows, according to the Lake Arrowhead Mountain News, is a comprehensive list of offensive terms that writers of textbooks are to avoid if they wish for their books to be accepted for use in public schools in California. Some of these I could buy in the name of accuracy (I dig that Chief Sitting Bull's name was actually "Tatanka lyotake," and kids should learn that, but I believe both terms should be used in context, since the former is more widely known). And I actually prefer "suffragist" to "suffragette," if only because the latter always makes me think of David Bowie rather than women (wymym?) fighting for their right to vote.

Offensive Terms:

Adam and Eve (replace with 'Eve and Adam' to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females)
Blind, the (banned as offensive; replace with 'people who are blind')
Blind leading the blind (banned as handicapism)
Bookworm (banned as offensive; replace with 'intellectual')
Boys' night out (banned as sexist)
Busybody (banned as sexist; demeaning to older women)
Cassandra (banned as sexist)
Chief Sitting Bull (banned as relic of colonialism; replace with 'Tatanka Iyotake')
Confined to a wheelchair (banned as offensive; replace with 'person who is mobility impared')
Courageous (banned as patronizing when referring to a person with disabilities)
Craftsmanship (banned as sexist)
Cult (banned as ethnocentric when referring to a religious group)
Deaf, the (banned as offensive; replace with 'people who are deaf' or 'a person with a loss of hearing')
Devil (banned)
Dialect (banned as ethnocentric; use sparingly)
Differently abled (banned as offensive; replace with 'person who has a physical disability')
Dogma (banned as ethnocentric; replace with 'doctrine' or 'belief')
Drunken, Drunkeness (banned as offensive when referring to Native Americans)
Duffer (banned as demeaning to old men)
East, Eastern (banned as Eurocentric)
Egghead (banned as offensive; replace with 'intellectual')
Elderly, the (banned as ageist; replace with 'older people')
Extremist (banned as ethnocentric; replace with 'believer', 'follower', or 'adherent')
Fairy (banned because it suggests homosexuality; replace with 'elf')
Fanatic (banned as ethnocentric; replace with 'believer', 'follower', or 'adherent')
Founding Fathers, the (banned as sexist; replace with 'the founders' or 'the framers')
Fraternize (banned as sexist)
God (banned)
Heiress (banned as sexist; replace with 'heir')
Hell (banned; replace with 'heck' or 'darn')
Heretic (use with caution when comparing religions)
Heroine (banned as sexist; replace with 'hero')
Huts (banned as ethnocentric; replace with 'small houses')
Insane (banned as offensive; replace with 'person who has an emotional disorder or psychiatric illness')
Inspirational (banned as patronizing when referring to a person with disabilities)
Jungle (banned; replace with 'rain forest')
Junk bonds (banned as elitist)
Lame (banned as offensive; replace with 'walks with a cane')
Limping along (banned as handicapism)
Little person (banned as offensive; replace with 'person of small stature')
Lumberjack (banned as sexist; replace with 'woodcutter')
Majority group (banned as offensive)
Man of war (banned as sexist; replace with 'warship')
Mentally ill, the (banned as offensive; replace with 'person with a mental or emotional disability')
Middle East (banned as reflecting a Eurocentric world view; replace with 'Southwest Asia'; may be acceptable, however, as a historical reference)
Minority group (banned as offensive)
Mother Russia (banned as sexist; replace with 'Russia, vast land of rich harvests')
Navajo (banned as inauthentic; replace with 'Diné')
Old (banned as an adjective that implies helplessness, dependency, or other negative qualities)
Old wives' tale (banned as sexist; replace with 'folk wisdom')
Ombudsman (banned as sexist)
One-man band (banned as sexist; replace with 'one-person performance')
Pagan (banned as ethnocentric when referring to religion; replace with 'non-believer')
Paraplegic (banned as offensive; replace with 'person with paraplegia')
Past one's prime (banned as demeaning to older persons)
Pollyana (banned as sexist)
Polo (banned as elitist)
Regatta (banned as elitist)
Roving the land (banned as reference to Native Americans)
Satan (banned)
Sect (banned as ethnocentric when referring to a religious group, unless separated from an established religion)
Senile (banned as demeaning to older person)
Senior citizen (banned as demeaning to older person)
Slave (replace whenever possible with 'enslaved person')
Snowman (banned; replace with 'snow person')
Soul food (banned as regional or ethnic bias)
Stickball (banned as regional or ethnic bias)
Straw man (banned as sexist; replace with 'unreal issue' or 'misrepresentation')
Subgroup (banned as offensive reference to cultural differences)\
Sufferer of cerebral palsy (banned as offensive; replace with 'person who has lost muscle control')
Suffragette (banned as sexist; replace with 'suffragist')
Tomboy (banned as sexist)
Turning a deaf ear (banned as handicapism)
West, Western (banned as Eurocentric)
Yacht (banned as elitist)


"Hurry down doomsday, the bugs are taking over." -Elvis Costello