Want a good grade in certain classes at Washington State University? Then you better avoid using the terms "illegal immigrant," "male" and "female" as part of your descriptive vocabulary.
"It's all born out of a desire not to oppress students on the basis of their gender," Campus Reform News Editor Sterling Beard said yesterday on Fox News. "The problem of course is that these terms are no more oppressive than describing something as short or tall and lets not forget that's not the only terms that were outlawed."
"The idea behind so many of these restrictions in classrooms is to create a healthy learning environment to keep people from being 'triggered' or what have you and keep privilege at bay. The problem is that they also expect students to engage with controversial material but how can you engage with controversial material when you're disallowed from using such useful terms like male or female or illegal immigrant?" he continued.
Universities around the country have recently release lists of banned words and phrases that professors consider "microagressions." Terms on those lists include "American," questions like, "where are you from" and the concept that hard work is how individuals get ahead in life.