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City officials urge ban on 'potentially offensive' language (Seattle: "citizens","brown bag")
KOMO TV (Seattle) ^ | August 1, 2013 | Luke Duecy

Posted on 08/01/2013 8:55:24 PM PDT by Stoat

SEATTLE - An internal memo at Seattle City Hall is causing quite a stir. It suggests government workers no longer use the terms "citizen," or "brown bag." 

According to the Office for Civil Rights, the terms are potentially offensive and other words should be used.

"Luckily, we've got options," Elliott Bronstein of the Office for Civil Rights wrote in the memo. "For 'citizens,' how about 'residents?'" Bronstein wrote.

The Office of Civil Rights says Seattle serves all residents, whether they're United States citizens or not.

And while city leaders publicize "brown bag" lunch meetings as a way to designate a bring-your-own lunch time event, the term has a sorted history. 

"It used to be a way people could judge skin color," Bronstein said in a phone interview. 

Does the public find it offensive? Most people agree it's not.

But the City of Seattle isn't alone. State lawmakers have voted to remove gender specific words in official records.

Freshman are now "first-years," journeymen are "journey-level," and penmanship is simply "handwriting."

To offend or not to offend, turns out to be a very sensitive question.

So what is a person supposed to say instead of brown bag? According to the memo, people should try "lunch-and-learn" or "sack lunch."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 1984; bigbrother; brownbag; censorship; liberalism; mentaldisorder; nannystate; napl; ocd; orwelliannightmare; politicalcorrectness; priorrestraint; seattle; stalinisttactics; thoughtcrime; thoughtpolice; washington; washingtonstate
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To: Stoat
"brown bag"...has a sorted history.

That means "Brown" comes after Aquamarine Bags and before Cerulean Bags and Dandelion Bags. I need to hear from the Aquamarine, Cerulean and Dandelion native peoples before passing judgement on the Browns.

A man named "Brown" once worked for me. Was I being insensitive to the brown citizens peoples by adding him to my payroll? Was he mocking them?

Life used to be so easy.

21 posted on 08/01/2013 9:22:57 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Stoat

seattle sounds as insane as san fransicko


22 posted on 08/01/2013 9:23:30 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: Stoat
According to the memo, people should try "lunch-and-learn" or "sack lunch."

But "lunch and learn" implies that they should be seeking learning from you. That is ethnocentric. You should never imply that you know more then anyone else especially if they come from a different culture.

And "sack lunch"? Even worse. To give someone the sack used to mean to fire them. You are being offensive to the differently employed.

23 posted on 08/01/2013 9:23:45 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Revenge is a dish best served with pinto beans and muffins)
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To: Stoat

I had a friend in college who was blind. He once (as a point of satire) petitioned the college to ban hurtful sayings such as; “look at it this way”, “can’t you see?” and “picture this”.


24 posted on 08/01/2013 9:26:54 PM PDT by Baynative (Lord, keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
"lunch-and-learn"

That phrase requires a vomit bag, brown or otherwise.
25 posted on 08/01/2013 9:27:07 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle
on a few occasion I have taken personal humbrage at the use of the so called term "citizen of the world",...and flat out asked the rube claiming to be such a citizen.. when this Official World Government had taken over...

to such people words are simply decorations for their EMOTIONS
26 posted on 08/01/2013 9:27:47 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey (Macabre Crumpet of Caucasian Ethnicity)
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To: MeshugeMikey

They kicked the door open...should any pol with balls seize on it...to ask if citizenship has meaning to anyone anymore.

Most would say it does. And that means these folks are in deep poop. We ain’t ready to go that far yet in the name of getting along and feelgood BS despite their best efforts. As Rush says, they ALWAYS overreach.

Now to find a pol with balls.


27 posted on 08/01/2013 9:27:50 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: MeshugeMikey

u no it


28 posted on 08/01/2013 9:29:15 PM PDT by redlegplanner ( No Representation without Taxation)
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To: Stoat

Typically, it’s fun to laugh at the stupidity of Liberal political correctness. Not distinguishing between citizens and non-citizens and treating actual American citizenship as something that must be deemphasized is scary. It shows where the Left wants to head.


29 posted on 08/01/2013 9:30:58 PM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi
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To: Stoat
...the term has a sorted history.

"It used to be a way people could judge skin color," Bronstein said in a phone interview.

Morons. The term is 'sordid' not 'sorted' and no one on the face of the planet ever associated skin color with the phrase "brown bag" until this complete idiot, Bronstein, pulled that out of his fat 0bama.

30 posted on 08/01/2013 9:30:59 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

Diogenes is predisposed.....

that means the rest of us have to start making some DEMANDS


31 posted on 08/01/2013 9:31:14 PM PDT by MeshugeMikey (Macabre Crumpet of Caucasian Ethnicity)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

“Sack” also can refer to a part of the male anatomy, so “sack lunch” might be taken as a description of some specific homoerotic practice (ala “teabag”), in which case I’m sure these Seattle dolts would be just fine with it.


32 posted on 08/01/2013 9:31:49 PM PDT by dorothy ( "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Norm Lenhart
"Now to find a pol with balls."

None remain in Seattle. 40% of the people in Seattle support this nonsense, 30% tolerate it, and 30% detest it (give or take 5% in each group). So there's no politician who's going to make a big issue of it.
33 posted on 08/01/2013 9:33:14 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Baynative
I see what he was getting at.

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

CC

34 posted on 08/01/2013 9:36:09 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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To: dorothy

It is also possible that “sack lunch” has a paternalistic origin indicating male dominance over, well, over everything female of course. So it is quite likely a deeply misogynistic phrase. Seattle officials should be apprised of their appalling insensitivity immediately and be told to resign in shame, disgrace, humiliation or whatever the heck it is that makes Progressive a-holes go away.


35 posted on 08/01/2013 9:41:51 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: Stoat

This makes me wonder who Elliott Bronstein beat out when he was hired. I’d hate to see who the losers were. And he probably makes 80 or 90 grand a year. Fire this clown and send the money to a cancer research clinic.


36 posted on 08/01/2013 9:42:24 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Stoat
"lunch-and-learn"

No way! That is much too hierarchical - it suggests that someone has knowledge and someone else doesn't, and that the latter is in a relationship of dependency on the former. This reproduces the classic teacher-student relationship, a relationship of power and oppression.
37 posted on 08/01/2013 9:46:04 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Stoat
What do we have to do to ban "potentially offensive politicians"?

CC

38 posted on 08/01/2013 9:52:30 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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To: Stoat
"Luckily, we've got options,"

Not after your kind get through with it. Centuries have clearly shown that if you outlaw one word for its meaning, people will invent a euphemism to say the same thing...which someone will then get offended by until the PC police decide to ban that word too.

Back when Ted Turner owned CNN and the Atlanta Braves he sent out a memo banning the word "foreign" from all broadcasts. His reasoning was that Turner employees were "citizens of the world" and "foreign" was considered xenophobic. It was suggested reporters use the word "international" to substitute.

So during a Braves broadcast, the action stopped while the home plate umpire inspected a pitcher he thought was doctoring the baseball. Braves announcer Skip Caray chirped, "he's inspecting (the pitcher)'s glove for an international substance."

39 posted on 08/01/2013 10:11:52 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Howdy to all you government agents spying on me.)
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To: Stoat

“It used to be a way people could judge skin color,” Bronstein said in a phone interview.

When, Bronstein? I think you’re full of brown stuff.


40 posted on 08/01/2013 10:12:01 PM PDT by Hardraade (http://junipersec.wordpress.com (Obama: the bearded lady of Muslim Brotherhood))
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