Academia

USC Department Declares the Word “Field” to be “Anti-Black”
We have long discussed the increasing speech regulations and restrictions sweeping across universities in the United States, including mandating the use of pronouns and barring the use of other terms. The latest example comes from the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworek-Peck School of Social Work which has declared that the term “field” is racist and “anti-Black.” Thus, you cannot say that you are going to do “field work.” “Field” will be replaced with “practicum,” according to the January 9 memo. The announcement was made by the office not of “field education” but the non-racist “Office of Practicum Education.” The School explained:

“In solidarity with universities across the nation, our goal is not just to change language but to honor and acknowledge inclusion and reject white supremacy, anti-immigrant and anti-blackness ideologies. Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign…This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that could be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language.”

Houman David Hemmati, a board-certified MD Ophthalmologist and PhD research scientist, was obviously perplexed to learn that he has been spewing racist speech for years in discussing field work and exercises. He tweeted: “Today, @uscsocialwork sent out this letter announcing that they will no longer use the word ‘field’ (as in ‘conducting field work’) because it’s perceived as racist. Is this with merit or empty virtue signaling?”

Interim Dean of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Vassilios Papadopoulos, rushed to add the obvious without adding any further explanation. He told Fox News that the decision was made by the Office of Practicum Education “out of a desire to more accurately describe its work.”

Conversely, Elizabeth A. Graddy, Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, seemed eager to distance her department from this latest woke controversy: “The university does not maintain a list of banned or discouraged words. We will continue to use words – including “field” – that accurately encompass and describe our work and research.”

However, the School of Social Work continues to herald its replacement of the word “field” as another triumph in the fight for “dismantling oppressive and discriminating systems.”

Of course, here may have to be some changes, including in this soon to be renamed movie “Practicum of Dreams.”

 

118 thoughts on “USC Department Declares the Word “Field” to be “Anti-Black””

  1. My late father grew up in a farm with no electricity and with a dad who did things the old way, farming with mules. He did a lot of field work “chopping” cotton, hoeing and hauling. He got off the farm when he came of age but that work ethic never left him and he expected nothing less from us.

    From a young age, I was expected to help at home and with other projects. One (of many)was a vacant field, half a city block in size. He made me maintain it using an old mower, manual weed whacker, shovel and hoe. I know everything there is to know about keeping an old Briggs and Stratton mower engine functioning. He could have hired this done by a tractor but he wanted to teach me a lesson.

    My wife grew up on a farm and when she was able to walk, her dad made a child sized hoe and set her to working side by side with her mom and dad in the field. When she was a little older she did field work in the neighbor’s farm, hoeing, row by row. She was paying her own expenses by the time she was fourteen.

    This story is not unique in that many millions of “privileged” Americans have similar stories of growing up knowing work. The stereotype is in mostly a myth. I am proud of the fact that I am a descendant of day laborers, tradesmen and farmers. My dad taught me how to fix things and set and how to work. I am thankful for that. That ethic carried me through my academic career.

    It is a sad state of affairs if a few privileged academics sit around a board room table and make decrees about what is proper language. Then, if anyone dare call bull excrement on their bizarre rules, they fire them?

    We live in a upside down world. Criminals are not punished, hardworking people are maligned and the deranged are currently in charge.

  2. Will the FAA now redefine airfields as “air practicums” ??? Will the NFL ban kickoff returns to midfield as mid practicum returns ??? Stupidity knows no bounds. Unbelievable

    1. Of course! And kickers will kick practicum goals for 3 points, and Pee Wee Reese was the best practicum-ing shortstop of his time. And the the book Tom Jones was written by Henry Practicum-ing! There’s also the Practiocum of Dreams movie.

  3. out-of-bounders.
    maybe…Republicans.. conservatives…rightwingers…sleepers [non-wokers], …maybe practicum-deniers, the non-Enlightened ones…I dunno.

  4. This is the “Practicum of Dreams” that race-baiting ideologies have been planning for years. They just needed the right administration to help push, push, push it forward, -with dismissal, discrediting, and censoring of any push push back.

  6. Just when you think things could not get any more moronic. If EVERYTHING is racist, NOTHING is racist. It seems like these universities are trying to out stupid each other.

    1. QUOTE: So what are they going to call outfielders in baseball? END QUOTE

      Now, now Robert. You know perfectly well that the term is Outpracticumers!

  9. So the expression “cotton to” is racist because some slaves picked cotton?!

    Those creatures are clinically insane.

    And I mean the word “clinically” literally. One of the markers of schizophrenia is bizarre, random associations — a thinking disorder.

  10. This sort of nonsense would be helpful to those of us on the free speech side if these incidents were prominently reported by the NYT, WP, CNN etc. This may generate a mention, but that’s it. To put it another way, we cannot depend on these creatures to embarrass themselves out of existence; we must do it for them.

  11. time to END all aid and loans for colleges. Also all non-profits where anyone gets $100k+ should pay ALL TAXES!
    If colleges can pay coaches millions and have endowments of billions…they can PAY TAXES!

  12. Our farmers must all be racists – they love to talk about their “fields”. Are farmers now going to be required to raise corn, etc., in a “practicum”? No one with any common sense will take this kind of foolishness seriously. USC has embarrassed itself. The more serious problem is that people who think like this are teaching the next generation.

  13. A cartoonist could have a practicum day with this idiocy. Sports announcers – “the coach is practicuming a new player”. Wrigley Practicum. A farmer – “I’m going to put Elsie the cow in a different practicum today”. I could think of a lot more but I need more practicum grown coffee. It would seem that most of the woke idiocy has come out of the sociology departments of the universities.

    1. Bravo: as a friend of mine from many years ago would loudly proclaim: “they all should be SHOT!”

  15. Republicans are going to have a practicum day with this woke progressive stupidity

  18. Can’t say field, but can still get an “unpaid internship” working towards your Master’s degree.

    Practicum? Isn’t that gonna offend the latinx?

  19. Will be interesting to see how the Trojans practicum a team for the practicum of play at Memorial Coliseum next year.

    1. Now you see the problem that the Babylon Bee has.

      The lefties are even crazier than the most imaginative minds can conceive.

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