Re: Hypothetical Un-PC Questions....

[Herman Holtz <holtz -at- PALTECH -dot- COM>]

>On Wed, 7 Jun 1995 15:48:00 PDT you wrote:

>>In a "Programmer's Guide" that is to be used by future maintenance
>>programmers documenting the database.  The database field name is
>>"indian_tribe" and the field description is "Indian tribe blah-de-dah".
>>
>>Should the writer tell the database guy that the database field name needs
>>to be changed because it isn't "Native American"?

>How about "Indiginous Peoples" or "First Nations Subdivision"?  Personally,
>this is one area I think has gotten out of control.  My wife, her parents, and
>half her grandparents were born in the USofA.  How many generations does one
>have to go back before being "native"?  My mother's family can be traced back
>to the McCoys (of "the Hatfields and the McCoys" fame).  But, sorry ma, yer
>not really American, yer still an immigrant.


I found the whole business pretty silly a long time ago, when I got nasty
letter or two berating me for referring to women as "ladies" in a column I
wrote. I suppose that when one addresses an audience he or she should begin,
"Women and men." It hasn't been too difficult to use "mankind" in place of
"Man," but I have to struggle to find good substitutes for "salesmanship" or
"manhole cover."
                                ***
Herman Holtz [holtz -at- paltech -dot- com] Marketing consultant, general and
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