Oh Please!
I heard this on the radio this morning, Mark, Kim and Frank read it. I thought it was the dumbest thing I had heard in a long time. Of course they read the list from 10 to 1 (so in the opposite way than it is listed, and that makes a lot of sense) but most of this stuff is just ridiculous!
Top 10 Politically Incorrect sayings for 2007 as compiled by Global Language Monitor
San Diego and Henderson , NV . March 21, 2008. ‘Nappy-headed Ho,’’ closely followed by ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ and ’Carbon Footprint Stomping’ top the list of the most egregious examples of politically inCorrect language found in 2007 by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey. This year’s list includes words and phrases from the US , the UK , Australia , and China .
"It is no surprise that a ‘Nappy-headed Ho’ was selected as the Top Politically Incorrect word or phrase for 2007," said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of The Global Language Monitor (GLM). "A year later that phrase is still ricocheting about the Internet even affecting Christmas-season Santas in Australia." The list was nominated by the GLM’s Language Police, volunteer language observers from the world over.
The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases for previous years include:
2006: Global Warming Denier
2005: Misguided Criminals
2004: Master/Slave computer jargon
The Top Politically inCorrect Words and Phrases for 2007:
1. Nappy-headed Ho's - Radio personality Don Imus' reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team. 'Nappy' is ultimately derived from the Anglo Saxon hnoppa for the 'wooly substance on the surface of cloth'. Combined with the word 'ho' -- a derogratory term for women, Imus' comments led to an uproar in the media and ultimately led to his resignation.
2. HoHoHo -- Staffing company in Sydney suggesting to prospective Santas to re-phrase their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" in favor of "ha, ha, ha" so as not be confused with American urban parlance, a derogatory term for women.
3. Carbon footprint stomping - The movement to flaunt carbon-intensive activities such as driving Hummers and flying private jets; a reaction to the Green movement is the height of political inCorrectness.
4. Year of the Pig Restrictions - Chinese State Television in Shanghai warns Nestle against Happy Pig New Year ads, foregoing thousands of years of Chinese Tradition, because it might inflame pork-shying minorities.
5. Three Little Pigs - according to the BBC, A retelling of the three little pigs fairy tale, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, was excluded from award consideration because judges said that “ the use of pigs raises cultural issues". It was also found to "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade): "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"
6. The ‘Race’ Card - Originally a printed card with information about a thoroughbred horse race, now used in 2008 Presidential campaign parlance as in 'playing the race card', meaning intentionally injecting issues of ethnicity into the campaign. The word 'race' is ultimately derived from the Old High German for lineage.
7. "Obesity Is Socially Contagious" -- That was the widely reported headline in the UCSD press release announcing the results of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that actually came to the opposite conclusion. One of the study's authors made it worse by stating “It’s spread from person to person like a fashion or a germ … once it starts; it's hard to stop it. It can spread like wildfire."
8. Fire-breathing Dragon - Lindsey Gardiner, a leading British children’s author of the popular Lola, Poppy and Max characters, was instructed to eliminate a fire-breathing dragon from her new book because publishers feared they could be sued under health and safety regulations.
9. “Wucha dun did now?” -- Handbook distributed a Houston school district police officer to enable the reader to speak “as if you just came out of the hood”.
10. Gypsy skirt - The worldwide phenomenon of the gypsy, tiered or Boho skirt has a new name: Traveler’s Skirt, since police in Cornwall believed that the term ‘Gypsy Skirt’ might be considered offensive to this cultural minority.
The Global Language Monitor uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.
GLM is moving its headquarters to Austin , Texas in the coming months.
Top 10 Politically Incorrect sayings for 2007 as compiled by Global Language Monitor
San Diego and Henderson , NV . March 21, 2008. ‘Nappy-headed Ho,’’ closely followed by ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ and ’Carbon Footprint Stomping’ top the list of the most egregious examples of politically inCorrect language found in 2007 by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey. This year’s list includes words and phrases from the US , the UK , Australia , and China .
"It is no surprise that a ‘Nappy-headed Ho’ was selected as the Top Politically Incorrect word or phrase for 2007," said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of The Global Language Monitor (GLM). "A year later that phrase is still ricocheting about the Internet even affecting Christmas-season Santas in Australia." The list was nominated by the GLM’s Language Police, volunteer language observers from the world over.
The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases for previous years include:
2006: Global Warming Denier
2005: Misguided Criminals
2004: Master/Slave computer jargon
The Top Politically inCorrect Words and Phrases for 2007:
1. Nappy-headed Ho's - Radio personality Don Imus' reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team. 'Nappy' is ultimately derived from the Anglo Saxon hnoppa for the 'wooly substance on the surface of cloth'. Combined with the word 'ho' -- a derogratory term for women, Imus' comments led to an uproar in the media and ultimately led to his resignation.
2. HoHoHo -- Staffing company in Sydney suggesting to prospective Santas to re-phrase their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" in favor of "ha, ha, ha" so as not be confused with American urban parlance, a derogatory term for women.
3. Carbon footprint stomping - The movement to flaunt carbon-intensive activities such as driving Hummers and flying private jets; a reaction to the Green movement is the height of political inCorrectness.
4. Year of the Pig Restrictions - Chinese State Television in Shanghai warns Nestle against Happy Pig New Year ads, foregoing thousands of years of Chinese Tradition, because it might inflame pork-shying minorities.
5. Three Little Pigs - according to the BBC, A retelling of the three little pigs fairy tale, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, was excluded from award consideration because judges said that “ the use of pigs raises cultural issues". It was also found to "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade): "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"
6. The ‘Race’ Card - Originally a printed card with information about a thoroughbred horse race, now used in 2008 Presidential campaign parlance as in 'playing the race card', meaning intentionally injecting issues of ethnicity into the campaign. The word 'race' is ultimately derived from the Old High German for lineage.
7. "Obesity Is Socially Contagious" -- That was the widely reported headline in the UCSD press release announcing the results of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that actually came to the opposite conclusion. One of the study's authors made it worse by stating “It’s spread from person to person like a fashion or a germ … once it starts; it's hard to stop it. It can spread like wildfire."
8. Fire-breathing Dragon - Lindsey Gardiner, a leading British children’s author of the popular Lola, Poppy and Max characters, was instructed to eliminate a fire-breathing dragon from her new book because publishers feared they could be sued under health and safety regulations.
9. “Wucha dun did now?” -- Handbook distributed a Houston school district police officer to enable the reader to speak “as if you just came out of the hood”.
10. Gypsy skirt - The worldwide phenomenon of the gypsy, tiered or Boho skirt has a new name: Traveler’s Skirt, since police in Cornwall believed that the term ‘Gypsy Skirt’ might be considered offensive to this cultural minority.
The Global Language Monitor uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.
GLM is moving its headquarters to Austin , Texas in the coming months.