WHAT’S RACIST TODAY: The Phrase ‘Whipped Into Shape’
Brandeis University in Massachusetts put the phrase “whipped into shape” on its list of offensive words to avoid.
WHAT HAPPENED
Brandeis University’s Prevention, Advocacy and Resource Center’s recently created the Suggested Language List, formerly known as the Oppressive Language List, to encourage the campus “community” to “remove language that may hurt those who have experienced violence from our everyday use.”
- “Whipped into shape” was deemed problematic because it evokes “imagery of enslavement or torture.”
- Other proscribed terms included “killing it,” “addict” and “Everything going on right now.”
- “Picnic,” with its supposed redolence of lynchings, was removed from the list in June amid online mockery.
SAME ENERGY
According to at least one social scientist, the word “Caucasian” is also racist now.