this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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it's possible they were following AP style guidelines which suggest that.
I’ve had a chance to look into that now. Again, thanks for bringing it to my attention. I had no idea it was a thing. I don’t agree with it - but AP’s reasoning and caveats on their website aren’t entirely without merit. I just think that to the dozens of us on the internet who aren’t US born and bred it seems massively incongruous - and might have the potential to perpetuate the exact opposite reaction to what is hoped. On a side note - good effort bringing something of interest and value to the table.
That might be true, but every country likely has similar language quirks for historical, cultural reasons that may seem odd or hypocritical to outsiders.
Yeah, maybe so. I suppose having racism / segregation hard-baked in to your language would be a great way to maintain the status quo and keep the little people against each other. For a nation actually born out of genocide, slavery and apartheid I almost want to shoot myself in the face when its citizens still use words and phrases like “African American”, “Native American” and “American”. The inequity is staggering and not even implicit. I hope that practice dies before I do - but I doubt it will.
Associated Press, yeah? I’ll have a look at that later. Thanks for the heads up. I suppose this might be classed as “semiotics” which, honestly, ain’t my speciality. Just seems weird to me - perpetuating a difference (if only syntactically) between humans with different levels of melanin. I guess from a US-centric point of view it “might” have some merit.