Children's Wisconsin has instructed employees not to use words such as "angry," "articulate," "picnic" and phrases like "hip hip hooray" and "brown bag" over concerns about their supposedly racist origins. A handout provided to workers during a training seminar held by the hospital's Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Deparment and obtained by "The Dan O'Donnell Show" lists several dozen words and phrases that should not be used along with the reason they are offensive and suggested alternatives.
Among them are patently offensive racial slurs and derogatory names for gay people, but also included are words and phrases such as "white glove service" and "hold down the fort," which do not have any obvious offensive connotations.
The 14-page handout, entitled "Words Matter," was last updated in September and purports to help "cultivate a sense of belonging at Children's through connection, appreciation, respect and care...To accomplish this, we must be willing to listen to each other and have dialogue about things that detract from this desired experience with the goal of increasing understanding and eliminating offense." The handout, it claims, helps facilitate this because "language works best when it brings as many people into communication with each other" and "there are certain words that can sometimes trigger trauma, alienate, make a person feel disrespected or cause other negative reactions due to previous lived experiences, historical racism, sexism, or heterosexism."
The word "angry" is considered racist and/or sexist when used to describe a woman or black person because, as the handout notes, "when you attach it to a woman, or a black woman specifically, it has a whole other depth of meaning. It is saying: If you elevate your voice or argue a different point of view 'No, don't be passionate. 'No, don't be excited.' 'Don't be concerned.'"
Similarly, the word "articulate" is not appropriate to describe a black person because "it sounds as though you are saying, 'This person shouldn't speak well, but to my surprise, they do.' Or 'They are well spoken for someone of their race. When you use the word 'articulate,' you're automatically saying the opposite--that you were guessing or assuming a different person will present to you. It's like the idea of the black unicorn--'Whoa, you're diverse and smart, great schools. How could this be?"
As an alternative to using "articulate," the handout suggests "Your speech really resonated with me!"
Many of the origins of the banned words and phrases printed on the handout, however, are factually incorrect--wrongly identifying a racist etymology when the actual origin is benign. For instance, the handout claims that "the origin of the word 'picnic' derives from the acts of lynching African-Americans. The word 'picnic' is rooted in the whole theme of 'Pick-a-N-Word.' This is where individuals would 'pic' a Black person to lynch and make this into a family gathering. There would be music and a 'picnic' ('Nic' being the acronym for the N-word)."
There is no evidence whatsoever to support this claim. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "picnic" derived from the French phrase "pique nique"--which roughly translates to "to nibble at something small" (as in a small meal)--and that "the original sense of 'picnic', from 1748, referred to a fashionable social event at which each guest contributed a share of the food." Nothing about the word's etymology or original use referred to lynching in any way.
Children's Wisconsin has not yet responded to a request for clarification on why it so badly misidentified the word's origin in an attempt to cast it as racist. The hospital system itself holds multiple picnic events per year and advertises them on both its website and various social media platforms. The system has also not yet responded to a question about whether they will cease holding these events or rename them out of concern over what its Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Deparment believes to be the word's racist roots.
The origin of the phrase "hip hip hooray" is similarly erroneous.
"The history of this term is a bit muddled, but it's thought to have derived from the anti-Semitic chant 'Hep hep!'" the handout states. "This was a rallying cry to attack jewish people in and around the German Confederacy in 1819, during what came to be known as the 'Hep-Hep Riots.' At some point, 'hep hep' became 'hip hip,' and hooray was added to the end."
None of this is true. The word "hip" was commonly used as a call to attention in England in the late 1700s, as speakers would begin celebratory toasts with a shout of "hip!" or "hip hip!" in much the same way a speaker might yell "Hey everyone!" today. The first printed example of the phrase "hip hip hurrah" was in 1813--six years before the Hep Hep Riots.
Children's Wisconsin has not yet responded to a request for the name of the employee who wrote the handout or whether the use of words and phrases included on it will result in any punishment.
Here is the full list of the words and phrases Children's Wisconsin now considers to be offensive: