

Sometimes it feels like we’re on a fast track to running out of allowable words in the wide English language. I’m not trying to be alarmist, but when “field work” is identified as an echo of white supremacy, it’s kind of hard to stay optimistic.
And that’s not a strawman, folks. That is a REAL DECISION made by the Susan Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at University of South Carolina. According to a memo released by the department, terms such as “field work,” “field study,” or “going into the field” will be replaced with “practicum.”
Another perfectly good word is being canceled: The USC School of Social Work is nixing the word “field” as in “field work” & “going into the field.” USC thinks this has something to do with white supremacy. Please stop. pic.twitter.com/4AzzrJ3tV8
— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) January 11, 2023
“Field work” has always made me picture, like, some nerd in khaki wandering around some savannah grasslands with a magnifying glass. Is that my white privilege showing? That I don’t imagine slaves picking cotton or migrant workers roving across the west during harvesttime? Not, of course, that the memo has the nuts to actually say what these “connotations” are. It’s my favorite game to play with virtue-signaling progressives: make them explain why the innocuous thing is “racist,” and you’ll suddenly get a great sense of who the actual racist is.
I mean, for f*ck’s actual sake. I expect this kind of empty virtue-signaling from social science departments (you know, the fields– I mean, practicums of study– that routinely have “armchair” put in front of them), but schools of social work are responsible for preparing students to roll up their sleeves and dig into societal issues at the ground level. The family fighting to regain custody of their children won’t give even half a damn whether you’re shadowing their caseworker for your fieldwork or practicum. You know what they do care about? Their family. The real life, tangible effects of a broken system which dictate so much of their lives. Families are suffering, and if future social workers’ education is more worried about using nice, inclusive language than actually helping people, it’s not about to get better.
This memo is meant to be a virtue signal, but there is no sign of virtue here. All it tells us is that their priorities lay with their own reputation and not the people their work claims to protect.
What a joke.
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I’m fairly certain my Scots-Irish father and my Welsh-Irish mother would be shocked to learn their son, who WORKED IN THE FARM FIELDS from age 8, was indeed black. From 8-16 I worked tobacco, cotton, corn, soybeans, peanuts, wheat, and sweet potatoes every summer. It was hot & sweaty work, but it was honest.
Apparently the left sees farmers as “less than” themselves, and yet many farmers I know still vote D because while they’re in the business of agriculture they spend more time “farming the government”. It’s just more profitable.
Remind me of the old joke about the farmer who is being paid by the government to not raise hogs. Says he’s going to use the money to buy some land to not grow some corn to not feed to the hogs he’s not raising, and make even more money.
Yet they have no problem with the word “slavery”.