“Long Time No See, Take a Stab At, and Trigger Warning” Deemed Oppressive Phrases by MA University

“Long Time No See, Take a Stab At, and Trigger Warning” Deemed Oppressive Phrases by MA University

Brandeis University in Massachusetts has created a resource guiding students, faculty, and the community against using what they say are numerous — and common — “oppressive” phrases, which they say includes “trigger warning,” “rule of thumb,” or “long time no see,” and more.

“Violent language in this list may be explicitly or implicitly violent expressions and metaphors that are used casually and unintentionally,” says Brandeis' Prevention, Advocacy, and Resource Center. “These examples can be easily replaced by saying something more direct.”

The center suggests “content note or drop-in” instead of what they say is the “oppressive” phrase “trigger warning;” instead of “killing it,” they suggest, “great job” or “awesome.”

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See the list here. 

According to the Daily Mail — who had a screenshot of the initial list — “picnic” had been included on the list of “violent language,” with the suggested replacement being “outdoor eating,” with the school stating, “The term picnic is often associated with lynchings of Black people in the United States, during which white spectators were said to have watched while eating, referring to them as picnics or other terms involving racial slurs against black people."

Picnic is no longer on the list: Brandeis did not respond to request for comment at time of publication. 

“Long time no see” and “no can do” were flagged under the identity-based language category as oppressive for being terms “using broken English originating from stereotypes making fun of non-native English speakers, particularly applied to indigenous people and Asians.”

The school suggests “I haven’t seen you in so long!” and “sorry I can’t” as alternatives. 

See list here.

According to Brandeis, the phrase "abusive relationship"  is not appropriate because "relationships don't perpetrate abuse; abusers do. It is important to name that someone is responsible."

Instead they offer the phrase 'relationship with an abuser.' 

Other oppressive phrases -- and suggestions included replacing "disabled person" with "person with a disability;" "addict" with "person with a substance use disorder';" and "prostitute" with "person who engages in sex work."