Political Correctness 'n Stuff...(Long) (919 hits)
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Submitted by Spookster (View user info) at 2004-08-23 06:15:10 EDT
I logged onto globalnews.com today to check up on world events and see if anything interesting had happened to the human race, and 'lo and behold it seems that Oxford University Press (And several other publishing companies) are being forced to remove a word from their dictionaries.
The word in question is 'Gullible'.
The reasons behind it's attempted removal from the English language are complicated but I'll try to explain them in brief here.
It all started in Africa.
Prior to the 19th century, the rest of the world knew very little about this continent. Any trade between Europeans and African traders occurred on the coast. However, beginning in the early 1800s, explorers began to explore the African interior. Many of the first European explorers in Africa were missionaries who felt called to 'bring God into the lives of the pagan African tribes'.
In the late 19th century the 'scramble' began - this was the major European colonization of Africa. Seven nations in total would vie for supremacy of as much of the continent as possible. Of the seven European countries that would eventually dominate Africa, Great Britain, France and Belgium together controlled most of Africa's territory.
This is where the Guleb (sp?) tribe enters the picture.
The Guleb Tribe were a reasonably large community who lived peacefully in the country we know nowadays as the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).
Then came the French.
As Africa was 'civilized' the tribes were gradually deprived of their ancestral lands. This was no different for the Guleb tribe except for the fact that they were exploited out of almost everything they had.
What happened was that when the French settlers arrived at the Ivory Coast they wanted the most fertile land. A large amount of this happened to be along the western edge of the "Lac de Buyo" which was the lake the Guleb tribe had settled around.
The tribe was incredibly hospitable and open to the new settlers. They willingly offered to share their land, food and other resources with these strange, pale people.
And the French took complete advantage of them.
The next thing the Guleb knew they were dispossed of their lands, crops and other material possessions. What made it worse was that the settlers managed to deceive the tribesmen so completely and then boasted about how easily they had robbed the natives of their land while the other European nations were having so much trouble exploiting their own 'savages'.
This led to the name Guleb being used to describe anyone who was easily deceived or tricked.
The use of the term eventually made it's way to Europe where it was corrupted into 'Gullib' or 'Gullible'.
Recently a small group of descendents from the Guleb tribe have been trying to regain their tribal lands from the government of the Ivory Coast.
Unfortunately they've met with almost no success.
At the same time they've also discovered how their ancestral name has been turned into a derogatory term in the English language. As a result they are campaigning to try and get the word removed in it's current form from the English language. The biggest purveyor (For want of a better word) of the English language are dictionaries, so that's what they concentrated on.
This attempt has been taken as a joke up till now when the descendents have appealed directly to the British Government and the British Publishing Associations Board. Fearing a public relations upset the BPAB has forced the Oxford University Press along with several other publishing companies to remove the word or at least annotate the entry in their next edition of dictionaries to explain the history behind the term.
Now, I personally agree that the Guleb Tribes-people should regain their land and receive reparations from the Ivory Coast governmentfor their losses, but trying to change a language seems kinda stupid.
Yes, it is politically incorrect and offensive to the Guleb Tribe to use the word.
But does it really need to be removed?
-Spookster
User Reviews
Submitted by Spookster (user info) at 2004-08-23 15:32:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This was obviously written as a joke.
I wanted to see how many people would actually be 'gullible'.
No need to try and shoot it down.
Submitted by disAbled (user info) at 2004-08-23 14:02:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
gullible - 1793 (implied in gullibility), earlier cullibility (1728), probably connected to gull, a cant term for "dupe, sucker" (1594), which is of uncertain origin. It is perhaps from the bird (see gull (n.)), or from verb gull "to swallow" (1530, from O.Fr. goule, from L. gula "throat," see gullet); in either case with a sense of "someone who will swallow anything thrown at him." Another possibility is M.E. dial. gull "newly hatched bird" (1382), which is perhaps from O.N. golr "yellow," from the hue of its down.
-From Etymonline.com
Shenannigans.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/42052
Submitted by euripidestrousers (user info) at 2004-08-23 07:38:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Nice try. Load of Bollocks.
Submitted by I_Have_a_Kristen_Fetish (user info) at 2004-08-23 07:01:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 because Stabkill is a spammer.
Submitted by DeathJester (user info) at 2004-08-23 06:27:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
ShenanI don't believe you.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-08-23 06:20:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You know how often I use the word gullible? Maybe once a month.
I wrote a post. Just now. To be posted tonight sometime.
Guess which word is one of the punchlines in it?
Submitted by Spookster (user info) at 2004-08-23 06:19:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
It would seem that globalnews.com is down.
Hopefully it'll be back up in the next couple of days.