If it's racist, call it racist: Associated Press Stylebook changes guidelines for journalists

SummerMadness

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If it's racist, call it racist: Associated Press Stylebook changes guidelines for journalists
If it is racist, call it racist, says the Associated Press Stylebook in a change to guidelines announced Friday.

The AP Stylebook, a manual widely used by journalists at many news outlets, including NBC News Digital, has changed its entry on race, advising reporters and editors against the use of ambiguous terms such as "racially charged" and "racially motivated" to describe incidents that display racial bias, the Poynter Institute reported.

"The terms racism and racist can be used in broad references or in quotations to describe the hatred of a race, or assertion of the superiority of one race over others," the AP states in the new guideline announced at a national conference of the American Copy Editors Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday.

"Racially charged" and other euphemisms for racism is political correctness run amok.
 

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SummerMadness

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That's not only an interesting article, but a useful one and good to know about. Thanks for posting it! :cool:
I think it’s an interesting topic that arises from the idea of “balance” and “neutrality” on different topics. There is this idea that all ideas are equal, at least that how journalism treats some bigoted attitudes and ideas. I believe they fear having bias by questioning racism, but I think if you asked the same “biased” questions of someone that was not racist, it would be fine as you would see they’re not ridiculous.

But I guess that’s the crux of the issue, when something is racist, call it racism. Considering that white supremacists have been trying to blend in and alter their language so that ther racism can hide in plain sight, it is important to simply point out this racism.
 
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2PhiloVoid

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I think it’s an interesting topic that arises from the idea of “balance” and “neutrality” on different topics. There is this idea that all ideas are equal, at least that how journalism treats some bigoted attitudes and ideas. I believe they fear having bias by questioning racism, but I think if you asked the same “biased” questions of someone that was not racist, it would be fine as you would see they’re not ridiculous.
That's a very good point! All ideas aren't equal, and I'd even go for saying that some ideas, from a Christian perspective, aren't really ideas at all but rather deceptions. One of those faux-ideas being something along the line that it's somehow better to be 'white' than to be some other possible skin hue.

But I guess that’s the crux of the issue, when something is racist, call it racism. Considering that white supremacists have been trying to blend in and alter their language so that ther racism can hide in plain sight, it is important to simply point out this racism.
I have nothing really to add to that point since it just about says it all ... racism is racism! :cool:
 
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Ana the Ist

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But I guess that’s the crux of the issue, when something is racist, call it racism. Considering that white supremacists have been trying to blend in and alter their language so that ther racism can hide in plain sight, it is important to simply point out this racism.

Like saying "diversity" when they mean "less white people" or "inclusive" when they mean "everyone but white people"....

Oh wait, that's a different group.
 
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