Brickbat: The Chief Problem

Seagames50 / Dreamstime

The Toronto school board has voted to abolish job titles such as chief financial officer and chief administrative officer out of concern the word "chief" in job titles could be offensive to Indians. A spokesman for the school system admits that no one has actually complained about the word.

Comments

[Libertarian]

I can't believe this is happening in the land of sky blue waters.

[Conchfritters]

That's actually Minnesota, but I can't believe the Scandahoovian Soviet Socialist Republic didn't think of that first. That sounds like something Governor Mark Dayton would come up with.

[Libertarian]

Say what you will, but the white man certainly knows how to plan ahead. The word came about 200 years before Columbus was born.

1250?1300; Middle English < Anglo-French chief, chef, Old French chef < Vulgar Latin *capum, re-formation of Latin caput head

[Rat on a train]

Didn't Julius Caesar write plans for the oppression of American Indians?

[Jerryskids]

"Head" would of course be offensive to certain Pacific Islander tribes.

[Longtobefree]

And feminists

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

"A spokesman for the school system admits that no one has actually complained about the word."

So no one has standing? Sounds like this bull is sitting, then.

[Adans smith]

Their not so brave.

[Jerryskids]

I'm sure after this embarrassing episode their faces will be red, man.

[Adans smith]

How did they think this a good idea?

[cgr2727]

Somebody on the school board must've been smoking some hokum in peace pipe.

[Agammamon]

I. Uh. Do they . . . do they not realize that 'chief' is not a Native American word appropriated?

That 'Chief Financial Officer' is a correct usage of the word 'Chief' while 'Indian Chief' is a massive misunderstanding of how Native American tribes were organized and how their hierarchies worked?

Or is it that if a minority has appropriated something from the dominant culture then it becomes as much theirs as anything they created themselves and that's why we can't use any of the English language at all anymore?

[Longtobefree]

You do know you can be banned for use of logic and reason, right?

[Azathoth!!]

No, they don't realize that.

Here's why--

Revising how history is taught in schools and universities is a possible solution to the complex question. Perhaps teachers could incorporate more first person accounts from a broader spectrum of voices to paint a more accurate picture of the past. Moving away from textbook learning could be the first step toward engaging students to not only think for themselves, but to grapple with the moral complexity of history's key figures

[Fist of Etiquette]

You can't spell Toronto without Tonto.

[Rufus The Monocled]

I go's to Tonto t'day!

[Trigger Warning]

The rank of Chief Master Sergeant, who are addressed solely as "Chief," triggers me. I demand the rank be renamed to its RAF equivalent, which is something like "Her Royal Majesty's Right and Proper Flight Sergeant Most Esteemed, Esq., the V."

[Roger the Shrubber]

No state, town, river, mountain range, street, etc. should have a name that is derived from Native American or First Nation language or culture. It would go a long way towards totally obliterating any remembrance of these cultures, assuring that no future cultural appropriation or insensitivity occurs.

[cgr2727]

Excellent point. Aren't we culturally appropriating when we call that big mountain in Alaska "Denali"? Oh wait, I thought we were calling it that now because "McKinley" was a rapey-slavey-white-male. Sorry, I'm getting confused by all the virtue signalling.

[IceTrey]

But chief isn't even a native word.

[Stoic]

I'm pretty sure the "problem" with Chiefs as a mascot is with the depiction of an stereotyped Indian ? not the actual word. Stuff like this just shows how out-of-touch progs are with the "minorities" they think they're helping. Let's change the names of our administrators, but continue forcing Natives to attend our government schools so they can be indoctrinated into the dominant culture.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

And progressivism just continues to hurdle toward its inevitably logical conclusion....at which point no one will be allowed to leave the confines of their domiciles for fear of causing offense to someone somewhere from some time.

[Inigo Montoya]

I'm guessing they considered going with "head" or "top" until they realized that might offend gays.

They then went on to eliminate the term "chairperson" as it might be offensive to paraplegics.

I say the use of any job titles should go, because "job" is often half of the term for a sexual act and the first three letters in "title" is a potentially offensive word for a female breast.

It's all so problematic! I can't even.

[Citizen X - #6]

From now on, the only permissible public language is a soft humming sound.

[Longtobefree]

use of humming is offensive to the musically challenged.

[Fuck You - Cut Spending]

The new title will be Kemosabe.

[Citizen X - #6]

A spokesman for the school system admits that no one has actually complained about the word.

... at which point every administrator involved in the decision was fired and sentenced by a judge to wear motley for the rest of their lives, in an alternate universe where things actually make sense.

[Citizen X - #6]

A spokesman for the school system admits that no one has actually complained about the word.

... at which point every administrator involved in the decision was fired and sentenced by a judge to wear motley for the rest of their lives, in an alternate universe where things actually make sense.

[Rufus The Monocled]

'Nother day, 'nother 'tardation.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Anything, anything at all, to acoid dealing with actual problems.

[Lily Bulero]

How could this happen, oops, I mean, what could have made this happen?

[sarcasmic]

Then there was the time Geronimo jumped out of a plane and yelled "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

[Rat on a train]

Harbinger: Geronimo!
Rabinowitz: Geronimo!
Geronimo: Me!

[Longtobefree]

better for all if they abolish the positions as well as the titles.

[Lily Bulero]

This is the same sort of PC nonsense which led this French town to change its totally harmless and inoffensive name.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

They should have stuck with liquid manure pond. That is so French...

[Brandybuck]

I call my boss "El Jefe". Problem solved.

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