Cancel Culture Comes for the Word: 'Chief'

(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
AP featured image
In this Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014 photo, a Merriam-Webster dictionary sits atop their citation files for the 2014 word of the year, “culture,” at the dictionary publisher’s offices in Springfield, Mass. Citation files are notations of a word used in context over time. Merriam-Webster based its pick and nine runners-up on significant increases in lookups this year over last at its homepage, Merriam-Webster.com. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
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We are in the middle of a crazy purge where anything that offends anyone is being canceled or stricken from the record.

Everywhere we turn around, there’s another statue falling, another person losing their job because the mob has gotten them for things like being a stepmom or cracking knuckles.

At what point do people start saying “Enough,” this is insane? If we go by history, when there have been manias in the past, there’s a reckoning coming or a pushback.

But apparently we’re not at that point yet — there’s another word that must be canceled for being offensive.

On the block? Chief.

The mayor of Duluth, Minnesota, Emily Larson, is moving on Monday to get rid of the word in any city job titles, claiming its offensive to Native Americans, proposing to change the name of the chief administrative officer to city administrator and chief financial officer to finance director.

From Fox News:

Duluth Mayor Emily Larson called on city council members to vote in approval “so that we have more inclusive leadership and less language that is rooted in hurt and offensive, intentional marginalization.”

Alicia Kozlowski, Duluth’s community relations officer, told the Star Tribune that “chief” is used as “a racial epithet, and it turns into a microaggression.” She said the city is trying to be proactive about the change before residents ask.

“I think that there are other titles that we have the opportunity to use to steer away from language that may put people down based off their race or culture,” said Kozlowski, who is a member of the Grand Portage and Fond du Lac Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa.

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So the very use of the word, not in any way putting anyone down, but as a recognition of people’s position, indeed the responsibility of their position, is now in and of itself offensive?

Larson said they also would look at police chief and fire chief, but wouldn’t be covering those positions in their meeting on Monday because of the prevalence of those terms elsewhere and the difficulty of figuring out another appropriate term.

In the middle of trying to come back from a pandemic and millions being thrown out of work, with a side of riots on top of that, this is what they are concentrating on? Do we even have to look to know that Mayor Larson is a Democrat?

Can we say enough already? Bring on the pushback to sanity.

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