Please do not use the word field, as in 'doing field work'

[bluemingidiot]

Please refrain from using the word field, as in 'doing field work,' as it is considered to be racist.

nypost.com/2023/01/11/usc-will-no-longer-use-the-word-field-over-racist-origin/

[Maura]

That's ridiculous. As many slaves as worked in the field, there have certainly been poor owners and their children working in the field. It is an insult to connect "field" with slavery. Heck, when I go out examining property for taxes, it is called "field work". How is this possibly useful?

[krisinmi]

I agree, ridiculous. As the great granddaughter of a white sharecropper, field means a place where crops are grown. Nothing about slavery.

[Melissa]

I'm guessing the people who came up with this haven't spent much time in the hay field...

[Woodpecker]

This is crazy, “ shut up & sit down.” 😝

[mogal]

Same with plantation as in Plimoth Plantation on the Cape Cod coast. Just a place to grow crops.

[Mr DAVID In Wisconsin]

My grandparents were sharecroppers. They worked hard and were respectable. I associate field with hard work and determination. These folks are total idiots.

[bowdonkey]

Sounds like they want to replace the old F word with a new one to get slapped over. I gotta dig out the old hockey helmet if I want any senses left at the end of the day.

[bluemingidiot]

"In the late 19th century, thanks to innovations by Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé, milk chocolate became a new type of chocolate, which would quickly become popular. As a consequence, the term dark chocolate was coined to distinguish the traditional chocolate from its new rival. In the late 20th century, dark chocolate regained popularity due to its superior supposed health benefits over milk chocolate."

This was during the Jim Crow era.  Might the word 'dark' "have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign?”

[texasartist]

so what should we saying in place of " hey look out in the field, I think there's a coyote?". Is it to be replaced with "hey look across the big ol dirt patch, I think I see an undomesticated dog?"

[bluemingidiot]

And when it comes to undomesticated dogs, we for sure don't even want to discuss gender.

[Mr DAVID In Wisconsin]

No because this thread would be 700 pages long defining and discussing the current 73 genders.