There are 35 phrases that Freshmen entering James Madison University were told to avoid as they enter their first year in college. They are very common things that most people use in polite conversation but which social justice warriors have determined are microaggressions.
According to The College Fix, the list is adapted from a book by Dr. Maura Cullen, called 35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say. Uttering these phrases are said to “widen the diversity gap” and are contrary to a “safe and inclusive environment.”
The list was distributed during orientation by student leaders who were instructed to use the handout as a “resource” to ensure incoming freshmen felt accepted. JMU’s director of communications, Bill Wyatt, told The College Fix that it was only an “exercise” for the student volunteers to “understand how language affects others” and was not to be used to instruct first-year students what they can and can’t say. Riiight.
Below is the full list. Use it to determine just how deplorable you are. You probably didn't even know!
1. “Some of my best friends are …”
2. “I know exactly how you feel.”
3. “I don’t think of you as…”
4. “The same thing happens to me too.”
5. “It was only a joke! Don’t take things so seriously.”
6. What do ‘your’ people think?”
7. “What are you?” or “Where are you really from?”
8. “I don’t see color” or “I’m color blind.”
9. “You are so articulate.”
10. “It is so much better than it used to be. Just be patient.”
11. “You speak the language very well.”
12. Asking black people about their hair or hygiene.
13. Saying to LBGTQ people “what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom is your business.”
14. “Yes, but you are a ‘good’ one.”
15. “You have such a pretty face.”
16. “I never owned slaves.”
17. “If you are going to live in this country, learn to speak the language!”
18. “She/he is a good person. She/he didn’t mean anything by it.”
19. “When I’ve said the same thing to other people like you, they don’t mind.”
20. Calling women “girls, honey, sweetie pie” or other familiar terms.
21. When people of color say, “It is not the same thing.”
22. When people of faith say, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
23. When white men say, “We are the ones being discriminated against now!”
24. Referring to older people as “cute.”
25. Asking a transgender person, “What are you really? A man or a woman?”
26. Referring to the significant other, partner, or spouse of a same gender couple as their “friend.”
27. “Why do ‘they’ (fill in the blank) always have to sit together? They are always sticking together.”
28. “People just need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps.”
29. People with disabilities are “courageous.”
30. “That’s so gay/queer. That’s so retarded.”
31. “I don’t see difference. We are all part of the same race, the human race.”
32. I don’t care if you are pink, purple or orange, I treat all people the same.”
33. Asking a transgender person, “Have you had the operation.”
34. Saying to a Jewish person, “You are so lucky to have ‘your’ Christmas spread over a week!”
35. “Here’s another book on political correctness.”
