The fine folks who run the San Francisco Unified School District apparently had literally nothing else to do this week, and so they opted for... this:
The word "chief" will no longer be used in reference to job titles in the San Francisco Unified School District in an effort, school officials said, to avoid the word's connotation with Native Americans.
In an administrative decision released on Wednesday, the school district decided to retire the term among its 10,000 employees, said spokesperson Gentle Blythe.
"While there are many opinions on the matter, our leadership team agreed that, given that Native American members of our community have expressed concerns over the use of the title, we are no longer going to use it," Blythe said in an email.
Okay that is just so funny that I could laugh until I cry.
Here's a funny little secret: "Chief" is not actually connected to Native Americans in any meaningful way. It existed long before Europeans first came to the United States; the Etymology Online Dictionary lists its origins as around circa 1300, which means it was being used several centuries before Englishmen ever set foot in Native American territory.
In fact, the word "chief" comes from the same Old French term, which derives from the Latin "caput," from which we get words like "capital" and "captain."
It was only used to describe Native American clan leaders in the 1700s. William Penn (the man Pennsylvania is named for) called them "kings" instead, so maybe we should get rid of that Germanic term, too!
While we're at it, let's get rid of all other terms that could refer to executive authority – and erase anything that could remind us of Native Americans while we're at it! Problem solved!
Isn't it great that "education" officials are so profoundly ignorant of history?
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