That "concern" in modern United States is literally the end of your professional life! So these self-appointed thought and speech police have, and will employ without a second-thought just for twitter points, through social media, a way to amplify their power to the extent that they can do something previously impossible and end your career over a (possibly imagined) thought "crime" or speech "crime". So from that perspective, all the walking on eggshells and concern about this is absolutely real not just a socially imagined construct or idea.
So when pictures surface of someone that the in crowd doesn't like is an old Halloween costume, they all play it up as if the person's a monster. Realistically, few if anyone actually care deep down, and so when the same thing happens to someone currently in favor, it's easy to let it slide.
The problem isn't that justin Trudeau (who I despise incidentally) got a pass for dressing up in a costume (which obviously wasn't remotely offensive in the context it was in), it's that other people's careers have been destroyed for the same thing.
Just like e.g. Bill Clinton "not inhaling" - nobody gives a shit if he smoked pot. But simultaneously thousands of people, mostly who are "undesirables" in the eyes of law enforcement for one reason or another get incarcerated for it.
Nah man that's just straight up blackface minstrel, extremely racist and bad. Sorry, you're confusing it with the other time he wore blackface.
Some folks were just too valuable to marginalize. Some aren't. But that's pretty true of any space humans operate in, whether the bad stuff is Halloween costume choices or bad hygiene.
If there are a hundred Justin Trudeaus to choose from, the one that was racist gets left by the wayside (I think this is what scares people about this sort of thing... They realize they aren't special enough to step out of line).
You don't see as much of this in other industries where most companies are busy making actual money (or they will get out-competed by companies who care about their bottom-line more than virtue-signalling).
Those who can't teach, teach Gym.
Those who can't teach Gym, make lists of forbidden words.
Actually as I'm writing this I still draw a blank what it's actually meant to be. But Americans love their acronyms.
It seems to consistently result in visible productions of over reactions that are disconnected from reality.
For example deaf and blind people that I know of prefer to be called deaf or blind.
Brown bagging in my life time has always referred to making one’s own lunch and taking it to work or school in a paper brown bag.
Black box refers to an electrical literal black box which one is unable to see its implementation details without opening it.
The thinking of individuals who produce these works seems to seep into everything they perceive, and so ironically they shouldn’t be producing these lists.
Red, in my experience in most people’s minds, does not refer to Indians predominantly.
BIPOC seems to elevate “capital B” black people and “indigenous” people over others. This seems to be the current initialism in-vogue but I find it inappropriate.
I would err on creating too short of a list over an ever expanding one.
But I digress. That’s not the point of the article. Ideally we don’t have these at all. Not because of administrative bloat being something to avoid but because hopefully you learn how to speak to people with nuance as a result of living life and talking to people with different backgrounds and working continually on your own simple ethical decisions.
As a final comment, much of the social discussions we have in the states are really limited to US centric social perspectives.
People don’t talk like this in many other countries. There’s some irony in being so concerned about how one communicates with other communities that one doesn’t see how myopic this is on an international scale. It’s so American.