9 Words That Need to be Abolished because they are full of bias, judgment, and meaning about who or what is automatically “correct” and “normal” in some cases and in other cases “incorrect” and “abnormal” and because they do not recognize the socially and culturally constructed nature of ideas and history related to said words.

1. Alien (e.g., illegal alien, alien concept, as in life outside of Earth)

2. Dropout

3. Handicap

4. Civilization

5. Illiterate (or literate)

6. Inefficient (or efficient) 

7. Straight (as in being honest, conventional, or as in not gay)

8. Criminal

9. Foreign (e.g., foreign language, foreigner)

What words would you add to this list? Please leave them in comments or tweet them! 

See the full Hidden Power of Words Series postings, too!