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I’ve written previously about the list of words that automatically disqualify applicants for federal grants, but the New York Times has now published a more complete list of about 200 forbidden terms, along with examples of editing of federal websites.

These are perceived as “woke,” which the Trump administration especially opposes.

But many of these terms describe reality.

As a long time public health advocate, I take this quite personally.

Now, you can’t research or write about anything having to do with underrepresented minorities or inequality, but you also can’t do anything related to terms like these.

• activists
• advocates
• at risk
• barrier
• climate science
• confirmation bias
• female
• health disparity
• institutional
• mental health
• political
• privilege
• sociocultural
• systemic
• undervalued
• women

This is right out of George Orwell’s 1984.  It would be funny, if it weren’t having an effect.  I know of at least one instance of a federal scientist had to remove his name from a paper because it dealt with inequity—a topic very much on this list.

This kind of group-think deserves ridicule and firm pushback.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I intend to keep writing about these issues and flaunt the scarlet A—for Activist and Advocate. (along with a W for woman).

An anonymous reader sent me this list, purportedly from the National Science Foundation, of words that disqualify scientists from submitting papers for publication, and applicants from getting grants.  The reader also sent the NSF decision tree for use of these words.  I cannot trace the original source of this material.  If you have any information about whether this is for real, please let me know.  My favorite words on this list?  Advocate and women.

The disqualifying words:

• activism
• activists
• advocacy
• advocate
• advocates
• antiracist
• barrier
• barriers
• biased
• biased toward
• biases
• biases towards
• bipoc
• black and latinx
• community diversity
• community equity
• cultural differences
• cultural heritage
• culturally responsive
• disabilities
• disability
• discriminated
• discrimination
• discriminatory
• diverse backgrounds
• diverse communities
• diverse community
• diverse group
• diverse groups
• diversified
• diversify
• diversifying
• diversity and inclusion
• diversity equity
• enhance the diversity
• enhancing diversity
• equal opportunity
• equality
• equitable
• equity
• ethnicity
• excluded
• female
• females
• fostering inclusivity
• gender
• gender diversity
• genders
• hate speech
• hispanic minority
• historically
• implicit bias
• implicit biases
• inclusion
• inclusive
• inclusiveness
• inclusivity
• increase diversity
• increase the diversity
• indigenous community
• inequalities
• inequality
• inequitable
• inequities
• institutional
• lgbt
• marginalize
• marginalized
• minorities
• minority
• multicultural
• polarization
• political
• prejudice
• privileges
• promoting diversity
• race and ethnicity
• racial
• racial diversity
• racial inequality
• racial justice
• racially
• racism
• sense of belonging
• sexual preferences
• social justice
• socio cultural
• socio economic
• sociocultural
• socioeconomic status
• stereotypes
• systemic
• trauma
• under appreciated
• under represented
• under served
• underrepresentation
• underrepresented
• underserved
• undervalued
• victim
• women
• women and underrepresented

The NSF decision tree for disqualifying papers or grant applications using those words:

Tomorrow: How to comment on all of this.

Resources sent by readers

• A Washington Post story on the list
• The likely effects of the list on researchers at UC San Diego
• What caused all this, according to the Senate Commerce Committee
• The full report of the Senate Commerce Committee (see Appendix B for much longer list of trigger words)