Federal Science Agency’s Gender And Race Speech Codes Take Criticism

Apr 11, 2023 | Political News

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s speech directives for scientists have come under fire for embracing critical race theory and gender ideology ideas.

The Center Square recently reported on the NIST’s “Inclusive Language Guidance,” which tells scientists which words or phrases they can or cannot use in reports.

The guidance, for example, tells federal employees to avoid using the terms “blacklist” or “whitelist” because of the racial connotations and also cautions against “using terms that assign a gender to inanimate objects, such as male/female connectors.”

The guidance also tells report writers to “avoid terms such as master/slave that perpetuate negative stereotypes or unequal power relationships.”

“This new language code by the National Institute of Standards and Technology is one more sign that the Biden Administration in only going deeper and deeper into the racialization and sexualization of everything,” Mike Gonzalez, an expert at the Heritage Foundation, told The Center Square. “It puts the ruinous critical race theory and gender theory on steroids.”

The NIST is a federal agency created to help the U.S. innovate and compete scientifically and technologically with its rivals like China. Congress appropriated about $1.65 billion for the group for 2023.

Many scientists and researchers have begun raising the alarm about the rising politicization of scientific research and related agencies.