Petition In Uruguay To Remove Racist Phrases From Spanish Language Dictionary

Making The Spanish Dictionary Less Racist
MIAMI - JUNE 16: Landi Rojas from Ecuador looks through her English/Spanish dictionary as she sits in class at the English Center June 16, 2006 in Miami, Florida. The school holds adult education classes that include English language classes for people who have immigrated to the United States. U.S. President George W. Bush recently said, ?Part of the greatness of America is that we've been able to help assimilate people into our society... And part of that assimilation process is English. I believe this: If you learn English, and you're a hard worker, and you have a dream, you have the capacity from going from picking crops to owning the store, or from sweeping office floors to being an office manager.? (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
MIAMI - JUNE 16: Landi Rojas from Ecuador looks through her English/Spanish dictionary as she sits in class at the English Center June 16, 2006 in Miami, Florida. The school holds adult education classes that include English language classes for people who have immigrated to the United States. U.S. President George W. Bush recently said, ?Part of the greatness of America is that we've been able to help assimilate people into our society... And part of that assimilation process is English. I believe this: If you learn English, and you're a hard worker, and you have a dream, you have the capacity from going from picking crops to owning the store, or from sweeping office floors to being an office manager.? (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

An online campaign in Uruguay is trying to eliminate racist expressions from the Spanish language.

Organizers of the campaign, which was funded by the House of Afro-Uruguayan Culture, have written a letter to Spain's Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE in Spanish), asking the institution to remove the expression "trabajar como un negro" from its famous dictionary.

The expression literally means "to work like a negro" and it harks back to the days when black slaves in the Americas were brutally overworked by their white masters.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot