Today, a new appreciation for a multi-cultural heritage is arising. The melting pot is becoming a potpourri. And yet cultural and racial biases die hard. Numerous subtle attitudes perpetuate bias. The predominantly Western European heritage of the United States and Canada is reflected in many aspects of daily living and, inevitably, in language.
Language has the power to reinforce bias.
It not only expresses ideas and concepts, but also shapes thought. In spite of its broad ethnic and racial base, our language subtly preserves the Western European culture as the standard. It reinforces stereotypes. When stereotypic words and images and culturally or racially biased standards appear, they actually perpetuate ethnic and racial bias and inadvertently work against affirmative action goals and policies forbidding discrimination. In fact, many people grow up relatively isolated from those of different national origins, except through the impersonal medium of television.