Scientific words not to be pronounced in front of Trump

With all the signing of decrees, isn't Donald Trump suffering from hand cramps? Since his return to the White House, he hasn't stopped. And this time, it's the decree concerning the dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programmes (DEI) that is causing concern.

This new measure aims to eliminate any ideology that could be considered 'woke' within state agencies.

Darby Saxbe, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, therefore fears she won’t be able to continue her research on 'systemic inflammation and health.' To enforce the decree, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which financially supports scientific research in the United States, issued an internal memo urging researchers to ban certain terms from their work, reports 20 Minutes.

An important selection

This document, which the Washington Post was able to review in early February, sets out a series of words likely to cancel the funding of a study. 'Woman,' 'activism,' 'minorities,' 'barrier,' 'trauma,' 'advocate,' 'equity,' 'BIPOC,' 'equality,' 'inclusion'... the list is long and has just been released on Bluesky by Darby Saxbe. This vocabulary curation pertains to research, training, conferences, and 'any other grant activity that uses or encourages the use of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) principles and frameworks or that violates federal non-discrimination laws', states the internal memo, cited by the Washington Post.

Darby Saxbe raises the alarm further: 'If you say you're going to study men and women, you're flagged. If you say you're going to control for socio-economic status – a completely standard practice – you're flagged. Disability? Flagged. The word ‘systemic’ is on the banned list, so if I study systemic inflammation and health, I'm flagged. If I study political science, I'm flagged. If I study trauma, I'm flagged.' Alessandro Rigolo, an associate professor in urban planning, also warns about the words 'climate change,' 'environmental justice,' and 'climate.' 'I can’t believe I'm writing this from the United States of America', he writes.

More than 3,400 grants

In total, there are "more than 3,400 grants", representing more than "$2.05 billion in federal funds", that the Republican president of the Senate Commerce Committee is questioning, deeming the projects initiated under the Biden administration as "dubious". And as the Texas senator pointed out in a statement dated February 11: the Trump administration is going to “strike a blow to the absurdities of the radical left” and “end the politicization of NSF funding to restore the integrity of scientific research".

But who said that freedom of speech was under threat in Europe?

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: 20 Minutes - Illustration: ©Unsplash)