ImTheCaptain
I disagree with you
na, it never happens, townie. impossible.
I saw a baby girl James on Facebook a couple weeks ago :shrug
the relevance is that some people want to know how to refer to a person ahead of time. also, it's probably a standardized corporate signature; just because it's David this time doesn't mean it's not "Sam" or "Ellis" next time.
Then it would be better to use the person's name, rather than an ambiguous pronoun that could apply to multiple people in the email chain.
I literally can't think of a time I've had to make a choice about what 3rd person pronoun to use in an email.
"Can you ask if Geeta is available that week?"
I don't even know District's gender
I'm not suggesting there's no way to avoid writing sentences without pronouns. I do regularly *not* know the gender of a person I'm referring to.
And yet somehow you survive.
"Can you ask Geeta if (s)he is available that week?" was from a work email I wrote today. (I knew the correct pronoun.)
It can be a bit tough working with India to know which pronoun to use in conversation or in email sometimes if you haven't met someone. I've seen it in internal email sigs for folks in our India office.
I believe the boomers call it "virtue signaling" which also gets them mad when the email sig says "Please consider the environment before printing this email."
In Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, it’s harder and harder to not be aware. That’s because school days and meetings — and even hockey games — often begin with a “land acknowledgment,” a formal statement that pays tribute to the original inhabitants of the land. Indigenous peoples have acknowledged one another’s lands for centuries, but in the past decade, some Western governments have begun to promote the practice. An acknowledgment might be short: “This event is taking place on traditional Chickasaw land.” Or it might be longer and more specific: “We are gathered today on the occupied territory of the Musqueam people, who have stewarded this land for generations.”
TRENDING NOW
16 Sixteen-Year-Olds Guess How Much Time They Spend on Their Phones a Day
The purpose of these statements is to show respect for indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the land. Practicing acknowledgment can also raise awareness about histories that are often suppressed or forgotten.
“There have always been indigenous peoples in the spaces we call home, and there always will be,” Kanyon Sayers-Roods, a Mutsun Ohlone activist in Northern California, tells Teen Vogue. The Ohlone are indigenous to the Bay Area, and Kanyon is often invited to make acknowledgment statements at events in San Francisco and Oakland.
“The acknowledgment process is about asking, What does it mean to live in a post-colonial world? What did it take for us to get here? And how can we be accountable to our part in history?” she says.
Not a real government agency but a “people-powered department,” the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture offers a resource called “Honor Native Land: A Guide and Call to Acknowledgment," created in consultation with more than a dozen Natives from various nations who recognized that while acknowledgment is common in indigenous spaces, it may be a new practice for non-Natives.
In addition to customizable “You Are On _______ Land” posters, an organizational pledge, and the hashtag #HonorNativeLand, the USDAC offers a step-by-step guide to acknowledgment:
1. Identify.
“The first step is identifying the traditional inhabitants of the lands you’re on. This task may be complicated by multiple and contested histories . . . So it is important to proceed with care, doing good research before making statements of acknowledgment.”
2. Articulate.
“Once you’ve identified the group(s) who should be recognized, formulate the statement. There is no exact script . . . Beginning with just a simple sentence would be a meaningful intervention in most U.S. spaces . . . Often, statements specifically honor elders . . . Acknowledgments may also make explicit mention of the occupied, unceded nature of the territory.”
3. Deliver.
“Offer your acknowledgment as the first element of a welcome to the next public gathering or event that you host. If . . . you’ve built relationships with members of Native communities, consider inviting them to give a welcome before yours . . . Acknowledgment should be approached not as a set of obligatory words to rush through . . . Consider your own place in the story of colonization and of undoing its legacy.”
Which in turn is hilarious that boomers would think anyone would print an email.
not sure if joking b/c clearly you don't work with boomers, who print every email