The University of Southern California announced Wednesday that it would no longer allow the use the word “field” because of its racist connotations. A letter to faculty, staff, and students at the School of Social Work stated the reasoning behind the decision. “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ maybe have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.” As if on cue, the Biden administration immediately announced it would permanently shut down the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) because of the departments “concentrated effort on work in the field”
At the afternoon press conference White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre boasted the move. “We all know that the Department of Agriculture has been rooted in racism since its inception. In fact, the original purpose of the USDA was to enshrine labor laws that protected the rights of slave owners on cotton farms. This systemic racism has gone on long enough, and the President says it’s high time we did something about it.”
From the press corps, Peter Doocy asked, “How many people work at the USDA and what will become of them?”
After shuffling through her papers, Jean-Pierre responded, “It looks like there are about 92,000 employees at the USDA. The plan here states that minority and other protected classes of employees, LgbTq+n, will be offered jobs in the newly expanded IRS. The remaining racist employees will be given a severance package.”
Doocy asked a follow up question, “and what does that severance package look like?”
“Well,” Jean-Pierre said, “give me a second to find it.” After shuffling through the papers once again, she cleared her throat and said, “it’s a very generous package, considering it’s going to a bunch of racists. For every year of service, they will receive one day’s pay. I think we can all agree that this is more than equitable considering the damage this department has inflicted on minorities for eons.”
Doocy simply shook his head and sat down.
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that after Biden shuts down the USDA, the AI developed for stablediffusionweb.com is still inherently sexist and racist. If you feed it the prompt “Social workers in a field” all of the subjects are female, and most are Black.