FAA hosts inclusive language summit

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GaryM said:
We’re gonna have to list pronouns on our certificate…

I’m not mocking it all, changes like replacing ‘airmen’ with ‘aviator’ are overdue.
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"Aviators" and "airmen" are equally gendered.
 
wheaties said:
There's a huge gender imbalance in pilots and almost all of exposure to GA has been white, middle age/boomer gentlemen.
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Totally different topic. I believe it's this way because too many people limit themselves in believing that they can do more. They keep themselves from believing they can and so never consider it.

Also, in part we have pilots who have been successful in business and can afford airplanes, possibly for reasons of culturally taught aggressiveness. For whatever reason that is, it's mostly white men, but I think it's part of the above too. I fully expect that to naturally change over time, but it will take decades. We don't need to promote people doing things they don't otherwise want to do.
 
I was kept out of aviation until my 50s. Does that mean aviation is biased against young white males?
 
wheaties said:
There's a huge gender imbalance in pilots and almost all of exposure to GA has been white, middle age/boomer gentlemen. Fixing words ain't gonna fix that. It's a start but from all the fuss I'm seeing here about pronouns I have to wonder if you all really want to fix the real problems at all.
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It’s not a start. It’s a waste of time.
 
Half Fast said:
I’m pretty sure that’s a dominatrix with a pilot’s license...
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My wife holds the title of Grand Lady of the International Brotherhood of the Knights of the VIne and her local position is "Master Aviatrix."
 
wheaties said:
There's a huge gender imbalance in pilots and almost all of exposure to GA has been white, middle age/boomer gentlemen. Fixing words ain't gonna fix that.
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I don’t think anyone is proposing it as a fix, but it sure can help! And reading this thread, we need all the help we can get.
 
mryan75 said:
I don’t think anyone is proposing it as a fix, but it sure can help! And reading this thread, we need all the help we can get.
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It’s not going to help. You want to help make time on your schedule and volunteer. Open up your pocket and donate some cash to a program that helps young people in disadvantaged situations realize they have control of their outcome. No one gives a **** what pronoun you use. At least not anyone mature enough to understand how the world works.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
It’s not going to help. You want to help make time on your schedule and volunteer. Open up your pocket and donate some cash to a program that helps young people in disadvantaged situations realize they have control of their outcome. No one gives a **** what pronoun you use. At least not anyone mature enough to understand how the world works.
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Okay, okay, I’ll stay off your lawn.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Better yet volunteer and donate like I do and you might make a difference.
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Which organization might I contribute to that teaches young people in disadvantaged situations that “nobody gives a ****” how they feel? Many thanks in advance.
 
mryan75 said:
I don’t think anyone is proposing it as a fix, but it sure can help! And reading this thread, we need all the help we can get.
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As far as I can tell, the door is open to anyone who wants to be a part of the industry, so I fail to see how ‘words’ can make a significant change. I think people get way too hung up on insignificant concepts when there’s larger fish to fry.
 
RyanB said:
As far as I can tell, the door is open to anyone who wants to be a part of the industry, so I fail to see how ‘words’ can make a significant change.
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In some ways I think this is reaching farther down the road than where the problem lies. Just looking around and seeing how many black and female pilots there are around (pretty much none) I think it’s pretty clear that perhaps the door isn’t as open as we’d like to think it is. In any event, I can tell you from a professional linguist’s perspective (I work for the largest translation company in the world), the language is going to change whether we like it or not. Basically all of our clients have rules on linguistic inclusiveness nowadays, whereas two years ago, none of them did. (If there were 20 companies in the Fortune 1000 who aren’t our clients is be shocked).

Whether words will change the world, we shall see. But if this sort of thing upsets you (and I don’t mean you specifically), be prepared to be upset for the rest of your life.
 
mryan75 said:
In some ways I think this is reaching farther down the road than where the problem lies. Just looking around and seeing how many black and female pilots there are around (pretty much none) I think it’s pretty clear that perhaps the door isn’t as open as we’d like to think it is. In any event, I can tell you from a professional linguist’s perspective (I work for the largest translation company in the world), the language is going to change whether we like it or not. Basically all of our clients have rules on linguistic inclusiveness nowadays, whereas two years ago, none of them did. (If there were 20 companies in the Fortune 1000 who aren’t our clients is be shocked).

Whether words will change the world, we shall see. But if this sort of thing upsets you (and I don’t mean you specifically), be prepared to be upset for the rest of your life.
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Don’t know where you are, but, more than half of the CFIs working towards a career, that I’ve talked to in the last six months were black or female. I’m good with that, but It wasn’t terminology that put them there.
 
Salty said:
Don’t know where you are, but, more than half of the CFIs working towards a career, that I’ve talked to in the last six months were black or female. I’m good with that, but It wasn’t terminology that put them there.
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That’s fantastic to hear. I would bet that outreach programs and mentorship were involved. All good things.
 
I really believe it's only a tiny minority of very vocal people who actually care about this language stuff. The trouble is they're so obnoxious that it irritates the crap out of the rest of us. In the real world I can't recall ever talking to a woman, black person, or any other minority who voiced any problems with terminology and quite a few who thought it was as stupid as I do.

As far as minorities in aviation, I think it's absolutely correct that the door is open. I think it would be rare to find a flight school or CFI discouraging anyone who wants to fly. We are always discussing how there aren't enough as-is. That said, just because the door is open doesn't mean people are coming through it.

The argument that role models don't exist falls pretty flat. Everyone knows the name Amelia Earhart, I think most people know about the Tuskegee airmen. We wouldn't need to look far to find famous female pilots in our modern era either

Where the idea of a disparity might hold water though is this; I bet most of us(certainly not all) got exposed to aviation through a friend, family member. We also had to be wealthy enough to be able to pay for it. This isn't a poor man's hobby and it isn't something on many people's radar. While there are certainly people who just drove by an airport and saw airplanes or got excited after a commercial flight my expectation is the number or people coming in without those pre-existing connections is probably pretty low. I mean I only found this because of stories my dad had told about having a plane before I was born and getting sick of making 8 hour drives all the time. Even then I had to dig to figure out how to get started without knowing anyone actively involved. POA was essential in that respect btw.

I'm all for getting more of anyone into this, I'm just not sure how much we can do that we're not already doing. But if something like the term "airmen" is enough to run someone off I don't see how they'd ever handle all the other discouraging stuff we all deal with to fly.
 
mryan75 said:
I don’t think anyone is proposing it as a fix, but it sure can help! And reading this thread, we need all the help we can get.
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can change names and terminology all we want. It will not change why females or minorities don’t want to be pilots.
 
Its funny, all you have to say is 'inclusive language summit' and people fall over each other to insert their foot in their mouth.
 
weilke said:
Its funny, all you have to say is 'inclusive language summit' and people fall over each other to insert their foot in their mouth.
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I think "Inclusive language summit" is funny. In a sad way.
 
AKBill said:
Shoot, I'm not going to be able to attend. I'll be working....:rolleyes: Guess I could take a vacation day and watch on U tube, not... Or go to the local FSDO, drink their coffee and eat their cookies..
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Yours has cookies?!
 
cowman said:
I really believe it's only a tiny minority of very vocal people who actually care about this language stuff. The trouble is they're so obnoxious that it irritates the crap out of the rest of us. In the real world I can't recall ever talking to a woman, black person, or any other minority who voiced any problems with terminology and quite a few who thought it was as stupid as I do.
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I am both female and a minority, and I totally agree with you. This stuff irritates the crap out of me too. I knew that I could become a pilot in the 1970s, and I did.
 
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