The Human Rights League (LDH) calls for “urgently rectify” the definition of several words from the new dictionary of the French Academy such as “negro”, “race” or even “femme” and said “consternation” by this vision of the world as described in the work.
The LDH discovered “with amazement and dismay that many definitions contribute to an archaic vision of our world at best”denounces the organization on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 in a press release.
This new version of the dictionary, which includes 59,000 words, follows the eighth edition published in 1935, and the first version dating from 1694. The entries in the current edition have been written, in alphabetical order, over the last forty years.
During a press conference which followed the solemn delivery of the dictionary, the Academy indicated that it was considering the possibility of modifying, in the online version, certain definitions without waiting for the re-examination of the word concerned which normally takes place A to Z.
“The treatment of racism, fraught with issues in the world in which we live”East “astounding”continues the LDH about the work, the ninth edition of which was given to President Emmanuel Macron on November 14.
The “race” is thus defined in the dictionary as “each of the large groups between which the human species is superficially distributed according to the distinctive physical characteristics which have been maintained or which have appeared in each, due to their geographical isolation for prolonged periods”.
In the word “Jaune” we can also read that it is about“a person or population characterized in particular by yellow or copper pigmentation of the skin, as opposed to white and black”, LDH is indignant.
The association also points out the presence of the word “negrillon” which in the online dictionary refers to “little black child” or that of “Negroid” as a person presenting “some of the morphological characteristics of black populations”. “No distance is marked with these entries, none of them are reported as discriminatory or derogatory”underlines the LDH which asks to “urgently rectify” this edition.
In another register, the woman is qualified as “a human being defined by his sexual characteristics which enable him to conceive and give birth to children”points to the LDH. “Should we conclude that an infertile or menopausal woman is not one?” she asks herself. She also highlights the definition of heterosexuality which is described as a relationship “natural” between the sexes “which implies that homosexuality is not”, deduces the LDH.
Contacted by AFP, the French Academy did not immediately respond.
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