DJV plans primer of racist words

The German Journalists' Association (DJV) wants to publish a "language primer of discriminatory and racist words". The catalog is to be compiled by the North Rhine-Westphalian state association together with the "Journalists against Racism" initiative and the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research (DISS). A cooperation with the State Center for Political Education in Düsseldorf is also planned. At the Leipzig Book Fair, Federal Chairman Michael Konken explained the project: "Many words from Nazi German have become part of our vocabulary. We need to become aware of this and cleanse the language of these terms." One such problematic linguistic image is "Gutmensch", for example. The DISS has long been trying to prove the racist contamination of the center of society. As the Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes, the institute has been criticized in the past for the ideological and methodological weaknesses of such studies.