Ive heard of schools changing the name of a 'black board' to a chalk board.The nursery rhyme 'baa baa black sheep' was considered offensive ??why? just the mention of an object or an animal being black is somehow offensive? Maybe if the black sheep was going around attacking all the white sheep
I have no idea what a 'black board' could do to deserve being called offensive though
These examples are totally rediculous but the offensiveness of terms like 'chairman 'and 'manhole ' probably deserve more attention . But my way of thinking is this...these terms may have started out as being used to discribe men doing these jobs , but as women have come into the workplace and now do the jobs equally ,they now mean 'anyone' doing the jobs.Where once chairman meant a 'man' in charge of the board it now comes to mean the 'person' in charge of a board. Peoples 'ideas' of the job can change without the word having to.
people are far too sensitive .