NEW JERSEY

P.O. Box 531, West Caldwell, NJ 07007

(201) 225-0067

PRESS RELEASE

Date:  August 25, 2005

Contacts:  Hesham Mahmoud (201-893-7662), Maha Kabbash (973-722-4208)

The American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, New Jersey Chapter

www.adcnj.us

For Immediate Release

The New Jersey Chapter of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC-NJ) is pleased to announce that www.thesaurus.com, the online version of Roget’s New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1), has removed offensive, discriminatory and inaccurate synonyms for the word “Arab” from its online thesaurus.

On August 19, 2005, ADC-NJ was informed by one of its members that the online thesaurus, owned by Lexico Publishing Group, LL, presented the following negative words as synonyms for “Arab”:   “derelict” , “ragamuffin”, “tramp”, “traveler”, “urchin”, “vagabond”, “holy terror bell-ringer”,   “beggar”, “bum”, and “monkey”.

 ADC-NJ and the American Arab Forum immediately contacted Lexico and demanded the immediate removal of these purported synonyms and an apology to the Arab American community.  Lexico promptly responded and apologized for what they called a “misunderstanding in regards to the synonym for Arab.” Lexico explained that the synonyms were derived from a 19^th century, outdated use of the term “street arab”.  Lexico’s representative made it clear that it was never Lexico’s  intention to insult anyone by using derogatory words or phrases. Lexico immediately removed the offensive synonyms from the online thesaurus and sent ADC-NJ a letter of apology from its CEO, Brian Kariger, stating as follows:

“We take your concerns very seriously and we are sorry we have offended you.  We abhor the use of racial and ethnic slurs and there was no intention on our part to be racist or to perpetuate racism. . . . .  Since our aim is to reflect current usage, we acknowledge that the inclusion of the term was an error.  It is our policy to correct errors as quickly as possible, and when we were notified of this error we corrected it on the site immediately.”

To see the complete text of Mr. Kariger’s letter, please Click Here.

ADC-NJ sincerely thanks Lexico Publishing Group for its prompt and responsible response to our concerns and for the sincere cooperation of its representatives.  ADC-NJ also thanks the American Arab Forum for its cooperative efforts in resolving this issue.

Read Newsday Coverage