Real World blunder that was made by someone in the public sphere

A "Real-World" blunder that was made by someone in the public sphere came to mind was one that made by Howard Dean when he was campaigning for President Election in 2004.

He was in the south at the time giving a speech, and he said "I am tired of coming to the South and fighting elections on guns, God and gays. We're going to fight this election on our turf, which is going to be jobs, education and health care."

I think there may be some truth in his statement about the South focusing on guns, God, and gays whenever there is an election. However, this impression is also a stereotype because not all people in the South only focus on guns, God, and gays. People in the south care about jobs, education and healthcare just as much as people in the nouth. I think it was very arrogant of Howard Dean to think that guns, God, and gays is all the southern people can think about and that they are not intelligent to talk about other issues.

Gendered and Unbiased Language

I had an experience of making inappropriate remark in my email once. Luckily, the person I wrote the email to did not make a big deal about it. I was very fortunate.

I'm not sure if you have noticed or not, more and more parents name their girls names that are taken traditionally for boys. For instance, today, more and more girl's names have departed from traditional girlish names, such as Mary or Jane. And more and more parents name their girls, Ryan, Bryan, or Toni...(I personally like it a lot, being a girl myself).

About two years ago, I was sending out my resumes by email to different directors in our institution trying to find a job. I came across a director named Dayle Benson. Intiutively, I began my email by saying: Dear Mr. Benson...

I did not receive any reply from this director...

Months later, I was hired by different person at this department, and came to find out, Dayle was a woman. That totally explained why I didn't get a reply, not to mention that I was so embarassed when I finally met her.

This experience taught me a valuable lesson - double check and do some research before I send out an important email to important people!!