Bravo to Chico State athletes for tackling a tough subject

If the goal of a public awareness campaign is to start a conversation, then Chico State University athletes have certainly accomplished that — and we commend them for being brave enough to raise a controversial topic.

The university’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has been planning for months to join the “You Don’t Say” campaign, which originated at Duke University.

On Oct. 20, the athletes unveiled their efforts on the Chico State Athletics Facebook page.

There are 20 portrait-style photographs of athletes repeating phrases that are offensive to them and explaining why they don’t use the term.

For example, track and field athlete Lauren Schnelli’s portrait says: “I don’t say shemale, because a woman’s strength does not undermine her credibility.”

Other terms include “gay,” “man up” and “throw like a girl.”

The reaction has been prolific.

The Facebook post was shared more than 8,000 times and had 2,342 comments as of Friday afternoon.

Because it’s Facebook, those comments weren’t always complimentary. People weighed in from near and far (mostly far) and criticized the students for having no sense of humor and for political correctness run amok.

The athletes have responded wisely, not feeding the trolls and instead either reiterating the message or not addressing the angry comments at all.

“This campaign is not about literal definitions of certain words, offensive of not,” Schnelli wrote on her Facebook page.

“It’s not about the university’s ‘liberal agenda.’ It’s not even about trying to force anybody into the abyss of political correctness. It is an appeal to decency, respect and inclusivity.”

Schnelli and the other athletes are absolutely correct.

People young and old toss out hurtful and prejudicial words and phrases without thinking, and probably without any concept of how foolish they sound when using the words.

This is a helpful attempt to tell their peers that using these terms is unwelcome.

Student-athletes who participated in the campaign admit to being bothered at first by the nasty comments online.

They wisely decided not to back down from the campaign or the messages, and instead focus on the positive.

The positive, of course, is that enlightened people have learned something. Even the unenlightened might learn something if they hear the message enough — that terms can be hurtful, so think about the words you use.

Athlete Haley Kroll put it so well in an interview with the E-R’s Dani Anguiano: “In a few weeks, these internet trolls are going to move on to bash something else. We’re still going to be left with what we created, which is something we’re proud of.”

As they should be.