DEI-alternatives article doesn’t go far enough
Thanks to Karen Yin’s Conscious Language Newsletter, I learned about this article today. “Doing DEI when you can’t use the ‘D’, the ‘E’ or the ‘I’ word” is an important topic. But I didn’t read much of the article at first. Instead, I was arrested by irony.
Within recent years, I’ve taken up advocacy for reducing and removing ableist slurs from our conversation and our books. In fact, I give a great presentation, “Don’t be a Poopyhead: Slurs, Ableism, and Inclusive Language,” on this very topic. In “Don’t be a Poopyhead,” I note that the way language is used affects the way we perceive the world. It’s the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, also known as the Theory of Linguistic Relativity. So if we use ableist language, we’re contributing to stigma and stereotypes.
Linguistic ableism, Lydia X.Z. Brown wrote at Autistic Hoya in or before July 2012 (updated Sept. 2022), perpetuates other forms of oppression. So it struck me as ironic and subtly undermining to see authors Eamon Costello and Wajeehah Aayeshah use ableist language in their article about DEI language alternatives.
See if you can spot the slur in this sentence, the first in the article:
The principles and practices of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are under ongoing attack in the US via a government campaign that is as inane as it is insane.
Did you catch it? Oh, the wordplay is clever, but it relies on ableist language, which takes all the fun out of it. A slur pops up in the next paragraph as well.
Yes, you may click through cybersecurity compliance training like a maniac, shouting, “When will this end?” but you still believe that cybercrime is real and harmful, right? Racism is also very real and very harmful. Fighting it is not some woke trend.
I would hope fighting ableist language is not “some woke trend” either. Costello and Aayeshah offer alternatives to words banned by Donald Trump and his administration—
Historically with “chronicled”
Racist/discriminatory with “separating”
Equality/equity with “restorative practice”
Disability with “physical limitations”
—so in the same vein, I’d like to offer alternatives too.
Insane with “unthinkable”
Like a maniac with “frantically”
Adopting Conscious Language doesn’t happen overnight, but I hope Costello and Aayeshah might consider divesting themselves of actually harmful language, not just what the despot in Washington has decried.
Author, if you’d like support in reducing or eliminating ableist language in your work, email me and let’s talk. I include Conscious Language checks with all my services at no extra cost.
