Upgrading our vocabulary
Chandra Duraiswamy
Strategic Communicator| DEI Consultant | Change Management Practitioner | Corporate Storyteller elevating and humanizing brands | NHRDN Awardee |
Languages need to keep in pace with rapidly evolving society and times and today’s world is very sensitive about the language we use. As much as languages can connect and bring people closer and together, usage of certain words, phrases and idioms can also fuel bias, stereotypes, hate, and violence. As leaders and communicators, we need to be aware of these phrases to build an inclusive and welcoming culture where customers, employees, investors, and partners feel respected, welcomed and belong.
Words and phrases with racist origin
Some common phrases and words have a racist origin and it is important to get them out of our vocabulary.
Words and phrases that mock people’s disability
15% of the global population have some type of documented disability and as we age majority of us suffer from one or more disabilities. We need to remove ableism from our vocabulary, and not from your surroundings. Here are some commonly used words and phrases and more respectful and inclusive alternatives.
Violent anti-animal language
Research says 41% of our communication is violent and the prevalence is higher among males than females (44% vs 28%). Verbal violence was more prevalent than non-verbal violence (36% vs 20%). Here are some phrases to avoid and alternative ones to use.
By upgrading our language and retiring phrases that propagate bias and discrimination, we build a more inclusive and welcoming society for all.
Interesting read. Another phrase is 'brown bag'. It was originally used against slaves as to who can enter or not based on their skin color. Their skin color was expected to be lighter than a brown bag to enter.
Engineer | Writer | Podcaster
1yEye opening indeed! or can I use this phrase? :) that’s a good point here. The readers including me will deliberate each time before picking a frequently used phrase in our language. Thanks for writing this down!
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1yWhoa, I did not know about the "rule of thumb" one 😳
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1yI’m a bit curious here, for eg: how does words have a subtext to it. At the end of the day it’s about the one who uses it that carries has (the lack of) ulterior motives! If we are so picky about such things then isn’t English as a language that’s considered a global common language, stemmed out of colonization and enforcement?