What is antiracist and gender expansive language?
Below is the guide I created for my classes at UCSD’s Dimensions of Culture Program (DOC) to help students recognize the power of their language and how to responsibly refer to communities that have experienced marginalization in U.S. history, society, and culture.
Words are powerful. They don’t just describe the world; words can shape the world. The power of words to make structural changes in society to advance justice and equity is at the heart of the DOC Program. Consider how Justice Thurgood Marshall used his speaking and writing skills to bring about the legal end of segregation or how the student activists of the Lumumba Zapata coalition demanded in writing this very college. As you practice your writing in DOC, it is important to be thoughtful about the words you use to describe the individuals and communities we are learning about. Below are some brief points to consider as you write your papers, and if you ever have a question about your use of language, be sure to check in with your professor and TA.
We’ll be learning much about the history of diverse communities in the U.S., and some of our readings contain dated language with racist roots because they are documenting that history. Always pause to consider whether or not you need to use that same dated language in your own writing. If you must, because you want to quote a line from a source to make an argument, always be sure to put those words in quotation marks and to explain the context of the quote and analyze it in relation to your assertion. Otherwise, it is always best to use contemporary terms, like those below, to refer to diverse communities.
Black, Indigenous, and communities of color (or BIPOC) is a term that has gained much use in recent years. It centers the experiences of Black and Indigenous folks and demonstrates solidarity between people of color. We can use this umbrella term to discuss the history and experiences of people who have been targeted by and resisted White supremacy.
White is the term that has emerged to indicate many people who trace their ancestry to Europe, predominantly England and western Europe. In DOC 1, we study the complicated and contradictory process of becoming “white” in the U.S. so when writing about members of this group, it is important to pay attention to the specific context you are writing about to avoid ahistorical generalizations. For example, it might be more appropriate to refer specifically to Irish Americans or Jewish Americans rather than use the blanket term “white.” Some choose to capitalize “White” while others do not. Either is acceptable as long as the choice is consistent throughout your writing.
Black is a term that emerged to name the communities of people who can trace their ancestry to Africa. In the U.S., this term often refers to people (and their ancestors) from Africa who were enslaved and brought to the U.S. to build the plantation economy. The term Black is often used as a synonym for African American, but it is important to note that not all people who identify as Black in the U.S., however, primarily trace their ancestry to Africa so we should always understand the specific context of the community we are writing about and how they might self-identify when referring to them.
Indigenous refers to the native peoples of the lands colonized by European imperialists and other non-native settlers. In general, being as specific as possible and using the tribal and/or national affiliation of an indigenous community is the best practice. In the U.S., some Indigenous communities have reclaimed the term “Indian” to refer to themselves. If you use that term, be sure to explain its context and how/why it is helping you make your assertion.
People of color or communities of color are generalized terms to indicate groups of non-white folks and to emphasize their shared experiences of national origins and racial politics in the U.S. Asian American is the umbrella term for immigrant communities from Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Latino/a/x or Latine is the umbrella term to refer to immigrant communities with roots in Latin American countries. As with writing about Indigenous communities, it is best to be as specific as possible when referring to Asian American and Latino/a/x or Latine peoples, and use national and/or ethnic origins whenever applicable. For example, you could use Chinese American or Puerto Rican when you know you are writing about these specific groups. Lastly, Chicano/a/x is a specific term referring to people of Mexican heritage in the U.S.; it emphasizes the fact that many of the current parts of the southwestern U.S. were Mexican land taken in colonial wars.
Including the “o/a/x” or using Latine when referring to people of Latin American and Mexican heritage is an example of using gender expansive language. The “x” and “e” reject the gender binary in Spanish in which “o” indicates “masculine” words and “a'' indicates feminine words. Just like Spanish, though, standard American English can reinforce gender binaries too. Just as we should be thoughtful about our use of antiracist language, we should also practice gender expansive language. Cissexism refers to discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people; it is based on the belief that one’s sex assigned at birth should dictate one’s gender. One practice that Marshall College adopts to reject cissexism is the sharing of pronouns. In our writing at DOC, we should also avoid making assumptions about what pronouns to use. If we do not know the pronoun, especially the pronoun a modern author uses, we can use “they/them/their.” Of course, in the case of some of the historical figures we write about, we may never know their pronouns and so it is acceptable to default to the pronouns that scholars generally use to write about them.
A cissexist feature of standard American English is that it defaults to masculine terms to refer to all people. We can avoid this practice by replacing terms like “mankind” with “people” or even “guys” with “folks.” We can also strategically use plurals to avoid being forced to use masculine pronouns. For example, instead of writing “a student should do his reading to succeed in class,” we can write: “students should do their reading to succeed in class.” Another strategy is to use “who” to help construct sentences. For example: instead of “if a student needs extra help, he can go to office hours,” we could write “a student who needs help can go to office hours.” Lastly, we can also use “one” to avoid unnecessary gendered pronouns. For example: instead of “a student in DOC 2 writes more than he did in DOC 1,” we could write “a student in DOC 2 writes more than one did in DOC 1.”
Using gender expansive language both reflects the reality of our classrooms while shaping it; it honors that not all of us have genders dictated by the sex we were assigned at birth while making space for that range of gender expressions around us. Ultimately, practicing antiracist and gender expansive language in your DOC assignments is a powerful tool of writing for social change.