Language to avoid and inclusive alternatives - A Humane Summary on Oxfam's New Guide (Article 4/4)

A few days ago,?Oxfam?presented its?#InclusiveLanguageGuide, and?Agostina Lufrano (she/her),?Humane Language Services's Project Manager, compiled a summary that concentrates on language and the expressions to be avoided, with their inclusive alternatives.

The language guide is divided into thematic sections and is based on a set of?#FeministPrinciplesForLanguageUse, namely:

????#Diversity: Avoid?making sweeping statements that categorize people or communities according to characteristics defined by others.

????#PowerSharing: Use language to challenge and shift perceptions. Avoid using language that reinforces the norms or power structures that drive poverty and suffering.

????#Safety: Ensure that our language does not put people at risk or cause harm.

????#NothingAboutUsWithoutUs: Be informed by how people wish to be referred to,?recognizing that they may not describe themselves in homogenous ways.

????#CareAndSolidarity: Use straightforward language;?avoid jargon that obscures or alienates.

????#InclusionAndBelonging:?Be inclusive through our use of language

????#PersonalIsPolitical:?Be courageous and clear in naming structural oppressions and who is affected by them.

?Readers are warned that the comfort of the status quo must be disrupted in order to dismantle oppressive structures and create pathways to equality. However,?there is a distinction between being uncomfortable and being unsafe; inequality in power is at the heart of this difference.

Today, we bring some of the language to be avoided, and its inclusive alternatives, in the fourth and last Thematic Section:?

RACE, POWER AND DECOLONIZATION

Instead of

? Upstream/upwards accountability, downwards accountability

? Accountability to donors, accountability to the people we work with

???? Upwards and downwards implies a hierarchical dynamic.

Instead of

? Mixed race

? Biracial, multiracial

???? Avoid ‘mixed race’ if possible as it aligns with a narrative of a ‘pure race’. However, if someone chooses to identify themselves in this way it should be respected.

Instead of

? black

? Black, Black person

???? Black should be capitalized. Other ethnic identities have been recognized with capital letters, e.g. Indigenous, Asian-American, but ‘Black’ has not been, even though it is an identity in its own right.

Instead of

? Capacity building

? Capacity sharing, building relationships, true partnerships, making connections, learning from each other, working together towards, responding to training requests, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing

???? These terms acknowledge that Oxfam and other NGOs should ‘share’ capacities, not ‘build’ the capacity of others.

Instead of

? Empowerment

? Claiming power, holding others accountable, supporting people, exposing and removing structural barriers to people exercising their power

???? People we work with already have power in and of themselves. This is not something that can be given to them by others.

Instead of

? Indians, Eskimo, Aborigina

? First nations, first nations people, inuit, métis (Canada)

???? The latter terms shift our understanding of global power and culture away from the idea that everything centers on, or is led by, wealthier and white-majority nations that historically were colonizers. It recentres Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) as the majority, moving away from the minoritization experienced in white supremacist and colonial history and culture.

Instead of

? the West

? Global majority, global minority

???? The latter terms shift our understanding of global power and culture away from the idea that everything centers on, or is led by, wealthier and white-majority nations that historically were colonizers. It recentres Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) as the majority, moving away from the minoritization experienced in white supremacist and colonial history and culture.

Instead of

? Third world, first world, developing countries, developed countries

? Global south, global north

???? ‘Global majority’ refers to most of the population of the world that live in what is often referred to as ‘developing countries’ or ‘the Global South’. ‘Global minority’ refers to the smaller population of the world that live in wealthier nations, often described as ‘the West’ or ‘the Global North’.

Instead of

? Developed country, developing country, underdeveloped countries, third world

? High/middle/low-income country

???? ‘Third’ vs. ‘first’ world implies that wealthier countries are better than poorer ones and erases the colonial history that led to the economic inequality of today.

Instead of

? The homeless

? Homeless people, homeless person, people experiencing homelessness

???? Being homeless is a situation, not a defining characteristic of a person.

Instead of

? Aboriginal

? Indigenous peoples

???? Where you can, name specific groups in the way that they wish to be referred to. ‘Indigenous’ should be capitalized.

Instead of

? Black market

? Informal economy

???? Avoids negative connotations and is a clear and accurate description.

Instead of

? Slum, slum dwellers, shanty town

? Informal settlements, informal housing, people who live in informal settlements

???? Avoid negative connotations and portraying a homogenizing stereotype that does not necessarily accurately describe the contexts in which people live in informal settlements.

Instead of

? International development sector, international aid sector

? International non-governmental organizations (INGOs), civil society

???? ‘International development’ is problematic and reminiscent of its colonial roots.

Instead of

? Ethnic minority

? Minority ethnic person, minoritized ethnic person, marginalized ethnic person

???? ‘Minority ethnic’ places the emphasis on that ethnicity being a minority or having less power in a particular context, rather than the ethnicity itself being a minority.

Instead of

? Natural disasters

? Natural shocks, natural hazards, human disasters

???? The first two terms recognize that hazards often occur naturally, while the third indicates that the scale of disaster following a hazardous situation is often dependent on human responses.

Instead of

? Poor people, the poor, poorest people

? People experiencing poverty, people living with/in poverty, people living in extreme poverty

???? Poverty is a circumstance and not a definition of a passive actor.

Instead of

? BAME, BME, mixed race, colored

? People of color, person of color/ color (POC), Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)

???? While ‘People of Colour’ is commonly used, it has been critiqued as being problematic as it is ‘othering’ to anyone who is not white. It reinforces the idea of whiteness as standard and homogenizes all other ethnic groups. However, in some ways, it has been used to create solidarity among racialized people and groups who are or have previously been minorities in campaigns against racism.

Instead of

? BAME, BME

? People with BAME backgrounds, BAME community

???? BAME is not commonly understood outside of the UK and has been critiqued as being othering. It stands for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.

Instead of

? Beneficiaries, recipients

? People we work with, programme participants, service users

???? The people organizations work with are not passive beneficiaries: they receive support to realize their rights to food, shelter, water, asylum, political participation etc. but are agents of their own development.

Instead of

? Vulnerable people, vulnerable women, vulnerable men

? People facing social exclusion, political exclusion, economic exclusion, women/men who are in a vulnerable position because of, women/men made vulnerable by

???? Talking about people as ‘vulnerable’ implies that this is inherent to them; talking about the social exclusion of people conveys that the problem is within the system rather than the individuals who are discriminated against within that system.

Instead of

? Peasant

? Smallholder, smallholder farmer, agricultural laborer, subsistence farmer

???? Avoid the word ‘peasant’ or synonyms with negative and dated connotations.

Instead of

? Aid sector

? Social justice movements, international social justice movements, non-government organizations (NGOs), international non-government organizations (INGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs)

???? The term ‘aid’ cements an ideology whereby an agent with resources gives support to people, communities or countries deemed to be ‘at risk’, on a charitable basis.

Instead of

? Giving a voice to, giving voice to, helping

? Supporting/providing a platform for, listening to, hearing, learning from, amplifying/elevating the voices of

???? People organizations work with already have a voice; however, they can use the power they do have to elevate the voices of others at a global scale.

Instead of

? Caucasian

? White people

???? ‘White people’ is a racial classification that refers to skin color, and generally, but not always, to people of European origin.

Additional resources

Glossary of the Movement for Black Lives?

https://web.archive.org/web/20200109004008/https:/policy.m4bl.org/glossary/

As Non Black POC, We Need to Address Anti-Blackness by Ana Cecilia Perez

https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/07/06/non-black-poc-anti-blacknes

Racial Equity Tools. Racial Equity Tools Glossary.

https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary

Racial Justice Framework by OXFAM

https://www.racialequitytools.org/glossary

Environmental Violence and Its Consequences by de la Cueva Salcedo

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0094582X15585116

Environmental Violence as Collective Suicidality: Protecting our habitat is a prerequisite for our health by B.X. Lee?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/psychiatry-in-society/201809/environmental-violence-collective-suicidality

Indigenous Woman Attacked at Trudeau Rally by Indigenous Climate Action

https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/entries/indigenous-woman-attacked-at-trudeau-rally

A Non-Indigenous Guide to (some) Indigenous Terminology by On Canada Project

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRMXgdmtmLX/?utm_medium=share_sheet

Homelessness and Human Rights by UNHCR

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/Homelessnessandhumanrights.aspx#homelessness

Black Female Leaders in Academia:Eliminating the Glass Ceiling With Efficacy, Exuberance,and Excellence by IGI Global

https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-9774-3.ch002

Social Justice Glossary by Trinity Rep?

https://www.trinityrep.com/app/uploads/2021/11/Trinity_DEI-Glossary.pdf

Social exclusion as a process by GSDRC Applied Knowledge Services

https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/social-exclusion/dynamics/social-exclusion-as-a-process/

Fighting Inequality: Together we can end poverty and injustice by OXFAM

https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-11/GSF%202020-2030_ENG_FINAL_0.pdf

Our Global Mapping Survey and The Journey of Unpacking Language by The Racial Equity Index

https://theracialequityindex.medium.com/our-global-mapping-survey-and-the-journey-of-unpacking-language-bfd-53432dc51

Feminist Movement Builders Dictionary

https://justassociates.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/feminist-movement-builders-dictionary-jass.pdf

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible by P. McIntosh

https://codeofgoodpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Mcintosh-White-Privilege-Unpacking-the-Invisible-Knapsack.pdf

What is Racial Equity? Understanding Key Concepts Related to Race by Race Forward?

https://www.raceforward.org/about/what-is-racial-equity-key-concepts

APTA Racial Equity Action Plan by APTA

https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTA-racial-equity-action-plan-FINAL.pdf

Culturally Competent Terms by Florida Tech

https://www.fit.edu/cultural-competency-certificate/culturally-competent-terms/#:~:text=Race%20%7C%20A%20social%20construct%20that,society%20at%20a%20given%20period