All Inclusive
Culture Climate Action
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Children's Crusade, Birmingham, AL, 1963.
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"Once you label me, you negate me." Soren Kierkegaard
Though we rarely think about it, every day, we're shaping the culture in which we live.
Our every social interaction, from the language we use to the preconceptions we hold, from the constructs we adopt to the paradigms we reinforce, essentially gets uploaded into the societal "cloud", where it becomes part of the cultural air we all breathe and climate in which we all live. That's why even the most pedestrian interactions matter.
Smokey the Bear said it best: "Only YOU can prevent forest fires."
The same thing holds true for social toxicity.
All Inclusive creates tools that help each of us become shapers of society -- detoxifying our social atmosphere, eliminating verbal violence, strengthening human regard, fostering a culture of kindness and building up a resistance to actions that weaken us by dividing us.
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Priime
Each of us is an "N" of 1 -- our own prime number. Grasping this not only unlocks our superpowers, it's like a bigotry vaccine, enabling us to be our best, most authentic and most fulfilled selves and allowing everyone else to do the same. Our starting point is that the rest of us can never fully be who we’re meant to be without you and the diversity you bring. All of humankind is enriched when you live into the fullness of your own personhood; when you deftly write that line in the human story that only your life can write.
Words Matter.
Despite the children's rhyme about sticks and stones and bones, words have the power to be far more destructive, and to inflict injuries that can last for a lifetime.
Language can be weaponized in all manner of ways from shifting what words mean to making up new ones, from careless comments to curated propaganda, from pejoratives to the corrosive constructs we adopt, from dehumanization to micro-aggressions embedded in commonly used terms and phrases -- damage we can inflict without even knowing we're doing it.
In every case, words matter.
Language can be weaponized in all manner of ways from shifting what words mean to making up new ones, from careless comments to curated propaganda, from pejoratives to the corrosive constructs we adopt, from dehumanization to micro-aggressions embedded in commonly used terms and phrases -- damage we can inflict without even knowing we're doing it.
In every case, words matter.
Race. Isn't.
"I believe there is only one race – the human race." – Rosa Parks.
We Americans built our society on the idea of multiple "races" in general, and on a belief in the supremacy of the self-designated "whites" in particular. Which is extraordinary, given that the American Race Construct (ARC) is a relatively new invention, rising to prominence to fill the vacuum left after the slave/free structure was rendered obsolete by the end of slavery itself.
Yet, today, on everything from census forms to job applications, we continue to reinforce the idea that there are multiple human races, which is how we end up treating cultural differences as if they're biological and innate. But in the same way we made this mess, we can un-make it.
“There are differences, though,” we often point out, with respect to racial groups. And there are. But those differences are cultural, which is why farmers, regardless of racial identity, will always have more in common with each other than corporate raiders who share their lineage, and why there’s a cultural chasm between black-identifying Americans and African immigrants; despite a common ancestry.
The way forward really isn't complicated -- we could just stop -- give the word "race" a timeout and replace it with whatever we really mean; ethnicity or heritage, ancestry or lineage. And that one change helps us shift from something false (that we exist as different species or subspecies) to something true -- that we're the same people from the same place. We talk a lot about racism, which is a good thing. But the only way we'll ever leave racism behind is if we also start to talk about how race -- isn't.
We Americans built our society on the idea of multiple "races" in general, and on a belief in the supremacy of the self-designated "whites" in particular. Which is extraordinary, given that the American Race Construct (ARC) is a relatively new invention, rising to prominence to fill the vacuum left after the slave/free structure was rendered obsolete by the end of slavery itself.
Yet, today, on everything from census forms to job applications, we continue to reinforce the idea that there are multiple human races, which is how we end up treating cultural differences as if they're biological and innate. But in the same way we made this mess, we can un-make it.
“There are differences, though,” we often point out, with respect to racial groups. And there are. But those differences are cultural, which is why farmers, regardless of racial identity, will always have more in common with each other than corporate raiders who share their lineage, and why there’s a cultural chasm between black-identifying Americans and African immigrants; despite a common ancestry.
The way forward really isn't complicated -- we could just stop -- give the word "race" a timeout and replace it with whatever we really mean; ethnicity or heritage, ancestry or lineage. And that one change helps us shift from something false (that we exist as different species or subspecies) to something true -- that we're the same people from the same place. We talk a lot about racism, which is a good thing. But the only way we'll ever leave racism behind is if we also start to talk about how race -- isn't.
Dark-Dolling / "Dark" isn't a four-letter word.
From the Washington Post motto, "Democracy dies in darkness," to the social activist who described Trump's election as a "dark day", even the most well-meaning people fall into the trap of "dark dolling" -- using "dark" as a pejorative. But every instance of doing so, whether talking about the "dark side" or someone being in a "dark" mood, whether referencing "dark" comedies or "dark" magic (both of which used to be called "black" comedies and "black" magic -- but, of course, that's offensive), is a micro-aggression; one that has devastating effects, especially on our kids. This has been made readily apparent by the many doll studies.
As far back as the first such study in 1954, we knew that vilifying darkness - treating it as an euphemism for evil and sin, as evidence that someone is "bad, ugly and dumb" - was harmful. Yet, we keep using it this way. Educator Lillie Marshall deftly unpacks this harmful practice in her article, Is Saying "Dark" to Mean "Bad" an Offensive, Racist Metaphor? Her epiphany came while reading Lupita Nyong's children's book, Sulwe, about a little girl whose skin is "the color of midnight." "She is darker than everyone in her family, the author continues. "She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything."
It especially falls to professional communicators and shapers of language to see what we're doing to our children and do better. A starting point is to simply care enough about this to stop being lazy. Say what we actually mean. We can easily do a word search for every usage of "dark" in our writing and, if we're using it as a substitute for evil, disturbing, malicious, malevolent, dangerous, unknown, corrupting, or any other negative inference, stop. The English language is rife with all kinds of more descriptive, less injurious words we can use. Second, we can begin purposefully using the concept of darkness in positive ways -- forming associations between the word and good things. Like we've done with dark chocolate (sadly, that list is a short one.) Every darker-skinned child in the world (which happens to be the majority of kids in the world) will benefit from each of us doing just these two things.
As far back as the first such study in 1954, we knew that vilifying darkness - treating it as an euphemism for evil and sin, as evidence that someone is "bad, ugly and dumb" - was harmful. Yet, we keep using it this way. Educator Lillie Marshall deftly unpacks this harmful practice in her article, Is Saying "Dark" to Mean "Bad" an Offensive, Racist Metaphor? Her epiphany came while reading Lupita Nyong's children's book, Sulwe, about a little girl whose skin is "the color of midnight." "She is darker than everyone in her family, the author continues. "She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything."
It especially falls to professional communicators and shapers of language to see what we're doing to our children and do better. A starting point is to simply care enough about this to stop being lazy. Say what we actually mean. We can easily do a word search for every usage of "dark" in our writing and, if we're using it as a substitute for evil, disturbing, malicious, malevolent, dangerous, unknown, corrupting, or any other negative inference, stop. The English language is rife with all kinds of more descriptive, less injurious words we can use. Second, we can begin purposefully using the concept of darkness in positive ways -- forming associations between the word and good things. Like we've done with dark chocolate (sadly, that list is a short one.) Every darker-skinned child in the world (which happens to be the majority of kids in the world) will benefit from each of us doing just these two things.
"When 'I' replaced with 'We', even the illness becomes wellness."
Malcolm X