What’s In A Word?

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.”

My mother, like many mothers of children who were ostracized and tormented for being different, used this expression to assuage us - to no avail.  We still got into physical fights with the kids in our building who called us the S-word and other Hate Words because our father was Puerto Rican.

One hundred years earlier, in March of 1862 the phrase was cited in “The Christian Recorder” of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, (Which was first published in New York City in 1852).

“Remember the old adage, 'Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me'. True courage consists in doing what is right, despite the jeers and sneers of our companions.” [http://www.phrases.org.uk/]

There are too many commonly used Hate-Words:  African Americans are called the N-word, Italian Americans, the W-word, Chinese Americans, the C-word, Vietnamese Americans, the G-word and many more than I care to list in this short blog entry. (If you need me to spell-out or explain any of the phrases listed above please email me.)

In the 1980s, when I first began to develop sexual harassment prevention education, I cautioned participants that words are actions and may lead to an escalation of inappropriate and illegal behavior from verbal to physical if not addressed by someone in authority. Bullying of any kind must be dealt with directly by teachers, supervisors and CEOs.

The R-Word

Cody Blackbird

This sign appeared this morning (12/08/13)
outside a Sonic Drive-In Restaurant in Belton, Missouri.

Read more at  Indian Country Today

I have long been deeply perturbed by the usage of the derogatory R-word as the name of an American football team based in our nation’s capital. The team that was originally the Boston Braves when it was established in 1932, became the Boston Redskins a year later (1933–1936), then moved to Washington D.C. in 1937 where they still go by that same offensive name.

Perhaps not coincidental to the name is the fact that in 1962, Washington was the last American football team to integrate racially and they did so only after the federal government threatened to sue the owners as D.C. stadium, where they played at the time, was U.S. property and so segregation was illegal there. 

I strongly urge everyone to stop using the R-word entirely.

The K-Word:

Etymonline.com  provides the history of another insidious hate word:

“1790, from Arabic kafir "unbeliever, infidel, impious wretch," with a literal sense of "one who does not admit the blessings of God," from kafara "to cover up, conceal, deny, blot out." Technically, "non-Muslim," but in Ottoman times it came to be used almost exclusively for "Christian." Early English missionaries used it as an equivalent of "heathen" to refer to Bantus in South Africa (1792), from which use it came generally to mean "South African black" regardless of ethnicity [African or Indian], and to be a term of abuse since at least 1934.” 

How many times did Nelson Mandela hear the K-word used as a weapon against himself and others?  How many times did he have to rise above unimaginable abuse to move from victim to victor, from one of many of the oppressed to a global symbol for freedom and human rights?

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
― Nelson Mandela 

World Human Rights Day

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948 as a result of the atrocities committed during the Second World War.The Commission on Human Rights was made up of 18 members from various political, cultural and religious backgrounds. Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, chaired the UDHR drafting committee.

Universal Values

The core principles of human rights first set out in the UDHR are universality, interdependence and indivisibility, equality and non-discrimination.  The Declaration begins:

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,”

To continue reading:  http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

What’s In A Word?

Native American tribal leaders have been appealing to the owners of the football team with the racist and derogatory name in an attempt to get them to change the team’s name by offering alternative names.  Their appeals continue to fall on deaf ears. What words do the owners need to hear to understand how the R-word is an assault not only on Native Americans, but on all of us who value people’s inherent dignity?

Nelson Mandela did not transform South Africa from a nation crippled by Apartheid to a democracy for all of its citizens alone.  He did not employ violence to achieve this lofty goal.  He used words and his incredible capacity to listen – to the oppressed as well as their oppressors.  In order for Nelson Mandela to talk to others in their language he had to learn their language by listening.  Once he mastered that language he was able to use it to effectively dismantle a hateful and criminal system.

To move from hatred to recognizing our shared humanity – to move from Hate-words to a humanitarian language - is a lofty goal.  It is incredibly fortunate for all of us that we have had role models such as former President Nelson Mandela to remind us that, however lofty they may be, our goals are achievable if we are optimistic enough to believe in them.  Words can be transformed from weapons to tools for learning about and loving one another.  This fairly simple concept is at the core of the work to create and sustain inclusive environments, work places, communities, and nations.

It is critical that we engage in conversations that may initially be uncomfortable, but in the long term can help us to understand how we have much more in common with one another than we think.  It is fitting that on World Human Rights Day tens of thousands of people, including leaders from around the world gathered to honor and celebrate the life of one of our greatest humanitarians, Nelson Mandela.  

Onward,

~ Wendy

wendy@inclusionstrategy.com

www.inclusionstrategy.com

Commemorations

Commemorations

This week commemorates two anniversaries: August 26, 1920 the day that the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified granting women suffrage or the right to vote and August 28, 1963 when more than 200,000 people convened the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 

Commemoration is the act of co-remembering, to publicly share and memorialize some historic event.  As a student of history, I love commemorations and the many ways that they influence the present and subsequently, our perceptions of the past.

 





(© 2003 D’Azi Productions)

"You cannot know where you are going, until you know where you have been.”  

My mouse pad, a gift that a friend brought me from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, has “History” (1962) written across the top and a photo depicting three doors.  The first door has the word “Women” on it, the second door has the word “Men” on it and third door has the word “Colored” on it.  Under the photo is the caption: “You cannot know where you are going, until you know where you have been.”

I love this mouse pad!  Every day it reminds me why I do the work that I do.  Every day it reminds me of Emma Lazarus’ words: “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”   Ms. Lazarus, the poet famous for “The New Colossus” which is etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty was born in New York City but was never able to vote because of her gender.

A Lifetime of Voting

My mother was born eight years after women earned the right to vote in the U.S. and brought me to the voting booth for as far back as I can remember.  I remember being in the booth with her, fascinated as she clicked the levers and finally slid the metal bar across that registered her vote and opened the curtain.  The Wizard of Oz had nothing on her!  I remember entertaining myself while she volunteered at the polls.  I remember registering to vote immediately after my eighteenth birthday and counting the months that I had to wait for the first election that I would vote in. It was the 1976 Presidential election and being the nation’s bicentennial made it all even more exciting.  

The Women’s Suffrage movement was launched officially in 1848 at a convention in Seneca Falls, NY, where Frederick Douglass, the only African American to attend the event, gave an inspirational pro-vote speech.  (There were many women present who were anti-suffrage.) In 1851 at the Women’s Convention in Akron, OH, Sojourner Truth, another former slave delivered her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech which poignantly argues for women’s equality. The women’s suffrage movement had its up and downs over its 72 year span including some deplorably racist tenets held by Susan B. Anthony and others.  One might argue that white women competing against African American men for the vote exemplified a successful campaign to ‘divide and conquer’, but it was not and is not that simple. There were some lighter moments as well such as when Alice Duer Miller turned the tables in 1915:

         Why We Don't Want Men to Vote

•  Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.
                                                                            

March On!

Yesterday marked the 50^th Anniversary of the Great March on Washington.  In 1963 I watched the historic event on television, awe struck by the vast range of humanity out en masse. The words of hope and inspiration from one speaker and performer after another were incredible, even to a little 5 year old girl.  I did not understand the significance of the event nor how it would impact our world, but the message - We all deserve to be free and to be able to make a decent living wage - made its way from the Lincoln Memorial to our living room and has been motivating me ever since.

What is your story?

History – our story – is comprised of people who make a difference every day by marching, walking, talking, sharing, teaching and remembering! How have these historic events affected you and those you love?  What is your story? How may we commemorate it?

Onward!

~ Wendy