Defining Terms: Language as the Basis of Anti-Racist Work

Reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist brought me back to teaching middle school English. Words have power. Language affects human behavior. What else are laws and policies than words written on paper? What else is a socially destructive Instagram post than an image and a caption?

Throughout the book, Kendi defines terms like racism/antiracism, racist/antiracist policies, racist/antiracist ideas, and racist/antiracist people, and in doing so he makes a point that how we talk about equity work is a part of the work itself. In examining the use of the term microaggression, for example, Kendi notes that “the persistent, daily low hum of racist abuse is not minor...what other people call racial microaggressions I call racist abuse.”

In listening to him speak to that point (audiobooks accompany me on my morning commute), I couldn’t help but think about teaching poetry to middle schoolers. Though I’m now an administrator, the English teacher in me is alive and well. I harkened back to the days where we would examine one line for an entire class because of the connotation of one word. We would talk about how impactful text messages can be, how much meaning ending a text with a period can convey (what attitude!).

In talking about literature, there would always be a connection to the bigger, more important picture for the students–their lives, their friendships, their angst-filled relationships with their parents, their unspoken desire to keep a simple life during the complex emotional experience of adolescence. It all started by focusing on the power of words and their real, immediate impact.

Listening to Kendi breakdown the importance of diction in antiracist work was a similar experience for me. The way in which we discuss antiracist work in schools in and of itself needs paying attention to. Much like I asked students to edit down, to revise sentences into phrases and phrases into the exact right word, we need to intentionally and precisely choose the way in which we speak about antiracist work. We need to be explicit. We need to name it. We need to define terms and elucidate denotations and connotations for those who may not yet be aware.

Words have power. They are laws themselves. They are policies themselves. Those laws, those policies dictate our behavior. They tell us what we can and cannot do, what is and is not acceptable. They transform ideas into action. Therefore, to effect change, to make meaningful impact in our communities, we have to examine our language. We have to look at how we engage our community, how we design our flyers, how we describe events.

Language helps to dictate behavior. In many ways, language is behavior in and of itself.