That's so...
Gay. Ghetto. Retarded. Lame.
I did a community wide program on Thursday night as part of a new initiative in the residence halls aimed at building inclusive communities. The program was titled, "Gay, Ghetto, & Retarded: How Inclusive in your Language?" and encouraged residents to spend an hour enjoying pizza and talking about the power of inclusive and exclusive language. We watched some media clips from the Office and the Hangover, a couple PSA announcements (one is included below) and touched briefly on the Servant Leadership model the institution is grounding our co-curricular programs in.
I have to give huge props to two of my friends from graduate school who did a similar presentation and were kind enough to send it to me to use as a foundation for developing mine. While the program was not well attended and only had 20 students there (12 residents and 8 student staff members), we had a great discussion and I found students saying that they never realized calling something gay could be offensive even if they have gay friends; that saying someone or something is retarded is a jab at the mentally disabled community; and that ghetto is not an adjective used to describe something that is "tacky," "uncouth," or "unacceptable" but a place where communities have been forced to live because of socioeconomic or racial issues. When the students heard that Jews were locked up in the ghetto and that it was a prison and not a way to describe your taped up flip flop, they finally began to understand.
I even said something was "lame" in the presentation and was challenged by a peer that lame could be considered offensive to the physically disabled community. I had no idea. Overall, I think the students left the discussion and the presentation with the understanding that no one is perfect and we all mess up, but at the end of the day, it's not about being PC. It's about doing your best to not spew bigotry or appear ignorant and ensure that your language is as inclusive as possible.
I challenged the students to go forward and educate their roommates, suite mates, hall mates, and class mates and help rid these words from our everyday discourse. It could be as simple as saying, "Ouch" when you hear someone say something offensive to a community of people or as complex as a dialogue surrounding that person's word choice. It doesn't make you appear as the PC Police. Only someone committed to social justice and inclusion.
Cheers.
I did a community wide program on Thursday night as part of a new initiative in the residence halls aimed at building inclusive communities. The program was titled, "Gay, Ghetto, & Retarded: How Inclusive in your Language?" and encouraged residents to spend an hour enjoying pizza and talking about the power of inclusive and exclusive language. We watched some media clips from the Office and the Hangover, a couple PSA announcements (one is included below) and touched briefly on the Servant Leadership model the institution is grounding our co-curricular programs in.
I have to give huge props to two of my friends from graduate school who did a similar presentation and were kind enough to send it to me to use as a foundation for developing mine. While the program was not well attended and only had 20 students there (12 residents and 8 student staff members), we had a great discussion and I found students saying that they never realized calling something gay could be offensive even if they have gay friends; that saying someone or something is retarded is a jab at the mentally disabled community; and that ghetto is not an adjective used to describe something that is "tacky," "uncouth," or "unacceptable" but a place where communities have been forced to live because of socioeconomic or racial issues. When the students heard that Jews were locked up in the ghetto and that it was a prison and not a way to describe your taped up flip flop, they finally began to understand.
I even said something was "lame" in the presentation and was challenged by a peer that lame could be considered offensive to the physically disabled community. I had no idea. Overall, I think the students left the discussion and the presentation with the understanding that no one is perfect and we all mess up, but at the end of the day, it's not about being PC. It's about doing your best to not spew bigotry or appear ignorant and ensure that your language is as inclusive as possible.
I challenged the students to go forward and educate their roommates, suite mates, hall mates, and class mates and help rid these words from our everyday discourse. It could be as simple as saying, "Ouch" when you hear someone say something offensive to a community of people or as complex as a dialogue surrounding that person's word choice. It doesn't make you appear as the PC Police. Only someone committed to social justice and inclusion.
Cheers.
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