People First

Hi folks,

I hope everyone survived a dramatic election night, and hopefully we can all move forward from here, whatever your political leanings and beliefs are.

One of the things that has bothered me throughout this election is the language used by both parties and by a lot of people.  This is also a general annoyance in real life, and I feel it has some serious repurcussions.

I am a huge proponant for "people first" language.  Meaning, you don't put a describer before the person.  So you shouldn't say things like:

• My gay friend
• That black person
• That autistic student

I think you get the drift. 

Here's my concern with language like this.  By putting the identity of a person before the actual person, you are automatically boxing them into a category that is not their only category.  Sure, you probably do have a gay friend.  But is that their ONLY characteristic?  How about saying, "I have a friend who is gay..." That way, your audience will see that that they are a person first, and not completely characterized by one of their identities.

So often, I think, people get caught up in one identity and forget that we all have intersecting identities.  Yes, someone may be gay.  Or they may be black.  But that is not all of who they are.  It's a part of them.  It can be a huge part of a person, certain identities.  But then we fail to see the other identities.  What about their gender identity?  What about their sex?  What about their religious beliefs?  What about their class?  All these identities and many more all make up who a person is.  There isn't just one thing, and by describing someone based solely on one identity, I feel we are categorizing people unfairly.

Let's role play for a moment.  Think of one identity that you have.  It can be class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, anything.  Think about it.  And then put that word or phrase in front of your name.  So I would be, for example, "Atheist Connie."  Say it out loud (your's, not mine).  How does it feel?  Do you feel like you need to explain yourself?  I know I do.  Because different identities come with so many different assumptions and stereotypes, it almost seems like, in my opinion, that I lose myself and have to defend an identity.  And that's not good, to lose yourself.

I encourage you to check your language.  Do you use people first language?  Can you try to use people first language?  Because in order to respect people, we need to realize that people are whole, we need to recognize them for all of who they are, not for part of who they are.

Thanks for listening!