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A Progressive's Style Guide

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A Progressive's Style Guide A Progressive’s Style Guide Hanna Thomas (SumOfUs.org) Anna Hirsch (ActivistEditor.com) Introduction Toward Harnessing Language in Support of A Progressive’s Style Guide is explicitly multi-voiced and is created Introduction Intersectionality and Cross-sector Power Building with the following commitments. 1) We combat discriminatory Central Principles language. 2) We seek advice or more information when we’re 1 Language is a key ingredient in a winning theory of unsure. 3) When writing, speaking, or using images, we aim Issue Areas change. Language can build bridges2 and change minds. By to use examples that reflect a broad range of identities and Age acknowledging the ability of language to shape and reflect perspectives. reality3, progressive campaigns can become more powerful Disability vehicles for social change, inclusion, and justice. In fact, We understand that there may be negative blowback to this Economy understanding and applying the authentic language of the work and that we won’t be the first8 to experience it. We affirm Environment/Science individuals and communities with whom we work can be a that we are aligned with free speech9, and at the same time are Food revolutionary act in itself. promoting thoughtfulness and openness about how language is and isn’t used10, has been used11, and could be used12 for people Gender/Sex Historically, extensive, issue-based language guidelines have and for our planet collectively. Because language is dynamic, Geopolitics remained siloed or proprietary. Some information has trickled changes with our struggles, and is shaped by criticism and the 4 Health up (with some questionable success ) to be centralized in the collective construction of social justice, we are compelled to 5 6 Housing/Space establishment grammar and usage style guides (APA , AP , keep building a collective language that liberates us all. As we 7 CMS ), but this information is far from comprehensive and lacks continue to think about ways to organize this information that Immigration/Refugees the voice of the groups being discussed. At the same time, are accessible, user-friendly, clear, and aligned with progressives’ Indigeneity/Ancestry transparent conversations about the power of word choice and beliefs and strategies, we know that in some instances we still fall Police/Incarceration phrasing have remained disconnected and difficult to access. short – and so, we also invite feedback. We are committed to this work and to remaining in dialogue. Race/Ethnicity In 2015, SumOfUs staff, led by Hanna Thomas, began the Sexual and compilation of a new kind of guide – one that sparks a Many thanks for your help and solidarity! Domestic Violence conversation about language among progressives. With the help of Anna Hirsch, an independent editor, A Progressive’s Style Guide Appendix I: Images was born. We invite drivers of progressive change – community Appendix II: members, grassroots leaders, activists, and progressive funders – Additional Resources to peruse the vital movement frameworks, decolonizing usage, Acknowledgements and up-to-date word choice and phrasing for current theory of change directions and momentum across groups and issue areas Endnotes presented in this guide. 2 © 2016 Sum of Us Central Principles Introduction People-First language Active Voice Central Principles People-first language aims to make personhood the essential A grammatical voice in many languages, active voice puts the Issue Areas characteristic of every person. People-first language views other “actor” of the sentence in the role of performing the action. Often descriptive social identities that people may hold as secondary lauded for contributing to more dynamic writing, active voice Age and non-essential. Strict adherence to people-first language can may also be key to naming perpetrators of violence and harm Disability lead to awkward sentence construction and may not align with directly. An opportunity to scan for active voice should be taken Economy reclamations of social identities, but we maintain that attuning as an opportunity to root out implicit bias toward status quo to our shared humanity by telling stories that center people systems of power by naming the actors of oppression, whether Environment/Science first, rather than exploiting identities, should be an aim of human, institutional, or cultural. Food progressive writing. Gender/Sex Proper Nouns Geopolitics Self-Identification Names used for and by individual places, persons, and Health Wherever categorization and labels are used to oppress groups organizations convey respect, understanding, acceptance, and Housing/Space of people, self-identification becomes an act of resistance. At clarity. At the same time, common nouns and pronouns can the same time, people who are robbed of opportunities to self- dilute an issue or simply create confusion. While conversational Immigration/Refugees identify lose not just words that carry political power, but may tone is often well utilized in campaign writing, great care should Indigeneity/Ancestry also lose aspects of their culture, agency, and spirit. Progressive be taken to avoid misleading readers. For example, overuse Police/Incarceration writing, as much as possible, should strive to include language of words such as “it,” “that,” and “this” may leave the reader Race/Ethnicity that reflects peoples’ choice and style in how they talk about wondering who the writer is talking about at a critical point in themselves. If you aren’t sure, ask. the story. Sexual and Domestic Violence Appendix I: Images Appendix II: Additional Resources Acknowledgements Endnotes 3 © 2016 Sum of Us Age A Resources Introduction • Adam Fletcher, Discrimination Against Youth Voice13, The “In 350 BCE, Aristotle stated that children were the Central Principles property of their father because he had produced them, FreeChild Project, 2008. Issue Areas • Adam Fletcher, Glossary14 not unlike a tooth or a hair. Millennia later, adultism is • healthPROelderly, Evidence-based Guidelines on Health one of the stealthiest players in modern society, built Age A Promotion for Older People: Social Determinants, Inequality into the foundations of family, community, culture, and Disability 15 and Sustainability, Glossary . government . Adultist microagressions are so broadly Economy • Marianne Falconer, Out with “the old,” elderly, and aged16, 2007. accepted as normal that I can easily recall 1) being Environment/Science enraged as a youth hearing them; but 2) repeating them ✎ Writing Guidelines as an adult without thinking twice.” Food Gender/Sex Anti-adultism framework Kel Kray, Everyday Adultism17, Geopolitics Adultism is a system of beliefs, attitudes, and actions – fueled Everyday Feminism Magazine by institutional power – so pervasive that nearly everyone Health experiences this form of oppression. Children’s rights Anti-ageism framework Housing/Space Ageism is a system of beliefs, attitudes, and actions, fueled by movements early on centered around reforming unhealthy and Immigration/Refugees destructive child labor practices, but have come to encompass institutional power, that oppresses all people at all ages, but is all forms of oppression that devalue and dehumanize young considered most detrimental for the physical health of our oldest Indigeneity/Ancestry people. To include young people in society it is vital to use citizens18. Ageists view a person’s age number or chronological Police/Incarceration language that views youth as contributors, that does not age as a marker of essential characteristics or type, leading to Race/Ethnicity denigrate youth experiences, and that does not dismiss their stereotyping and suppressing the experience and true nature Sexual and of individuals. To ensure that people of all ages have a voice in ideas. It is appropriate to consider developmental stages, but Domestic Violence do not use a lack of knowledge about human development to society it is vital to reject a purely “age-number” framing of life avoid involving young people. Perhaps the greatest injustice stage, to always use medical terminology accurately, and to use Appendix I: Images young people face is being silenced, overlooked, and left out of narratives that support people of all ages building power. Appendix II: progressive social justice work all together. Additional Resources Acknowledgements Endnotes 4 © 2016 Sum of Us “Myth #5 ‘People over 65 have diseases and disorders Y ? that limits their freedom to do what they want.’ Uh-uh. In fact, a lot of oldsters are in better shape than their Terms used Terms avoided/questioned grandkids. ‘My grandfather is 67, and he’s a personal by anti–adultism and by anti-adultism and trainer at a well-known fitness center,’ Fields says. anti-ageism activists anti-ageism activists Introduction (Note to selves: personal trainer could be a trending Central Principles second-act career.)” y adolescent21 y ancient Issue Areas 7 Myths About Old People19, Senior Planet (if describing the y antiquated Age A developmental stage of y childish Disability adolescence: “adolescent Specific Recommendations young people”) y cougar Economy y • Most times there is no need to refer to a person’s age. When y age apartheid22 dated Environment/Science the need arises, list the specific age number, rather than y emerging adult26 y ageing Food assigning a category that may be vague and create negative 23 y fossil y elder abuse Gender/Sex connotations. y geezer y elderly person Geopolitics y geriatric (unless in the • Whenever possible,
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