Build language justice.

These days, more than one in four Major League Baseball players hail from outside the United States. Bilingual interpreters facilitate communication between Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, or Korean-speaking players and English-speaking teammates, coaches, and reporters. It’s not that athletes living in the United States and operating in largely English-only environments don’t speak English at all. For example, Ohtani gave a two-minute speech to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America exclusively in English in 2019 (MSN). Interpreters nonetheless help professional athletes to navigate the intricacies of sports terminology and slang as well as public appearances recorded for posterity (Sports Illustrated).

Happy Thursday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! Language barriers only exacerbate the racial inequities many communities face in the U.S. The recent news around baseball legend Shohei Ohtani only emphasizes how far we need to go to embrace the multilingual population of the U.S.

Thank you for your support! This daily, free, independent newsletter is fully funded by contributions from our readers. Make a monthly or annual donation to join in.

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Defend the use of languages other than English in any context.
Sign up to be a volunteer language translator if you speak a language other than English.
Use this toolkit to build language justice in your community.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

On Monday, ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith questioned whether baseball’s “box office appeal” was harmed by the fact that star player Shohei Ohtani — a “once-in-a-century” player “better than Babe Ruth” (Sports Illustrated) — uses a translator for English-language interviews. Ohtani, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Angels, is Japanese and speaks Japanese as his first language. “The fact that you got a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, believe it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some degree,” Smith said. “It needs to be someone like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys. And unfortunately at this point in time, that’s not the case.”

These remarks suggest that the most talented player of his generation may be a liability to his sport purely because English isn’t his first language, causing a firestorm of criticism. That night, Smith offered a written apology describing his comments as “insensitive and regrettable” (USA Today).

This issue is larger than one athlete and one commentator. Discrimination based on language is pervasive in American society, and language justice is a crucial component of racial justice.

Alongside the legacy of British imperialism, contemporary American power ensures that U.S. movies, soldiers, tourists, and corporations now circle the globe. Accordingly, is English the now most commonly studied foreign language in the world (Babbel, Washington Post).

This overreach and wealth hoarding forced others to learn English.It also discouraged English-speaking Americans from any pressures to pick up a second language. Three out of four Americans only speak English (YouGov). Though the United States has no official language, immigrants are pressured to adopt fluent, unaccented American English as a token of assimilation and belonging. A Philly cheesesteak shop proudly displayed a sign reading “This is AMERICA. Speak English when ordering” sign for a decade (Billy Penn). Department store shoppers (NBC), pedestrians (KIRO 7), and high school students (NBC) have all been accosted for having the audacity to speak Spanish in public. People attacked for speaking a second language may very well speak conversational or fluent English with English-speaking friends, coworkers, managers, and neighbors. They may speak English when talking to family members inside their own homes. But when confronted for speaking a non-English language in public, their bilingualism is a liability.

Though Smith’s comment was thoughtlessly worded, his underlying point may have actually been correct. There are almost certainly baseball fans less enthused with the sport now that its leading player’s primary language is different than their own.

The cruel irony is that for privileged white families, bilingualism is only ever an asset. As the well-off compete to ensure their children’s place in selective universities, many have latched on to multilingualism as a way to make sure their kids get ahead. To convince admissions officers that their children are competitive aspiring “global citizens,” parents now apply for private Mandarin immersion programs for toddlers of 18 months (LePort). A Chinese person speaking Mandarin and accented English is a failure of assimilation. A white child speaking English and shoddy Mandarin is a prodigy.

The elite appetite for bilingualism even pushes English learners (ELs) out of multilingual schools designed for their benefit. “Left unchecked, demand from privileged, English-dominant families can push ELs and their families out of multilingual schools,” read one report, “and convert two-way dual-immersion programs into one-way programs that exclusively serve English-speaking children” (The Atlantic).

This issue further exacerbates inequities Even in progressive spaces, language is often an afterthought. Many organizations make all of their decisions in English. Though a flier might be translated into another language, there is often no real plan to incorporate non-English speakers into the organizational structure.

The alternative to English-only ignorance and linguistic tokenization is language justice. Trained interpreters should translate between languages so that all can participate in collective spaces. Translation should not be a one-way street; spaces should be truly multilingual. Organizations and workplaces need to recognize that translation is a highly technical skill: materials should not be translated by any bilingual speaker at hand or, even worse, by translation software (NESFP). Ensuring that everyone is able to communicate with their language or dialect is a way to “disrupt privilege and colonization” and “challenging English dominance” (Move to End Violence). To refuse to prioritize language justice, on the other hand, perpetuates all of those things.

We need to build language justice.

Key Takeaways

Non-English speakers are attacked for publicly speaking another language. Some are bi- or multilingual.
When white Americans become bilingual, it can boost their academic and career profiles. When others are bilingual, it’s seen as a liability.
Language justice means creating spaces where we can all speak in the language we’re most comfortable with.

RELATED ISSUES

Respect AAVE.

An analysis on the origins of AAVE and its role in education and pop culture. Read >

Learn the key terminology.

A helpful overview of phrases often heard when discussing race. Read >

Respect the relationship between name and identity.

Unpacking the "Anglicization" of names and erasure from minimizing names from diverse cultures. Read >

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Nicole Cardoza 6/30/21 Nicole Cardoza 6/30/21

Unpack the term “Hispanic”.

The idea that there is a single category of Hispanic or Latinx people spanning every Spanish-speaking country is not the result of an organic organization between Spanish-speaking Latin Americans but rather a project of U.S. activists, government officials and media executives from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. According to G. Cristina Mora, the conscious ambiguity concerning the definition of the “Hispanic” was a fundamental part of its institutionalization.

Welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! Today, Jumko joins us to share more about the history of the phrase Hispanic and how, similar to the term Latinx, broad generalizations of diverse cultures and origins fail to truly reflect us all.

Thank you for your support! This daily, free, independent newsletter is made possible by your support. Consider making a donation to support our work. You can start a monthly subscription on Patreon or our website, or give one-time using our website, PayPal, or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza).

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

The term “Hispanic” was created in order to redirect funds to larger initiatives encompassing communities of the Latin American diaspora.
This term, however, does nothing to refer to the diversity of experiences within these communities and impedes us from having explicit conversations about racism and race.
Instead of using “Hispanic”, refer to the specific ethnicity, nationality or race you want to talk about, so as to avoid generalizations that don’t apply to “Hispanic” people as a whole.

GET EDUCATED

By Jumko Ogata-Aguilar (she/ella)

During the 2020 presidential elections, news outlets were full of predictions, analyses, and examinations of how the Latino/Hispanic sector would vote (NBC News). Many supported Donald Trump in the polls (New York Times), sparking many conversations and questions concerning the fact that a minority was apparently voting against their best interest. However, this information is hardly surprising when we consider the ambiguous nature of the term. “Hispanic” can easily refer to a person from Spain, Chile, The Philippines, or Equatorial Guinea. So where exactly did this term come from? Who exactly does it refer to?

“Activists thus described Hispanics as a disadvantaged and underrepresented minority group that stretched from coast to coast, a wide framing that best allowed them to procure grants from public and private institutions,” said Mora. “Media executives, in turn, framed Hispanics as an up-and-coming national consumer market to increase advertising revenue. Last, government officials, particularly those in the Census Bureau, framed Hispanics as a group displaying certain educational, income, and fertility patterns significantly different from those of blacks and whites” (University of Chicago).

The three main diasporas that were most visible at the time due to their political presence were Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban. According to Mora, the concept of Hispanic was an attempt to unify what were, in fact, wildly different priorities. “Immigration reform, for example, became an important Mexican American policy goal but was of little interest to Puerto Ricans, who were citizens by birth, and to Cuban Americans, who gained citizenship through their refugee status. Puerto Ricans in New York focused on issues of Puerto Rican independence, but this cause fell on deaf ears in Mexican American and Cuban American communities. And while there were certainly some issues that these groups shared, such as bilingual education and discrimination, many of the joint, pan-ethnic mobilization efforts addressing these topics were either highly local or short-lived.”

Populations within each Latin American country are also not homogenous. After they obtained independence from Spain, the white ruling elites crafted discourses whose purpose was to assimilate the Indigenous and Black populations into whiteness, creating racist discourses that are still prevalent to this day (Latin American Perspectives). Some Latin American governments promoted the idea that “We are all “Mestizo,” or mixed-race, to erase erasing anti-Indigenous and anti-Black practices (Critical Sociology). Overuse of Hispanic, Latinx, and Mestizo can make conversations around racist violence within these communities much more difficult due to their basic premise: “We are all Hispanic/Mestizos.”

Now, if we focus particularly on the three diasporas previously mentioned, we can see how even the homogenization of these populations according to their nationality impedes us from understanding the diversity of experiences the “Hispanic” label encompasses.

We can now understand “Hispanic” Republican politicians that seemingly legislate against the interest of the community at large. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are both white men of Cuban ancestry whose political posture rests on the fact that their families supposedly fled their country of origin because of the Cuban revolution. They legislate in favor of white, rich conservatives such as themselves (whether “Hispanic” or not).

The terms “Hispanic” and “Latinx” have become racialized categories in the US. Therefore many conversations in the public eye equate being “Hispanic” or “Latinx” to being someone who is non-white. This has not only allowed white women to indulge in self-exotization due to the way they are perceived in the U.S. vs. their countries of origin (ie. Shakira, Sofía Vergara, Kali Uchis) but has also created controversial conversations on the internet, such as the description of Anya Taylor-Joy as a woman of color (Tribune).

In order to adopt an anti-racist stance when referring to Latin American people, these labels must be understood in their historical context and left aside for more specific terms that refer to the community that we want to refer to explicitly. Hispanic and Latinx are not a race, ethnicity, or nationality. There is an immense spectrum of realities within the “Hispanic” term, therefore, we must explicitly name the communities we want to recognize lest they be made invisible by these homogenizing narratives once more.

Key Takeaways

Some outsiders think about immigrant communities as political tokens or only consider them in relation to the food, music, or other products they produce.
Corporations might support immigrants or other oppressed communities rhetorically while harming them in practice.
Solidarity must be a constant practice.

10/5/2020 | Protect undocumented Americans.

8/10/2020 | Respect the relationship between name and identity.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 3/26/21 Nicole Cardoza 3/26/21

Learn the definition of "woke.”

This past week, Tim Scott has come under criticism for admonishing “woke supremacy,” naming that the liberal movement is “as bad as white supremacy” (The Hill). The rise of the term “woke supremacy” indicates that the word “woke” has strayed far from its original intentions.

Happy Friday and welcome back. I’m taking a slightly different take on today’s newsletter to highlight the history behind the word woke and the harm in pitting calls for accountability against the violence of white supremacy culture. Because of that, the take action section offers a couple of urgent CTAs from communities across the U.S.

This newsletter is a free resource made possible by our supporters. We'd love you to consider making a monthly recurring donation on our website or Patreon. You can also give one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Thank you for all your support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

A large unsheltered community at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, CA, is being displaced by law enforcement after building a safe and peaceful community. Use this toolkit to join the community, and follow the latest on the hashtag #EchoParkRiseUp.
Undocumented workers in NYC have gone on hunger strike to demand access to pandemic aid, which must be included in the state budget by April 1. Donate to support their efforts.
The Missouri State Legislature wants to make protesting in the streets a felony. Sign the petition to protect free speech.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

The term is often attributed to author William Melvin Kelley, who used the term in his 1962 New York Times essay about the appropriation of Black vernacular (often referred to as AAVE). But the idea of “staying awake” has been used to support social and political issues for hundreds of years. The term “stay woke” specifically was first used as part of a protest song by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter called “Scottsboro Boys,” which a group of nine Black teenagers in Scottsboro, Arkansas, accused of raping two white women (Vox).

The word resonated with musician Georgia Anne Muldrow, who used it as her own personal mantra to stay motivated. Her definition of the term is as follows:

“

Woke is definitely a black experience — woke is if someone put a burlap sack on your head, knocked you out, and put you in a new location and then you come to and understand where you are ain’t home and the people around you ain’t your neighbors. They’re not acting in a neighborly fashion, they’re the ones who conked you on your head. You got kidnapped here and then you got punked out of your own language, everything. That’s woke — understanding what your ancestors went through. Just being in touch with the struggle that our people have gone through here and understanding we’ve been fighting since the very day we touched down here. There was no year where the fight wasn’t going down.

Georgia Anne Muldrow, in conversation with Elijah C. Watson for OkayPlayer

Muldrow wrote the word into her song “Master Teacher”, which was re-recorded by Erykah Badu, a Grammy-award-winning singer and songwriter, and released in 2008 (OkayPlayer). That track brought the term “stay woke” to the forefront of modern Black culture. “Stay woke” became a rallying cry for Black lives after the killing of Michael Brown in 2014, a reminder to watch out for police brutality. This specific use of the term defines its relevance to our current culture. Aja Romano wrote a detailed history about the word “woke,” including a comprehensive timeline, if you want to learn more (Vox).

And, as words tend to do in culture, the word “woke” was mainstream by 2016. Everyone – individuals, brands, talk shows, politicians, sports teams – started using the word broadly to align themselves with conscious values and ideas. As Sam Sanders notes in his article for NPR, this is a standard pattern for how words cycle through our culture (NPR). And AAVE is routinely adopted and misconstrued by mainstream communities. But a word that once carried significant cultural significance for the Black community got co-opted to display solidarity without any action attached to it. Woke went from something we did to something we only said.

“Words that begin with a very specific meaning, used by a very specific group of people, over time become shorthand for our politics, and eventually move from shorthand to linguistic weapon. Or in the case of woke, a linguistic eye-roll” (NPR).

As soon as the term found mainstream understanding, it also started to be wielded by conservatives as an attack. Nowadays, it’s more likely you hear about “wokeness,” “woke culture,” "woketopians," or “woke supremacy” condescendingly, usually as a way to dismiss liberal views of equity and inclusion as a “liberal agenda” or a form of “political correctness.” Suddenly, the word woke went from protecting marginalized folk to attacking them for standing up for their rights. This evolution of the term aligns with an incredibly polarized era. It’s no wonder that by October 2018, 80 percent of Americans believe that “political correctness is a problem in our country” (The Atlantic).

But woke supremacy is just a phrase. White supremacy is a culture. The word “woke” wouldn’t even exist if Black people had to stay vigilant to stay alive. Individuals, for example, wouldn’t express outrage over a journalist using the N-word if white supremacy hadn’t fostered a condition where discrimination against Black people hadn’t been normalized for generations. The conversation on racial stereotypes in some of Dr. Seuss’s books can’t happen if those racial depictions haven’t been weaponized against communities of color for decades.

Although some individuals have faced personal discomfort after being called out publicly for inappropriate actions, this so-called “woke supremacy” doesn’t have the capacity to create systemic harm. Don Lemon stated it far more plainly on CNN. “I’ve never seen a woke supremacist lynching anybody. Never saw a woke supremacist denying anybody access to housing or a job or education or voting rights. Never saw any woke supremacists enslaving anybody. Never saw any woke supremacists trying to keep people from marrying amongst different races. Where are the woke supremacists attacking police? Where are the woke supremacists hunting police officers in the halls of the Capitol and beating them with Blue Lives Matter signs” (Huffington Post)?

Ironically, centering “woke supremacy” alongside “white supremacy” only emphasizes the real issue. Some people are so focused on protecting white supremacy that they’re willing to manifest a new enemy to exercise its power against. As a result, there are coordinated attacks against “wokeness” that are actually more forceful applications of white supremacy culture. Schools are passing bills to ban the 1619 Project and conversations on racism and sexism from the curriculum and poll public university employees about their political identity. In FiveThirtyEight, Perry Bacon Jr. notes that this isn’t new; the right has leveled the same attacks against “‘outside agitators’” (civil rights activists in 1960s), the ‘politically correct’ (liberal college students in the 1980s and ’90s) and ‘activist judges’ (liberal judges in the 2000s).”

So, what do we do about it? First, we recognize that the argument is inherently flawed. We focus our attention back on systemic harm rather than political noise. In essence, we draw our attention back to the root of the word itself: the social and racial issues that threaten the safety of Black people and other marginalized groups. And instead of preparing for battle in a fictional war, we stay committed to the work. After all, actions are louder than words.

8/23/2020 | Support those incarcerated and impacted by COVID-19.

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Nicole Cardoza 11/15/20 Nicole Cardoza 11/15/20

Learn the key terminology.

If you’re active in social justice work (or have just been on the internet in the last 20 years), you’ve probably seen some of the terms, acronyms, and phrases used to describe ethnic and racial minorities in the US. You’ve probably used them too. Language has never been known to sit still, and so as our culture changes, the words change with it. More often than not, people are trying to hurry up and find the new “right” inoffensive words and move on without taking the time to learn the significance behind each term or, more importantly, learning when to use it (Vox).

Happy Sunday and welcome back. Thanks for being such an engaged, committed group of readers. Today, Charlie walks us through the terminology and definitions you read frequently in anti-racism work; terms that we use often in our newsletters! We're expanding key concepts we've discussed here into a glossary over the next few weeks, and these will be included. As you read, remember: definitions and how people relate to them are two different things. There is never just one answer or one perception, and how we each choose to identify ourselves is the correct answer, regardless of what the masses say. We must read, listen, and do our best to treat each other with kindness and respect.

This is the Anti-Racism Daily, a daily newsletter with tangible ways to dismantle racism and white supremacy. You can support our work by making a one-time contribution on ourwebsiteorPayPal, or giving monthly onPatreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go toantiracismdaily.com.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Avoid using groupings like BIPOC if referring to specific ethnic or racial groups: If you mean Black, say Black.
Read this Vox comic by illustrator/writer Richard Blas for a visual explanation of the debates behind Latino/x/e.

GET EDUCATED

By Charlie Lahud-Zahner (he/him)

Recently, discussions about naming and the effectiveness of POC and BIPOC have been evolving (NPR). So, with this in mind, now is as good a time as ever to explore and learn the histories, meanings, and debates of the cultural vernacular.

POC

Today POC (person of color) can be a useful term because, unlike “non-white,” it defines Brown, Black, Indigenous, and Asian people as what they are, not what they aren’t (NPR). The term POC was initially developed by people of color themselves: Loretta Ross traces the term “women of color” to the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston when the phrase was used as a symbol of solidarity between different minority groups at the conference (Western States Center).

But some linguists and activists today worry that the original meaning has lost its teeth, now that POC is the fallback catchall word used by white people trying to be “not racist” (Vox). Many have also criticized how generally the term is used, as “person of color” fails to account that a Black woman’s experienced reality may be wholly different from that of an Asian or Latina woman (LA Times).

Some Americans remain confused by the differences between “of color” and “colored” and make the mistake of using them interchangeably (Chicago Tribune). The definition of “colored” has changed over time (NPR), but the predominant connotation of the word is a racial pejorative used toward Black Americans in the mid-20th century (PBS).

BIPOC

First mentioned on Twitter in 2013, the term BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) highlights the words “Black” and “Indigenous” in an attempt to acknowledge differences between Black and Indigenous people versus other people of color. Recognizing Indigenous identities as distinct reminds us that Indigenous Americans are not ethnic minorities or immigrants, they are this land’s original inhabitants (AICL). However, the term BIPOC still runs the risk of Black erasure, particularly in discussions of police violence (NY Times). Black Americans, especially Black men, are more likely to be killed by police than any other racial group, and more than twice as likely as white Americans (Washington Post). Hispanic children may be three times more likely than white children to have a parent in prison, but Black children are nine times as likely; Black women make up only 13% of the female US population, yet account for 30% of all females incarcerated (The Sentencing Project).To refer to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd as BIPOC glosses over the reality that the adversity Black Americans face is unique from any other racial group. Don’t use BIPOC if you mean Black or if you mean Indigenous; use BIPOC if you mean to include every identity in the acronym.

Latinx and Hispanic

The differences between Latinx and Hispanic can be really technical (NAS). But, for simplicity’s sake, the primary thing to know is that Hispanic more or less refers to descendants of Spanish speaking populations, while Latinx folk more or less refers to descendants of people from Latin America (ThoughtCo). However, for some individuals, identifying either as Latinx or Hispanic can be a matter of preference (Pew Research). Many have deferred to the term Latinx, as it distances itself from the colonial history of Spain in Latin America (Dictionary.com). (Side note: Neither Hispanic nor Latinx are racial categories – Latinx/Hispanic people can belong to any race.)

Latino, Latinx, Latine

Because Spanish is a gendered language, plural nouns that refer to groups including at least one male use the -o suffix. But critics have pointed to the -o in Latino and the rule of deferring to male pronouns as examples of embedded sexism in the Spanish language (Latina.com). Instead, they proposed the term Latinx, a way to acknowledge genders beyond the binary with the handy gender-neutral -x ending.

Opponents of this new word (which has been popularly used since around 2015 (Mother Jones) and was added to Webster’s Dictionary in 2018) claim that the term is an example of “linguistic imperialism” (The Phoenix): an instance of English speakers in the United States imposing norms on Latin America. Now, Latine is the latest alternative introduced to the modern lexicon. Much like Latinx, Latine is a gender-neutral alternative, but has been adopted by some because the ending -e, unlike -x, occurs more naturally after a consonant in Spanish. The word is also a lot easier to say (mitú).

Chicano/x

In the early 20th century, it was not uncommon for Mexican-Americans to want to be categorized as white to gain civil rights and respectability (NCBI). This choice was (and still is) less about skin color and other racial characteristics but economic status and perception of social inequalities (Pew Research). For this reason, the Chicano Movement in the 1960s was distinctive; it celebrated a Mexican-American identity rooted in social activism and celebrated Indigenous and African heritage as opposed to white European descendants (History.com).

With all this being said, identity can get complicated. Despite sharing genetic material, the last name, and a similar melanin count, my dad and I identify differently. He considers himself more Hispanic than Latino(let alone Latinx/e) and would emphasize his regional identity (Veracruz) above his racial/ethnic identity. Alternatively, I prefer Latinx/e to Hispanic to try and commit to gender-neutral language and as a way to show a preference for Mexico’s Indigenous identity. I feel comfortable with BIPOC as a term of community, but if you asked Ricardo Lahud-Zahner about that word, he’d say, “What?”

Our differences exemplify how what we call ourselves is both a sensitive and powerful topic. So when trying to decide what to write or say, use the terms the person uses to self-identify. When in doubt, err on the side of specificity (APA). It might seem like a small thing, but just like learning gender pronouns (or even someone’s name), it’s worth it for us to understand these terms--and to learn what someone wants to be called.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

POC stands for “Person of Color.” BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color.
When used indiscriminately, acronyms like BIPOC and POC can ignore differences between Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.
There is not always a default “right” word when referring to ethnic/racial groups. Take the time to use the most appropriate term for the situation. Defer how a person self-identifies, and be specific.

RELATED ISSUES

9/18/2020 | Reject racial gaslighting.

8/28/2020 | Start seeing color.

7/14/2020 | Embrace your race privilege.

7/9/2020 | Acknowledge the harm of microaggressions.

7/7/2020 | Honor the biracial / multiracial experience.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 11/13/20 Nicole Cardoza 11/13/20

Use emoji respectfully.

Last week, the latest software update on iOS included over 100 new emoji, many of which aimed to make this form of digital communication more inclusive. The collection includes a slew of gender-inclusive symbols, like a male emoji holding babies, the Transgender Pride Flag, and genderfluid wedding emoji (Mashable). It also has a range of "disability-themed" emojis, including a new guide dog, an ear with a hearing aid, wheelchairs, a prosthetic arm, and a prosthetic leg. And, it allows users more options to apply skin color, particularly in emoji that show two or more people and the holding hands emoji 🤝 (Paper Magazine).

Happy Friday! If I could, I’d communicate online only using emoji. It’s short, simple, and to the point. I write about 6,000 words each week, so I could use the break. Besides, all this year, I’ve felt like 🥴– my most frequently used emoji at the moment. That’s much shorter than “overwhelmed, angry, frustrated, happy, exhausted, and kinda hungry?”

But, in all seriousness, emoji is part of our digital lexicon, which means it’s a part of our language. And whether it’s written prose or a poop emoji, language matters. Especially when it comes to race. Today we’re looking at why it’s essential to respect the racial and cultural significance of using emoji. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading our post on digital blackface for more context.

TAKE ACTION

Consider how you use emoji and other forms of visual communication online. How may it uphold racial stereotypes?
Have a conversation with a friend, colleague, brand, etc. who uses emoji out of context.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

Surprisingly, the diversity of emoji has come a long way in a relatively short period. Emoji are a modern interpretation of emoticons, a pictorial representation of facial expressions using characters typed on a digital device. These are part of Unicode, a standardized set of symbols used across nearly all modern computing systems (The Atlantic). Although emoji were popularized in 2010 with the rise of smartphones, it wasn’t until 2015 when users were allowed to toggle to chose from a set of five skin tones. Despite the push for racial and ethnic representation, these tones weren’t designed around specific people. Instead, Unicode used the “Fitzpatrick scale,” a framework developed in the ’70s to describe how different skin tones respond to ultraviolet light (Washington Post). Since then, emoji representation has grown quickly to represent a wide range of religions, countries, sexual orientation, etc.

And it’s important to note that even with this rapid pace of development, emoji still have a long way to go to be equitable. Miriam Sweeney, an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama, emphasizes that many emoji still have European phenotypic features, even with darker skin (WBHM).

This rapid addition of skin color offers more representation and opportunities for self-expression. But it also brings our history of racism into a new communication format. But some people choose to use emoji that don’t reflect their actual racial identity. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that lighter-skinned people were less likely to use their own skin color than the default yellow (Daily Dot). And beyond this, in 2016, just months after skin color emoji launched, most people on Twitter were using darker skin emoji – even though the demographics of the platform would indicate otherwise (The Atlantic).

For many people of color, it feels like an act of digital blackface, a way for people to adopt the skin of someone else’s race and use that position for their gain – and/or to oppress Black people (Anti-Racism Daily). Because Blackness in particular is often used when people want to express exaggerated emotions, consider if you’re using stereotypes about race when shifting to different skin colors. More on this in Lauren Michele Jackson’s article on Teen Vogue.

Some white people will defend using darker-skinned emoji because they don’t want to make their whiteness so “visible,” particularly in these times. Read specific examples of this in The Atlantic and Refinery29. And although the intention is understandable, the impact doesn’t align. Considering that skin color diversity was something people of color specifically rallied to be seen and heard, it feels insincere to have white people use it to obscure their own identity. And remember that it’s a privilege for white people to distance themselves from their whiteness, considering that people of color are marginalized and homogenized based on their identity.

Besides, people often use emoji to bring some intimacy to an otherwise distanced form of engagement – especially those that use digital tools as their primary form of communication. If we’re not representing ourselves, then are we actually connecting?

"
People connect with emoji on a personal level—they use them to show their smiles and their hearts...it can be a pretty intimate connection, which is why people want to look at emoji and see the things that are meaningful in their lives.
Tyler Schnoebelen, founder of Idibon, a text analytics company, for WIRED

It’s important to respect emoji, even if one may think it’s “harmless.” Language matters. And emoji has become a distinct part of our lexicon – alongside gifs and Tiktoks and memes and the written word, ASL, and all the other ways we communicate. This work isn’t about just one instance, but the practices that create them. And we must analyze how we can use language, in all forms, to hurt or heal. When using emoji, use them to express yourself without relying on someone else’s culture or identity. As Samantha Kemp-Jackson, a parenting expert and writer, explains in NPR, "what are you trying to say that you can't say in the color of your own skin?"

Fun fact: you can adopt a Unicode certificate if you forever want to associate yourself or someone else with an emoji 👩🏾‍🏫

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The latest iOS update broadened the range of diversity available in emoji
Emoji are a part of our lexicon, and we should use them respectfully
Emoji can be used in a way that appropriates other cultures, identities, backgrounds and beliefs

8/28/2020 | Start seeing color.

7/14/2020 | Embrace your race privilege.

7/13/2020 | Respect the roots of Black hair.

6/15/2020 | Diversify your media consumption.

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Nicole Cardoza 8/1/20 Nicole Cardoza 8/1/20

Study Hall! Racist actions, doulas, and intersectional change.

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Happy Saturday! It's Study Hall, our weekly recap of the content we reviewed through Q&A and additional resources shared by our community. We covered a wide range of topics, so we have a lot to dive into. Remember – you can submit a question by responding to this email for the week ahead!

You can also get weekly discussion guides for your workplace or university by subscribing to Anti-Racism Daily at Work. Quickly onboard colleagues, track their progress, and use the topics mentioned to create strategic change internally and the community around you. Learn more: antiracismdaily.com/corporate

We're posting daily recaps on Instagram @antiracismdaily. And stay tuned for more Study Hall sessions on our Patreon starting next week! Excited to keep learning with you.

This newsletter is a daily labor of love and I appreciate every contribution. You can give once on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Or, pledge $5/month on Patreon to help us stay sustainable for the months ahead.

Nicole

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1. Reflect on the questions prompted by our community.

2. Ask yourself two questions about one of the topics we discussed this week. Discuss these questions with a friend or colleague.

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By Nicole Cardoza

Read the past week's content on the archives

June 31, 2020 | Keep fighting for Breonna Taylor.

June 30, 2020 | Support Black maternal health.

June 29, 2020 | Protect public workers.

June 28, 2020 | Denounce anti-Semitism.

June 27, 2020 | Support Asian Americans through COVID-19.

June 26, 2020 | Pay attention to the Portland protests.

An Asian American friend was called a racial slur by a Black person. How should society deal with racism from other marginalized communities?
From Support Asian Americans through COVID-19 on July 27

In short – in the same way we handle racism from dominant culture. Any type of racism, regardless of the perpetrator, is harmful. And because we've all become assimilated to a society with racism at its core, it's frustrating yet unsurprising that marginalized communities would apply the same discrimination and harm against each another. We touched on this a bit in the anti-Semitism newsletter we published the day after we received this question.

Anti-racism expert Ibram X. Kendi explains this well in his book How to be an Antiracist, which is required reading for this work, in my opinion. You can get a snippet of this topic in a 2019 interview with CNN.

Katie's post referenced that she doesn't believe BIPOC people should have to constantly be compared to white people. You often use the term non-white. Why use that term if it may continue to exacerbate that issue?
From Support Asian Americans through COVID-19 on July 27

First, it's important to note that our shifting use of "BIPOC" or "non-white" or "Black and Brown" or "people of color" reflects the perspectives of our writers (both our staff and the news we're quoting and referencing). All terms aim to identify a community that is often impacted by dominant culture, which is majorly influenced by whiteness.

I personally prefer to use "non-white" in those scenarios, and since I write most frequently, you hear it most often. To me, it intentionally separates so many communities not from white people, but the whiteness that has the power of normal in our society. It does name an entire group of diverse, multi-cultural people against whiteness itself, which can absolutely be considered a form of erasure. I just hope it reminds us why we're having the conversation in the first place. But I'm going to keep learning about this; language is important and I don't want to cause further harm.

Do you have suggestions on how to validate the pain of Jewish silence and the fact that being Black is more stigmatized than being Jewish, without inadvertently feeding into anti-Semitic sentiment?
From Denounce anti-Semitism on July 28

There's no reason we can't have complex, nuanced conversations on how racism and anti-Semitism show up at the same time. If we allow the anti-Semitism in the Black community and anti-Blackness in the Jewish community to divide us, we're both allowing white supremacy to win. And the impact of white supremacy won't discriminate between the two. Both communities will suffer.

So right now, we have an incredible opportunity to unite in favor of common goals and objectives, see our similarities over our differences, and commit to the deep and necessary healing to keep moving forward, together. If part of that includes, as you're referencing, focusing on the needs of Black people right now based on current events, then that just prioritizes one action item of many to tackle on the list.

The critical work of doulas to support equitable maternal health.
From Support Black maternal health on July 30

This isn't a question, but a powerful response from Heather on how necessary doulas for the advancement of maternal care. I didn't touch on doulas in this newsletter; I tried to stay focused on the direct political changes that our government can make, and plan on focusing on doulas in another newsletter. But let's start that conversation now! I've shared Heather's thoughtful response below:

One way we can help advocate for the rights of birthing people is to make sure they all have access to a birth doula!

Doulas advocate for their clients rights, provide informational, physical & emotional and support to the birthing family. We significantly reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes for all birthing people. Sadly many women don’t even know what a doula does or the benefits. And many more can not afford one, despite the fact the most doulas are willing to work with a payment plan or sliding scale.

Currently, due to Covid, most hospitals across the US have told their clients they can only have one support person while birthing in the hospital. Of course, most people are going to choose their significant other. Myself and other doulas are working hard to pass legislation that makes doulas an essential worker, so that hospitals can not ban us from supporting our clients. I have personally witnessed via virtual care, my clients rights ignored during this time. Something I KNOW would not have happened if I were present in the room.

Actions I and other are working on so that every birthing person who wishes to have a doula can-
1. Have insurance companies 100% cover the costs. It is only in the insurance companies benefit since it significantly reduces health risks and negative outcomes.
2. Pass legislation that hospitals can never ban a birth doula from the birthing setting and is not counted as a visitor but an essential employee

I found a change.org petition advocating for doulas to be considered essential workers that you can sign here.

Do you have any advice for what people in other countries can do in situations like this? I’m Canadian and I want to help (and have donated to causes) but because a lot of petitions call for your zip code and to call your political representative in the US, I feel like I can’t be that effective. Is it better to keep sharing posts about her or to find issues like this in my own country / area instead?
From Keep fighting for Breonna Taylor on July 31

We're considering expanding the Anti-Racism Daily to other countries, as we know it's frustrating that we cover mainly U.S. based news! Thanks for your patience as we continue to plan.

Generally speaking, I recommend looking for ways to tackle the same issues in your own community – whether you're abroad or in the U.S. Breonna Taylor's story isn't unique – there are many Black women who still fight for justice. Consider who the Breonna Taylor is in your community, or more critically, who could be the Breonna Taylor in your community? What practices and policies make it easy for harm to happen on vulnerable populations like Black women where you live? And how can you take action each day to prevent it?

CLARIFICATIONS

From Support Black maternal health on July 30
My piece on Black maternal health failed to note that transmen and gender non-binary individuals are also impacted by the racial disparities of maternal care, not just cisgender Black women. Thanks for the catch, Stephanie!

ARCHIVES

Build language justice.

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Unpack the term “Hispanic”.

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Learn the definition of "woke.”

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Learn the key terminology.

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Use emoji respectfully.

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Study Hall! Racist actions, doulas, and intersectional change.

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CLARIFICATIONS

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