Changing the Way We Talk and Write About Race

There’s no doubt about it: racism is a public health crisis.  

Racism is bad for your health. It affects everything from where you live and the quality of the air you breathe, to your access to health care and the amount of autonomy you have over your own body. Racial and reproductive equity in particular, are deeply intertwined. 

For centuries, our country has, and continues, to deny women of color reproductive freedom - from profiting off of the pregnancies of enslaved women to forced sterilization of Native women in the 70’s, to current allegations of ICE forcing migrant women into hysterectomies. To say all people deserve access to safe, comprehensive reproductive care means addressing how racism is both embedded in the reproductive healthcare system and created insurmountable barriers to accessing health care. One place to start is in changing how we talk and write about race.  

Presence vs. Power

Being rooted in equity of any kind - in this instance, racial equity - means working to understand the difference between presence and power. Presence is visibility. It's retweets, it's social media, it's general awareness. It's a shout out from the stage. Power is the capacity, or ability, to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. The two are not the same. If they were, people of color wouldn’t need to protest for the basic right to live.

For communities of color, visibility alone will not save us. Fixing the systems and structures that target and exploit people of color will. In talking and writing, that means identifying who or what holds power. And more importantly, changing the way we talk about that power play. Using social media to force an employer to fire a white person caught falsely calling the police on a Black person, is an example of presence. It does nothing to address white people still calling the police on Black people - potentially jeopardizing their lives. Enacting laws that make racially biased 911 calls illegal, does. Presence, raising enough awareness, can and sometimes will push organizations to fire bad apples. But only addressing the power at play - white people calling the police on Black people without repercussion - can stop it from happening again.

Passive vs. Active Voice

Things don’t just happen to people. Systems, structures, policies, and actions impact people. When we talk and write about race it’s often in what we call passive voice. Black people are less likely to get loans from the bank. This is passive voice. Passive voice would have you believe that Black people are somehow responsible for not being able to get a loan - instead of the banks that, from their very foundation, exclude, exploit, red-line, and deny Black people loans. In passive voice, you de-emphasize the person or thing that is responsible for the situation, either putting it at the end of your sentences or omitting it outright. 

Active voice, on the other hand, is when you start your sentences with the person or thing responsible for doing the action. Banks are less likely to give loans to Black people. This is an active voice. Now you’ve identified who holds power in this situation. You take the emphasis off of Black people to illuminate the true problem: Banks won't give loans to Black people. Why is that and how do we fix it? 

Paint the Whole Picture

Providing context when talking and writing about race is a must. A gap in your story is created when you leave it out - allowing people to fill it in with their own conclusions and potential bias. COVID-19 is killing Black and brown people at a higher rate than other groups, is a true and factual statement. Yet, without context it does little to move the needle on racial equity. 

People of color are not dying from COVID in larger percentages than the rest of the U.S. arbitrarily. The government and states are killing them through the decisions they are making, the ways insurance works, and by how (and to whom) resources are being deployed. Black people are not just "vulnerable" - Black people are under attack, targeted, exploited, and made vulnerable by racist institutions. Cuts to reproductive health care hurt society’s most marginalized groups, which is also a true statement. It does nothing to address the misguided politicians continually making laws targeting and stripping these groups of their bodily autonomy and ability to access the care they need when they need it.

When we talk about any community of people as vulnerable, marginalized, hurting, we spend all of our time focusing on fixing those communities rather than fixing the systems, laws, and culture that target, exploit, and continue to hold these communities down. Providing context is about connecting the dots for your listener or reader, and painting a true and whole picture of the situation so they understand what they must do to fix it. 

Say What You Mean

How you frame your speech and writing about race matters. Using active voice, providing context, and truly saying what you mean dictates where we as a society put our energy and resources. If you say Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth, that leads to solutions like more prenatal classes for Black women and misguided questions about what they could be doing better. Hospitals kill pregnant Black women three times more often than any other race, regardless of economic or social standing, well now we need to focus on hospitals. What are the practices, policies, and biases in hospitals leading to this? Perhaps we should put our time and resources into fixing the hospital system that is allowing Black women to continually die in childbirth.

Getting to where we need to be to dismantle discriminatory policies and systems while confronting the racist and apathetic folks allowing it all to continue, is an ongoing process. Changing up how we talk and write about race - recognizing who holds power, getting away from passive speech, and providing context - helps move that process forward. Not all of us are in a position to change laws or attend protests, but we all can shake up how we talk and write about race, using language as a way to help others understand what needs to change to move society closer to equity for all people.

Brenda Tyler (she/her) has over 10 combined years' experience working in International Development and in the field of Fundraising. With a Masters of Science in Peace Operations, she has researched and written for the International Peace and Security Institute, been a grant writer for international nonprofits and local Universities, and conducted trainings and presentations on effective donor communication and stewardship. Currently, the Manager of Donor Stewardship at Planned Parenthood, Brenda builds out robust stewardship programs to retain, engage, and educate supporters. Prior to joining Planned Parenthood, Brenda was the Manager of Donor Relations and Stewardship at Howard University in Washington, D.C.