politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
This misses the point of equity language. The goal of equity language is to avoid using language that feeds people's preconceptions and biases. Like prisoners are a subset of people who are experiencing the criminal-justice system, but the idea is that there is far more to the experience than just being in prison.
Not to mention most people have preconceived notions about who is in prison that are based on racism and other biases.
The article seems to miss the point of the language attempting to be inclusive while also assuming the intent to to be vague.
I think a lot of equity based language ends up being unclear, but once the intent is understood the goal is a positive one. Heck, person first is a great approach because people do tend to treat people as their disability or race instead of as people.
Okay, but it is actually doing anything? Do people with negative biases (i.e. the people who need the most convincing) respond positively to this type of language? I really can't imagine that they would. Especially when you admit that it ends up unclear. Are you actually helping people in prison when you refer to them as "experiencing the criminal-justice system" or is it like the article says:
Furthermore, why should this drain the positivity from existing language? "Experiencing the criminal-justice system" does draw focus to the fact of the wider experience, but that's not always what you need or want to express. If you're focusing on people who have been wrongfully convicted then shouldn't go with "wrongfully imprisoned" since it's a more power phrasing? I don't see how milquetoast corporate-speak like "experiencing the criminal-justice system due to systemic bias" does anything aside from protecting those biases by making them sound unworthy of outrage.
I think equity language is well intended but won't be successful because complex topics require discussion and understanding that most people don't want to spend the time on.
There is no "culture where symbolic gestures are preferable to concrete actions". Every single person carefully framing their speech about the criminal justice system wants prisons to be better and prosecution and punishment to be more fair.
That's just the author doing the boring old trick of pretending activists only care about perception so they can disregard the entire message. "Oh, you say you're a climate activist, then you should have spend the $2.41 on planting trees rather than buying sign materials made by cutting down trees! And standing in the road making me idle in my car means you're only interested in symbolic gestures, not cutting fossil fuel usage!" In the 90s he'd be complaining about PC language while explaining that when they say "f*g" it's just habit and they're not intending it in a negative way so get off their case already.
So if a criminal justice department adopts the style guide and language but keeps the exact same practices, that makes a difference for reform somehow?
I framed that imprecisely. The people developing/advocating for the style guides are trying to promote criminal justice. Malignant entities can adopt them as a misdirection, but they're not part of a culture, they're just using it as a deception. The author is complaining about the people telling them to use better language that's a chore for them to integrate/remember, not the people adopting it to avoid accountability.