Language & Institutionalized Discrimination

Language plays an integral and oft-understated role in normalizing and enforcing destructive notions. Everyday vernacular can perpetuate systemic oppression under the guise of fabricated normalcy. It is imperative to acknowledge language, much like media, is representative of the values society as a whole deems as acceptable, creating a framework/lens in which speakers come to view issues and subsets of people. A lack of awareness of language’s capacity to facilitate susceptibility to biases is especially insidious because language itself is considered to be relatively objective, therefore escaping attention and blame. Discriminatory language breeds institutionalized discrimination, and institutionalized discrimination breeds discriminatory language.