I recently took an introduction to editing course. My goal in taking the course is to improve my writing an also to be more helpful when someone gives me a draft and asks, "can you take a look at this?"
One of the books that they recommended in the course that I took was the late Gregory Younging's Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples. I do have that book on my shelf and I have used it as a reference many times. One of the features that I especially like about the book is an essay in the back on conflicts between Indigenous customary laws and colonial laws around copyright/intellectual property. With UNDRIP legislation in place at both the provincial and federal level, I think that the ideas in his essay remain important today.
Another book recommended in the course was The Conscious Style Guide: A Flexible Approach to Language that Includes, Respects, Empowers. I am sometimes self-conscious about my word use. One time I went to an event as a panelist, and the organizers asked that I use one term. So during my panel presentation, I used the preferred term. And then another panelist told me it was the wrong term, and told me to use the term that the organizers had told me not to use. Neither term was wrong. But apparently there was a debate at play about which word was more correct. It was one of those moments that reminded me that language is dynamic and as a society we are constantly negotiating language. What this means is that even if someone were to write a book saying "here are all of the most progressive words to use," it would be out of date shortly after publication. So, the approach taken by Karen Yin is to create an approach which allows us to express ourselves and connect with others (p. xxii) with the goal of being kind, inclusive, and bias free (p.xv), and while also recognizing that language is ever changing and there will always be exceptions (p.20). This approach suggests that we use compassion as a compass (p.23).
She suggests that the goal of conscious language use is to avoid unintentionally promoting prejudice and discrimination (p.30) and to use language in such a way that it has the potential to liberate (p.36). She differentiates this from the goal of politically correctness, which is driven by fear of being criticized (p.32).
She has a lot of great examples, and uses them to demonstrate how to use the conscious language approach to guide decision making. For example, is the term "Greek chorus" offensive? Why or why not? As another example, she examines research where people with vision impairments indicate that they do not think that the term "blind spot" is always inappropriate, and then she discusses how to differentiate between offensive and non-offensive use. One of the strategies she suggests when making decisions about whether or not to use a phrase which involves a metaphor involving some kind of demographic detail is to ask yourself "what do I really mean by that?" Once you have clarity about what you mean, then "if the metaphor replaced a thought that was insulting, disapproving, or denigrating, then consider avoiding it." (p.120).
The one item in the book which I felt concerned about was her suggestion to "take back" a slur against Indigenous women (p.111). I do not think that I can "take back" slurs for demographics which I am not. For example, if there were a slur against gay people, I could not "take back" that slur because I am not gay. Or if there were a a slur against a specific nationality that I am not part of, I could not "take back" a slur against that nationality. Having been on the receiving end of slurs, what I can say is that in almost every context, the use of certain slurs hurts because of the ways it has been used in the past. When I hear the specific slur she suggests taking back, it actually brings to mind some very unsafe moments, and if someone were to casually drop it into conversation I would definitely question their character. As she is not an Indigenous woman, I do not think that she can "take back" the slur that she is discussing. I suggest ignoring her advice to take back slurs if you are not the group that the slur is directed towards. Aside from that one item which I strongly disagree with, I thought overall this was an excellent book. If you would like to hear a podcast interview where she discusses the book, The Editor's Half Hour has an episode which I enjoyed listening to.
