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Community Life “Words” Assembly In an effort to better serve the needs of our students and allow them a voice in service learning and diversity work, Shipley introduced a new student government association, Community Life, for the 2005-2006 school year. The senior all-school representatives, Natalie Levin and Tasha Plaza, joined by the senior representatives, Annabel Hogg and Leya Egea-Hinton, planned their first event, an assembly around language. Through bringing hurtful language into the light, the students worked to educate the student body to the power of words while giving voice to people who have felt disempowered by thoughtless and hurtful language. Students throughout the theater read anonymous statements from students and faculty relating personal experiences around language. The students ended the assembly with a simple but poignant PowerPoint presentation on hurtful language. Nigger: Jesus Christ: White Trash: Gay:
October 2005
Below is a sampling of some of the statements read throughout the assembly:
I have been called a nigger and I have called others nigger. It was never used to harm anyone, but more to greet a black friend. I have noticed that when African Americans call each other niggers, we are okay with it. But if someone outside our race uses the word we have a problem with it. I believe we should all stop using the word.
Most of the times when I’m at Shipley, when I hear “Jesus Christ!” being said, it’s usually not being said because someone is having a religious moment. As a Christian, I often have to tell people NOT to use Jesus Christ as a way to express anger, shock or disappointment. We would never yell out Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, or Moses as an expression of negativity. Why are we doing it then for Jesus Christ?
I used to use “white trash” to describe my family legacy. Because my grandfather lived in a trailer, was a blue collar worker and had only been educated up to the 6th grade, I said that my people were white trash, so I was from white trash. Someone stopped me once and said I was disrespecting my family by saying that, and they were right. My grandfather was a proud man and worked hard his whole life. When I hear people say white trash now I wonder what my grandfather would say to them. It makes me wonder about how our society values people who are poor but hard-working, when we call them trash.
It is difficult to come to a community you really adore every day and know, many times in ignorance, that words will echo in the halls that break your heart and soul. Words that are said so causally, yet have such a destructive force in the lives of those who identify with them. Gay, faggot, homo, lesbo, and more are shouted without conscience and used as terms of mockery. I wonder how my children will respond to hearing those words as they grow up in a home with two moms. I wonder if they will be silenced or if they will speak out. I wonder if they will be mocked themselves or if they will have the courage to defend themselves. I wonder why those words even exist or why they would be used so senselessly.
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