Words Matter: The Language of Diversity, Understanding, and Acceptance
Date: November 16, 2022
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM Central
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Join us for our next webinar as part of the Making Our Strong Community, Stronger collaborative initiative for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this discussion, we take an unflinching look at the role of language in our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We’ll see how fluid language is today and discover the importance of supporting the evolution of vocabulary to drive greater equity, inclusion, and acceptance across our increasingly diverse community.
Words have power. They can connect or divide. Create friends or enemies. Without clarity and common ground, words can foster generational misunderstandings, inflicting harm and holding us back from societal, personal, or cultural advancement. But words can also build the bedrock for new levels of progress, appreciation, and humanity. If you doubt the power of words, ask yourself this: have you tip-toed around how to address a person or group of people for fear of “saying the wrong thing” or offending them?
Specific language conveys inclusion and “being seen” and can provide confidence in our connections with friends, family, or colleagues. However, it’s easy for those not impacted by injustice or discrimination to downplay the power of words. Language drives our conscious minds but also embeds itself deeply in our unconscious where it drives how we think, feel, and act — and how we treat each other.
Moderated by Dr. Gloria Chance, CEO and President of The Mousai Group, panelists include:
• Alysha M. Campbell, CEO, CultureShift HR
• Michael Daubman, Director Product Management, Broadcom Mainframe Software
• Shahed Alqadi, Project Manager, BMC Software
• Nik Harris, Director of Strategic Outreach & Engagement, Human Rights Campaign
• Jane Kerzhenetseva, Delivery Manager & Inclusion Lead, Rocket Software
Our panelists will openly discuss words, phrases and concepts that have entered our collective lexicon but are being met with confusion or even hostility by some, while welcomed and celebrated by many. Where are the triggers with this new language and how can we move past what is potentially blocking progress or understanding?
We are all impacted directly and daily by words around us, in the media, entertainment, songs, conversations, books, social media, work, and so on. Outdated language coddles and amplifies the harm of racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, religious bigotry, classism, and heterosexism, yet new, more inclusive language plays a critical role in the dismantling of these societal structures.
Join us for a frank (and hopefully fun) conversation. Together we can prompt learning and raise awareness while taking personal responsibility for the words we use and our willingness to be open-minded and empathetic towards each other.
