Don’t Just Avoid It:
How to Counteract Stereotype in Writing

People are sensitive, and that means not only that they are easily hurt, but that they perceive a great deal of subtlety and are often influenced by nuances of which they aren’t even consciously aware. In writing, outright bigotry is often easy to spot and avoid, but sometimes we subtly support stereotypes, stigmas, and dehumanization without even realizing it. Here are two techniques for increasing your awareness of how writing can either embolden stereotypes or replace them with humanitarian concepts.

1. Don’t Equate a Person with a Bad Experience

 We humans have a bad habit of dehumanizing one another, and one of the primary ways we propagate this practice is through language. This is accomplished not only through slurs and stereotypes, but through commonly used nouns that are not generally thought to be offensive, but can cause harm by equating a person with an experience. When someone is called a criminal, for example, the label acts grammatically the same as words like woman or artist, describing what that person is, not just what the person has done or experienced. It also ignores the person’s true complexity, for the moment reducing it all to one single aspect. Basic humanity and varied life actions and roles are buried out of sight beneath one single simplified label. When the label has a strong negative charge, people can react explosively against the action or concept it represents, forgetting that beneath it stands another human being who, truth be told, is more like them than different.

Here are a few examples of how such words can strip people of their basic humanity:

* Convicts, prisoners, ex-cons, etc. are stripped of human goodness and demonized as essentially bad in every way. These words ignore people’s capacity for love and other positive attributes, the contexts in which they may have broken laws, the severity of the laws broken, and the possibility that they may have been wrongfully imprisoned or broken laws that many believe shouldn’t even exist.
Some better terms: people in conflict with the law, incarcerated people, people who have experienced incarceration

* Victims are stripped of human strength and seen as essentially powerless and in need of rescue. Yet in truth, people who have been abused are not weaker than others, and often show remarkable strength and resilience in the process of enduring, escaping, and healing from abuse.
Some better terms: survivors, people who have been abused

* Addicts, stripped of human resilience and dignity, are stereotyped as degenerate slaves to their addictions, and drug abusers are seen as actively choosing to harm themselves and others. Neither word acknowledges addiction as a health issue requiring compassionate treatment, nor the traumatic or bleak contexts in which people may see hard drugs as their best option.
Some better terms: people who use illegalized drugs, people who suffer from addiction

* Illegal immigrants and illegal aliens are stripped of their humanity, treated as contraband objects, and viewed as using resources but not contributing to the nation. They are stereotyped as uneducated, unintelligent, unable to speak to English, and immoral for entering the country illegally. These words mask the unjust obstacles faced by people seeking to immigrate legally, particularly people of color or low income. They mask the contexts in which people immigrate to this country to improve their families’ prospects, often in dire circumstances, as well as the gigantic contributions they make to the US economy, despite vast limitations on their employment that bar them from most skilled (and higher paying) jobs.
Some better terms: undocumented immigrants, undocumented people

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