The Link between Hurricane Katrina and Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric
A historian reflects on how the devastating storm paved the way for the evangelical scapegoating of marginalized people today.
Shifting Language
America Is Literally Warring Over Words
There are four words that have been used again and again throughout American history—up through the Trump era—to justify morally dubious acts and frame wrong as right.
Policing Language Is Just Another Way to Silence Women
When women and people of color are told what words to use, and how to use them, it’s more than mere political correctness gone awry. It’s a form of silencing that sustains a moral, class, and racial hierarchy.
What Does the World Think of America’s Fake Language?
The mainstreaming of “alternative facts,” “fake news,” and other linguistic manipulations creates confusion, distorts truth, and threatens the fate of our democracy.
This Is How Words Become Weapons
With Trump in office, insults are now arsenal, with the power to not only hurt reputations, but to write bigotry into law.
If Words Lose Their Meaning, What’s Left?
Dictionaries don't define words, people do. And those in power are not only eroding our lexicon, but democracy.
Words Matter. And Political Propaganda Is Destroying Them
Politicians have always manipulated language to fit their agenda. But when journalists validate and repeat it, they're introducing it into the national idiom.
We Have Always Silenced Women
Whether it’s foretelling political doom or coming forward with sexual-assault allegations, women's voices fall on deaf ears. Will we ever learn not listening to women has dire consequences?