[Linganth] CDC Language ban

[Steven Black]

I’ve been looking for good ways to incorporate health-related issues into the committee on Language and Social Justice, and this certainly looks like a good topic for that group. I will raise the issue with the group.  From a public health/ global health discourse perspective, there is a lot going on here. I agree with Judy that there seems to be an element of self-censorship here (which is also disturbing). 

Exclusion of “transgender” is obviously discriminatory. The replacement of “evidence-based” with some phrase about science and community is more opaquely problematic. A core anthropological critique of contemporary public/ global health is that health interventions prioritize “data-driven” interventions to the exclusion of cultural/ community perspectives. Addressing this critique is clearly NOT the intent of this censorship, but any op-ed or statement writers need to be cognizant of this anthropological critique even as they/we call out the many problems with the word banning (whether it is self-censorship or other-censorship).

If anyone who is not on the social justice committee is interested in working on issues of health, language, and social justice, you should join the committee! It is an open group.

Please excuse any typos (sent via mobile device)

Steven P. Black
Department of Anthropology
Georgia State University

> On Dec 16, 2017, at 11:03 PM, Janina Fenigsen <jfenigsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Judy, excellent points, thank you! 
> 
> janina
> 
>> On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 4:01 PM, Judith Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu> wrote:
>> I’m interested in watching the information come out on this.  At this point, my sense is that what may have happened is some bureaucrats, as they prepare their budget request, have decided that if they avoid these words they will be more likely to get funded, and if they have these words in their budget they’ll be less likely to get funded. So it’s a pre-emptive sort of thing, not a prohibition coming from the administration but rather a bureaucratic strategy to deal with (probably quite accurate) anticipation of the administration’s response.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> So this may be an effort to get things funded by re-labelling them without changes in content. I think, though, that it is that this strategy will backfire,  as the labels re-shape the contents and everyone struggles in the dark to figure out what they are supposed to be doing. But how do you get bureaucrats to avoid “bureaucratic weasel-wording”?
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> And if we point out the changed wording and it results in the administration and the legislature cutting the funding for the programs, where does that get us? Not that weasel-wording is a good thing, but I’m not sure pointing it out solves the fundamental problem. Maybe, instead, publicize the positive results of programs that use these words, using the words in the titles? Ideally, successes in Republican-leaning areas if possible?
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> -          Judy
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> From: Linganth [mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] On Behalf Of Leila Monaghan
>> Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 1:39 PM
>> To: Galey Modan
>> Cc: LINGANTH
>> Subject: Re: [Linganth] CDC Language ban
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> One way to fight this “ban on words” might be to publicize every document that the CDC publishes with changed words, pointing out the changes.  This ruling hampers everything from getting information about the elderly to the fight against Zika.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Leila
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Galey Modan <gmodan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Any ideas how we as an organization might fight this?
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/f503837a-e1cf-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?utm_term=.ad1d1b951b0d
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> Leila Monaghan, PhD
>> 
>> Publisher, Elm Books
>> 
>> Laramie, Wyoming
>> 
>> 
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> 
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