[Linganth] CDC Language ban

Mon Dec 18 15:56:15 UTC 2017

Wow. This is a very sophisticated response!

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Liz Crocker <lcrocker at bu.edu> wrote:

> You might consider reaching out to: https://envirodatagov.org/. They had
> a presentation at the recent AAA meeting about how they have been tracking
> web changes to EPA resources including side-by-side language analysis of
> webpages under Obama and Trump. Here is a blog post written for Cultural
> Anthropology that was authored by someone at EDGI https://envirodatagov.
> org/environmental-data-guerrilla-archiving-and-the-trump-transition/.
>
> They might be a great resource for considering how you could develop a
> similar program for the CDC and NIH with relation to the "banned words."
> Tracking these changes systematically also provides power in being able to
> quantitatively show how organizations are changing messaging and resources
> via language shifts and what that might mean for health and funding. For
> example, check out this report by EDGI that shows how they made subtle
> language changes such as largely removing the word "carbon" from EPA
> resources and swapping in alternative language: https://
> envirodatagov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WM-CCR-18-EPA-
> Smartway-Program-170919.pdf That report was picked up by the Washington
> Post, Politico, and the Hill among others.
>
> Cheers,
> Liz
>
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 9:54 AM, Judith Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu> wrote:
>
>> This is marvelous! And inspiring. I like that it seems to me to attack
>> the problem, and that it gives it a name. That seems as if it might,
>> perhaps, enter the national discourse in a productive way.
>>
>>
>>
>>    - Judy
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
>> Windows 10
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* William L. Leap <wlm at american.edu>
>> *Sent:* Monday, December 18, 2017 6:02:49 AM
>> *To:* Louis Romer; Judith Pine; LINGANTH; Steven Black
>> *Subject:* RE: [Linganth] CDC Language ban
>>
>>
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/opinion/trump-cdc-transge
>> nder.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20171218&nl=opinion-
>> today&nl_art=5&nlid=74526359&ref=headline&te=1
>>
>>
>>
>> Judy Pine’s comments also noted,  here is another way to think about  Dr
>> Fitzgerald remark.  Once references to  controversial issues are
>> sidelined,  of course that which is important  can be freely discussed .
>>
>>
>>
>> Wlm L Leap, PhD
>>
>> Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, American University,
>> Washington DC
>>
>> Affiliate Professor, Center for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
>> Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton FL
>>
>> Senior Founding Editor, Journal of Language & Sexuality
>> http://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jls
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Louis Romer [mailto:lromer at vassar.edu]
>> *Sent:* Sunday, December 17, 2017 9:53 PM
>> *To:* Judith Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu>
>> *Cc:* LINGANTH <LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org>; Steven Black <
>> stevepblack at gmail.com>; William L. Leap <wlm at american.edu>
>> *Subject:* Re: [Linganth] CDC Language ban
>>
>>
>>
>> An update:
>>
>> @CDCDirector tweets:
>>
>>
>>
>> “I want to assure you there are no banned words at CDC. We will continue
>> to talk about all our important public health programs.”
>>
>>
>> https://twitter.com/cdcdirector/status/942423509124427776
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_cdcdirector_status_942423509124427776&d=DwMFaQ&c=U0G0XJAMhEk_X0GAGzCL7Q&r=8gvIwdkfYA0asooKAesUKg&m=kOBe070hqwuC6CmDHPc4SrWsciWcAjU9PqKBFJMAwzQ&s=fqJrKOClW0GCs7pEaERDopCOTJI-pkbySMwzlAS3HYg&e=>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 20:39 Judith Pine <Judy.Pine at wwu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Bill,
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you for this response. I clearly have not communicated my position
>> very effectively, and I welcome the opportunity to clarify what I intended
>> to say.
>>
>>
>>
>> I do not mean in any way to imply that the discriminatory practices of
>> the current administration, and those of the GOP more generally, are in any
>> way acceptable, nor that we ought not to fight them with ever weapon at our
>> command. I just want to be quite careful of where we aim our weapons, to do
>> the most damage to these pernicious and toxic policies.
>>
>>
>>
>> Clearly, we need to address this, and, if it is self-censorship, to point
>> out the fact that there is no neutral option here. If it is the case, as it
>> may perhaps be, that people are being told their budgets are at risk if
>> they use particular language, we must make a statement against this. My
>> point was only that we would want to consider potential unintended
>> consequences of our actions, and to avoid accidentally having a negative
>> impact on funding for programs that we value.
>>
>>
>>
>> I may be over-cautious here, but I certainly am not saying we should do
>> nothing, nor that this sort of censorship is acceptable, even (or perhaps
>> especially) if it is self-censorship.
>>
>>
>>
>> - Judy
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf
>> of William L. Leap <wlm at american.edu>
>> *Sent:* Sunday, December 17, 2017 6:48:18 AM
>> *To:* Steven Black
>>
>>
>> *Cc:* LINGANTH
>> *Subject:* Re: [Linganth] CDC Language ban
>>
>> “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.”
>>
>> Judy et al. *please* reread Lal Zimman’s excellent posting re the
>>  implications here for “transgender.”
>>
>>
>>
>> This  administration has affirmed its prohibition on the transgender
>> question.  Eliminating the category eliminates possibilities of services to
>> transgender women and men. People’s lives will be affected, all the more so
>> if the “health care mandate” options are eliminated and related options
>> curtailed under the new tax plan. This is a bit more systematic than
>> discrimination.
>>
>>
>>
>> (Sorry if Trump bashing offends, but in this case,  Trump and his people
>> have made their call and they are not on our side of the struggle.)
>>
>>
>>
>> Wlm L Leap, PhD
>>
>> Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, American University,
>> Washington DC
>>
>> Affiliate Professor, Center for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
>> Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton FL
>>
>> Senior Founding Editor, Journal of Language & Sexuality
>> http://www.benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jls
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.benjamins.com_-23catalog_journals_jls&d=DwMFaQ&c=U0G0XJAMhEk_X0GAGzCL7Q&r=8gvIwdkfYA0asooKAesUKg&m=kOBe070hqwuC6CmDHPc4SrWsciWcAjU9PqKBFJMAwzQ&s=LFGbTWJb06xvaY4d75V0j9iHuyYPLNlzmd-l-7K2lJU&e=>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Linganth [mailto:linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Black
>> *Sent:* Sunday, December 17, 2017 8:36 AM
>> *To:* Janina Fenigsen <jfenigsen at gmail.com>
>> *Cc:* LINGANTH <LINGANTH at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> *Subject:* Re: [Linganth] CDC Language ban
>>
>>
>>
>> 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
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com_national_health-2Dscience_cdc-2Dgets-2Dlist-2Dof-2Dforbidden-2Dwords-2Dfetus-2Dtransgender-2Ddiversity_2017_12_15_f503837a-2De1cf-2D11e7-2D89e8-2Dedec16379010-5Fstory.html-3Futm-5Fterm-3D.ad1d1b951b0d&d=DwMFaQ&c=U0G0XJAMhEk_X0GAGzCL7Q&r=8gvIwdkfYA0asooKAesUKg&m=yuMZGp--44GnEmA6YVM8_uomhvTiRSRtQJjabY4h34Q&s=T254d4iOs_tNTIa4w-uNYLGVnNa1y3MxxRq5FfdtXC0&e=>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Leila Monaghan, PhD
>>
>> Publisher, Elm Books
>>
>> Laramie, Wyoming
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>>
>> --
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> Louis Philippe Römer, Ph.D.
>> Visiting Assistant Professor
>> Department of Anthropology
>> Vassar College
>> 124 Raymond Ave, Box 701
>> Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
>> (845) 437-7635
>>
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>
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