[Linganth] CDC Language ban

Mon Dec 18 00:38:37 UTC 2017

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

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<mailto: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<mailto: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<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<mailto: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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