Spring Break
Diverse panel takes back derogatory slurs
Shelly White/ Staff Reporter
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: News
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Click here to listen to a podcast of what audience members had to say about taking back slurs.Caution: Derogatory words are used in the podcast.
A panel featuring nine speakers, all belonging to different organizations on campus, including Women's Studies, the Asian American Association, the Black Student Union and EIU Pride had an engaging discussion at the "Take It Back? A Panel Discussion on Reclaiming Slurs" in Lumpkin Hall on Tuesday night.
The panel had 30 attendees, who were all able to join in the discussion at the end of the panel.
At the start of the panel the moderator noted the information and words used were not meant to be taken offensively toward any person.
The discussion started off with the emotions that are raised when certain slurs are used.
"These words sometimes sting when you hear them," said Yolanda Williams, an African American studies instructor and adviser in Minority Affairs. "As a society, we're not at a place where we can reclaim certain words, and just let it go."
"Just take it and keep on going, just let it slide off your back like water," said Justin Barrett, a sophomore corporate communications major.
The panel discussed whether it was empowering to use these slurs, and whether the historical baggage attached to each word affects how it is used.
"As soon as we hear these words, it not only has meaning for the person who said it, but for all the people that it bounces off of," said Jeannie Ludlow, English professor and coordinator of the Women's Studies program.
The panel also discussed how the media use certain slurs so loosely, especially in music, and they tend to get embedded in society.
"Something happened in the past, and even though it wasn't necessarily us that lived through it, it makes us act the way we act and say the things we say," Williams said. "Our generation tends to act like these things didn't happen, and even though they may not be so drastic and frequent today, they're still happening."
Williams said that Barack Obama was the first political candidate to ever talk about race, and discuss how each generation has changed, how certain things have become sensitized or desensitized.
"History repeats itself, and that's why we use history, to keep some things from happening again," Barrett said.
The terms 'gay', 'retarded' and 'queer' were also discussed throughout the panel, and how sometimes these words are all placed on the same level.
Ludlow said that a lot of times, people use the word queer to mean 'weird' or 'odd.' "The power to hurt has not been taken away from it (queer), but the meaning has been fractured," she said.
Barrett said there are a lot more words offered for us to use in the dictionary rather than slurs, so it's time to pull them out.
"If you can't word it in some way that's not hurtful, then don't say it at all," Barrett said.
Shelly White can be reached at 581-7942 or at slwhite@eiu.edu.
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