Ethnicity, Race + Nationality
Featured
Why We Confuse “Race” and “Ethnicity”: A Lexicographer’s Perspective
On our evolving understandings of racial categorization and cultural identity.
“Hapa”: A Unique Case of Cultural Appropriation by Multiracial Asian Americans?
On embracing a Hawaiian identity without the experience of colonization and inequality.
Moving Beyond “Default” Language in Pop-Culture Criticism
On the practice of assuming that straightness and Whiteness are culturally neutral.
Resources
General
- “Building Narrative Power” | Color of Change
- Cultural Competence Handbook | National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ)
- “List of Ethnic Slurs” (in alpha order or by ethnicity) | Wikipedia
- “Race-Related Coverage” | Associated Press Stylebook
- “Racial Equity Tools Glossary” | Racial Equity Tools
- “Writing About Slavery? Teaching About Slavery?” (P. Gabrielle Foreman, et al.; community-sourced)
Immigration
- “Drop the I-Word Campaign” | Race Forward
- Reporting at the Intersection of Immigration, Policing, and Incarceration [PDF] | Immigrant Defense Project
- “Statement in Response to Coverage of the Ukraine Crisis” | The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA)
- “Teaching About Refugees” | UNHCR
Marginalized Groups
Asian Americans
- “Guidance and Resources” | Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)
Black and Brown People
- Best Practices for Journalists Reporting on Police Killings of Black and Brown People | Race Forward
- Intersectional Indigenous Identities: Afro-Indigenous and Black Indigenous Peoples | Native Americans in Philanthropy
- NABJ Style Guide | National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)
First Nations / Indigenous / Native Peoples
- “Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers” | University of Alberta Library
- First Nations Language Guidelines | Dementia Support Australia
- “A Guide to Indigenous Land Acknowledgment” | Native Governance Center
- Guidelines for the Ethical Publishing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Authors and Research From Those Communities [PDF] | The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
- “How to Talk About Native Nations” | Native Governance Center
- Intersectional Indigenous Identities: Afro-Indigenous and Black Indigenous Peoples | Native Americans in Philanthrop
- Indigenous Peoples: Language Guidelines | The University of British Columbia
- “NAJA Reporting Guides” | Native American Journalists Association (NAJA)
Articles
General
“All Mixed Up: What Do We Call People of Multiple Backgrounds?” | NPR
- The history of mixed race, multiracial, biracial, and other terms
“Awkward, Uncomfortable Conversations About Racism Worth It” | USA Today
- Tips on addressing racism with someone who was racially offensive or insensitive
“Research Says There Are Ways to Reduce Racial Bias. Calling People Racist Isn’t One of Them.” | Vox
- “In 2016, researchers stumbled on a radical tactic for reducing another person’s bigotry: a frank, brief conversation.”
“What’s Wrong With the Word ‘Minority’?” | Fast Company
Asian Diaspora
“After 50 Years of ‘Asian American,’ Advocates Say the Term Is ‘More Essential Than Ever'” | NBC News
“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a Missing Minority in Criminal Justice Data” | Urban Wire
- Categorizing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as “other” in the criminal justice system fails to acknowledge the vast disparities within the group and feeds the harmful “model minority” myth.
“Asians Are Good at Math? Why Dressing Up Racism as a Compliment Just Doesn’t Add Up” | The Conversation
- Jokes about Asians being good at math “might seem funny at first, but the underlying message is clear: Asian people aren’t seen as human beings; they are calculating machines…In other words, they are dehumanized.”
“‘Open the Kimono’: 11 Assumptions Behind a Misogynist and Racist Business Phrase” | Catalyst
“What to Say When You’re Asian American and Someone Calls You ‘Exotic'” | Public Radio International
“Feminism and Race: Just Who Counts as a ‘Woman of Color’?” | NPR
BAME, BIPOC, and POC
“Are We ‘People of Color’?” | American Indians in Children’s Literature
“#BAMEOver: A Statement for the UK” | What Next?
- “We choose not to be reduced to an inaccurate grouping. But what we have in common is that we are…’People who experience racism’. This term will require you to then articulate who you are referring to.”
“Feminism and Race: Just Who Counts as a ‘Woman of Color’?” | NPR
“We Should Stop Saying ‘People of Color’ When We Mean ‘Black People'” | Medium
“What We Get Wrong About “People of Color” | Wired
- “Broad, all-inclusive sweeps are convenient and comfortable—and sometimes, for the sake of progress, we need them—but they can also do great damage.”
“Why the Term ‘BIPOC’ Is So Complicated, Explained by Linguists” | Vox
- “When people find themselves struggling to find the best language to talk about identities, [PhD linguistics student deandre miles-hercules] argues that they should think more critically about what exactly they are trying to say.”
Black Diaspora
“Is It Time to Reclaim the Word ‘Nappy’?” | Allure
“Stop Calling Black Women ‘Superheroes'” | Dame
“The Trouble With Tribe” | Learning for Justice
“What Black Women Hear When They’re Called ‘Auntie'” | The Atlantic
“Why I Don’t Refer to My Hair as ‘Dreadlocks’” | Vogue
“The Words ‘Ghetto’ and ‘Hood’ Were Once Looked Down Upon. Now, Black Chefs Are Reclaiming Them” | Today
Coded Language + Euphemisms
“AP Stylebook Update: It’s OK to Call Something Racist When It’s Racist” | Poynter
“‘Obama’s People’ and ‘the African Americans’: Using the Language of Othering | The Huffington Post
- How use of the word the before any racial group creates distance and puts them in one monolithic category
“The Racist Politics of the English Language” | Boston Review
- “Why the semantic somersaults when it comes to race? We never hear anti-Semitic rhetoric described as ‘religiously tinged.’”
“Tony Dungy: Some Announcers’ Biased Language Perpetuates Black QB Stereotypes” | The Undefeated
- “The position that needs the most change might be the broadcast booth. That’s where African-American quarterbacks are still described more for their physicality than intellect.”
Design + Technology
“Github Plans to Replace Racially Insensitive Terms Like ‘Master’ and ‘Whitelist’” | The Next Web
“How the Design Industry Can Confront Racist Terminology” | Architectural Digest
Food + Travel
“Can La Cocina’s Food-Focused Conference Help Grow Equitable Communities?” | KQED
“Consider Ditching These 11 Words When Talking About Your Travels” | Fodor’s Travel
“To Change Racial Disparity in Food, Let’s Start With Cookbooks” | Eater
Immigration
“‘Expat’ and the Fraught Language of Migration” | The Atlantic
“A Historically Xenophobic Metaphor Has Been Used by Trump, Limbaugh, Obama—and Us?” | Public Radio International
- When immigrants of color are described as “pouring in,” “swamping,” “flooding in,” or as “coming in ‘tides’ and ‘waves.’”
“Stop Saying This Is a Nation of Immigrants!” | CounterPunch
Israel + Palestine
“Israel-Palestine: A Glossary of Problematic Media Language” | Middle East Eye
- “Often, the target of criticism is language that appears to equivocate between unequal sides.”
“Study: U.S. Newspapers Are More Than Twice as Likely to Cite Israeli Sources in Headlines Than Palestinian Ones” | The Intercept
- “The firm analyzed nearly 100,000 news headlines about the conflict in the American press over the past five decades and found that the Israeli point of view was featured much more prominently than the Palestinian one, and that references to Palestinians’ experiences of being ‘refugees’ or living under ‘occupation’ have steadily declined.”
“Why Calling Israel an Apartheid State Is Not Enough” | Middle East Eye
- “The report [from B’Tselem, a leading human rights group in Israel] found that Israel meets the definition of apartheid under international law, which defines apartheid as ‘inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.'”
Journalism
“What International Coverage of Tiananmen Got Wrong” | Columbia Journalism Review
- “The reporters did not create a safe space for people to speak…This kind of journalistic practice is actually not about Tiananmen, but a conscious—and stylistic—choice that is commonly adopted to frame ignorance and silence.” —Tony Lin, video journalist, Quartz
Latine/Latinx/Latin@
“Latina/o/x” | Inside Higher Ed
- The need for an inclusive, non-gender-conforming term for Latina and Latino
- The arguments against using an x
“Why Student Group MEChA’s Proposed Name Change Has Set Off a Fierce, Multi-Generational Debate” | Remezcla
- Chicana/Chicano/Chicanx: “These proposed shifts in language…remind us that there has never been consensus around the terms that should define our complex communities.”
Native/Indigenous Peoples
“Are We ‘People of Color’?” | American Indians in Children’s Literature
“Blackhorse: Do You Prefer ‘Native American’ or ‘American Indian’? 6 Prominent Voices Respond” | Indian Country Today Media Network
- Different perspectives on the terms Native, indigenous, Native American, American Indian, Indian, and First American, and the preference for tribal references
“How Totem Poles Work” | HowStuffWorks
- “Have you heard the expression ‘low man on the totem pole?’ It describes someone of little importance or esteem. But traditionally, the bottom figure on a totem pole is the most important one.”
“On the Words ‘Tribe’ and ‘Nation'” | Indian Country Today
- “We downgrade ourselves, and our status, as nations and peoples when we fail to choose the most powerful terms in English to express our political identity.”
“100 Ways to Support—Not Appropriate From—Native People” | Broadly
- On the use of powwow, squaw, “go off the reservation,” and other offensive language.
“Stop Saying This Is a Nation of Immigrants!” | CounterPunch
“Thirty Everyday Phrases That Perpetuate the Oppression of Indigenous Peoples” | Radical Copyeditor
- Phrases include bury the hatchet, chief, circle the wagons, hold down the fort, Indian style, Indian giver, long time no see, off the warpath, powwow, rain dance, savage, shaman, spirit animal, tribe, vision quest, war paint.
“What’s Tribal Sovereignty and What Does It Mean for Native Americans?” | The Journalist’s Resource
“Why Saying ‘Aborigine’ Isn’t OK: 8 Facts About Indigenous People in Australia” | Amnesty International
“Why We Use ‘Indigenous’ Instead of ‘Aboriginal'” | Animikii
Non-English Words
“Integrating Non-English Words Into Academic Writing” | University Affairs
Reclamation + Slurs
“Arabs, the N-Word and the A-Word Are the Same” | Muslim Girl
“New Latinx Generation Embraces the Code-Switching Identity Once Derided as ‘Pocho'” | Borderzine
“Why Being ‘Gypped’ Hurts the Roma More Than It Hurts You” | NPR
- “I encounter a lot of people who tell me that they never knew the word ‘gypped’ had anything to do with gypsies, or that it’s offensive—especially when the word is heard not read. My response to them is, That’s okay. You didn’t know but now you do. So stop using it. It may mean nothing to you, but when we hear it, it still hurts.” —Ian Hancock, professor, University of Texas at Austin
White Diaspora
“‘Ukraine,’ Not ‘the Ukraine‘: The Significance of Three Little Letters” | Time
