Watch Your Mouth

With her project Beyond Words, Natalie Ham wants you to pay attention to the racism in the slang you’re tempted to use

Discussions about race and education have become increasingly common in American high schools,

and rightfully so. In her freshman year, during one of these conversations, Natalie Ham (WRA ’22) realized that “my non-black classmates were not taking into consideration the history of the N-word and the impact it has on the African American community.” As a non-black person, Natalie truthfully found herself in the same situation. But — and knowing Natalie, this doesn’t surprise me at all — she approached the situation with empathy and a desire to learn.

After the discussion, Natalie reflected:

“Knowing myself, I knew that my own lack of understanding didn’t correlate with any hatred towards this marginalized group, but instead, a deficiency of resources.”

-Natalie Ham

Natalie immediately started thinking of ways to address this issue. She quickly formulated a goal for her initiative — “to provide what I didn’t have: a place where open-minded learners can come to see how and why words can be weaponized and used to dehumanize.”

Natalie calls her project Beyond Words.

She looks to examine the detrimental effects of slurs, and show that the negativity surrounded by their use runs much deeper than people tend to understand. Most importantly, her project provides resources for proper education on slurs and their history; this creates an environment where students learn valuable historical lessons while also gaining empathy for others. 

I grew up outside of Ithaca, New York.

If you know anything about Ithaca, it’s probably for one of three reasons: Cornell University, the Finger Lakes, or its radically left politics. Most of the people I grew up with were liberal. Despite this, and despite anti-racist moralities, nearly everyone said slurs. I think that very few people were actually racist, but instead it was simply caused by a lack of proper education. Humans internalize the things we’re frequently exposed to, so when middle school students hear and see slurs in pop culture, they think they can say them.

Our school years are arguably the most formative time period in our lives, so to teach anti-racism and African-American history would be to quench individual racism before it has the chance to even catch flame. Natalie’s project relates directly to this imperative work:

“My hope is that everyone becomes more conscious of the words they use in daily conversations, provide clarity on how it can affect those around them, and enlighten each other.”

-Natalie Ham

Even with these developments, they’re only foundational.

The most important transformation will come in an institutional sense, when enough of our population understands that deeply rooted racism dictates so much of our society. Natalie does not consider Beyond Words “a final stop for linguistic awareness. It should instead be an opportunity to find information in something you may not have had prior exposure to, and to nurture your own curiosity to see how the usage of specific slurs may impact you or those around you.”

Recognize where racism exists, understand how it came to be that way, and discover where it can be deconstructed. If this knowledge becomes widespread, social justice will not only become more topical and mainstream, society will be much closer to putting institutionalized racism behind us.