Say This, Not That
Activating Workplace Diversity
Through Inclusive Language Practice
By Jackie Ferguson
with contributions from Kaela Kovach-Galton and Roxanne Bellamy
in partnership with
2Say This, Not That | p.
Or perhaps your team is not particularly diverse. Perhaps you’re a one-person
human resources department and want to write inclusive job descriptions
that attract diverse job seekers. Maybe you work as a sales professional and
find yourself pitching to increasingly diverse decision makers. Perhaps you
are a public speaker and need to address a large group of people without
excluding anyone in the room. You feel sensitive to the potential missteps of
discriminatory language. You want to make everyone feel welcome, but you
don’t know the right thing to say.
Even people who champion diversity can be nervous about choosing
the correct words for identities they have not often encountered. In fact,
your sensitivity is evidence that you are learning. How do you address
the chief marketing ocer who identifies as a queer Black woman or the
new administrative intern from Oman who uses a service animal at work?
These moments put us face-to-face with our own discomfort, assumptions,
and unawareness. They force us to reflect on our unconscious biases and
linguistic habits.
Let’s start by assuming your business is not an outlier. Like the vast majority of
successful professionals in today’s market, you know the competitive advantage of
workplace diversity. You’ve read the statistics, articles, and reports that urge business
leaders to engage in diverse hiring practices and to build an inclusive culture through
empathetic, participative leadership. Your business has allocated necessary resources
to fight the homogeneity of its team. Now, you want to learn about inclusive language
so you can embrace the humanity of your colleagues.
In some ways, it is easier to create policies and procedures that foster diversity
than it is to change the small patterns of our daily lives that subtly reinforce
exclusion and discrimination. Word choice is just one example. If you build a
diverse team and insist on inclusion but use casually insensitive terms that
silently oend or discourage participation, you have taken one step forward
and two giant steps back.
Language is both a mirror and a force, constantly reflecting and influencing
our actions, attitudes, and beliefs. That can be scary if you think that every
word is a window to your unconscious bias, but each of these interactions
can also be a window to your best intentions and your personal growth. You
know the risk of getting it wrong; this guide will show you how to get it right.
3Say This, Not That | p.
What’s important is that you take the first step. Start learning, and start practicing. Along the journey,
you will certainly make mistakes, but you will also find that people are forgiving when they know you are
working to be more inclusive. To reap the benefits of a diverse workforce, it is critical to understand both
the advantages and applications of inclusive language.
Inclusive language is the daily practice of intentional and unbiased word selection that acknowledges
diversity, conveys respect to all people, and promotes equitable opportunities. This guide details best
practices for inclusive language and will help you build the foundational skills required to confidently
address any individual, or a room full of diverse identities, with empathy and humanity in mind.
4Say This, Not That | p.
The Challenge: Diversity Without Inclusion
If we expand our definition of diversity beyond ethnic and gender
parameters, the correlation is even more compelling. Perhaps the
most well-known and frequently reported diversity statistic from
recent years is from a 2018 Boston Consulting Group study that
says, “companies that reported above-average diversity on their
management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19
percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average
leadership diversity—45% of total revenue versus just 26%.”
Recent data also proves that diverse teams make better business
decisions. “They bring more perspectives, experience, and
information, which helps to reduce cognitive biases and improves
accountability [...] In fact, the most diverse teams made better
decisions 87% of the time.” Statistics like these motivate business
leaders to diversify their teams but don’t teach them how to cultivate
increased productivity or innovation within those teams.
Companies with the
most ethnically diverse
executive teams—not
only with respect to
absolute representation
but also of variety or
mix of ethnicities—are
33% more likely to
outperform their peers
on profitability.
—McKinsey & Co.
“
87%
of the time diverse teams
made better decisions
The last decade of research into successful business practice shows
a significant correlation between diversity and performance. In fact, a
diverse work environment fosters innovation, increases revenue, and
improves decision-making results. Ethnic diversity allows for more
broadly contrasting viewpoints, especially if that diversity exists within
leadership teams, where most decision making occurs. This enables
more creative problem solving and greater innovation, ensuring that
the best ideas win. Gender diversity contributes a similar advantage.
According to the same 2018 McKinsey report, companies in the top
25th percentile for gender diversity on their executive teams are 21%
more likely to experience above-average profitability.
5Say This, Not That | p.
Until recently, achieving workplace diversity was often seen simplistically as an HR challenge: one that good
recruiting could solve. Companies were quick to argue that their lack of diversity, especially in senior and executive
roles, was a problem of time and available talent. After all, hiring requires patience, and recruitment opportunities
depend heavily on business growth.
Over time, our definition of diversity expanded from race and gender to include disability, geography, education, age,
neurodiversity, and more. Business leaders learned to embrace existing variance within their organizations. They also
started to realize that diversity is not so much an achievement as a perpetual business practice.
85% of today’s employees
believe that “a diverse
and inclusive workforce
is crucial to encouraging
dierent perspectives and
ideas that drive innovation.”
—Forbes
As modern employees repeatedly insist, cultivating diversity isn’t only good for business; it’s good for workers
too. Recruitment alone does not retain top talent. Those new employees simply won’t stay long if they do not feel
welcome, valued, and respected.
High turnover rates among diverse employees cost large corporations tens of millions of dollars each year. In fact,
“the average cost to replace a terminated employee (i.e. employee turnover) is about 50% of that employee’s annual
salary.” To reduce and prevent employee turnover, we must support diverse recruitment with inclusive language and
inclusive business practices.
As Nick Otto writes for Employee Benefit News, “while hiring and selection are important, oftentimes organizations
place more emphasis on finding the people who fit the workplace as opposed to shaping the workplace to fit the
best people.” Today’s employees want to work in an accessible environment that welcomes each person’s
perspective. They want not only diversity, but also inclusion. Therein lies the challenge.
“
Diversity vs. Inclusion: Diversity refers to the traits and characteristics that make people unique
while inclusion refers to the behaviors and social norms that ensure people feel welcome.
!
To activate the benefits of workplace diversity, we must also cultivate a culture of inclusion using human-centered,
equitable language. Otherwise, we quash the valuable perspectives we have worked so hard to find.
6Say This, Not That | p.
The Solution: Inclusive Language in Practice
For communication to be eective, it needs to appropriately address its intended audience. Inclusive language
seeks to honor the diverse identities of every person in the room and invites them to be part of the conversation.
Inclusive language may be just one brick in the eort to build an equitable culture, but it’s the cornerstone.
It is human nature to organize and categorize our social world. Our brains are always seeking the most ecient
way to process information and, therefore, necessarily take shortcuts to categorize information. Everyone holds a
unique set of innate and sometimes automatic beliefs about various social groups based on family views, personal
experiences, media messaging, and social group perspectives. These are called our unconscious biases, and
although they may be natural, they are often uninformed, unfair, or simply wrong. That is because unconscious biases
rely on social stereotypes.
Unconscious biases are also often centered around perceived in-group/out-group identities. An in-group is a social
group to which someone identifies, and an out-group is one to which they do not. In-group/out-group thinking is also
natural and stems from our inherent tendency to organize the world. However, we run into problems when we start to
rank our in-groups and out-groups as superior or inferior.
INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE ASKS US TO EXAMINE OUR OWN UNCONSCIOUS BIASES, IN-GROUPS, AND
OUT-GROUPS, THEN PAY ATTENTION TO OUR LINGUISTIC HABITS AROUND THEM. IT CALLS FOR
THOUGHTFULNESS AND PERSONAL GROWTH SO THAT WE MAY AVOID REINFORCING HARMFUL
LANGUAGE AND ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT NORMS.
Inclusive language also combats the slights and microaggressions that occur in moments of unintentional word
choice and the way those microaggressions can contribute to a sense of inequality. The term microaggression refers
to the casual, frequent, and often preconscious insults and indignities referring to a person’s identity.
7Say This, Not That | p.
These subtle acts of exclusion, whether steeped in deeper prejudices or not, pervade our culture and often reveal
our unexamined unconscious biases. These seemingly small insults have a cumulative eect on mental health,
productivity, and problem solving. They can also create a feeling of hostility and discrimination.
Inclusive language, on the other hand, helps to create an oce culture that feels safe, encouraging, and openly
accessible. It welcomes and respects all forms of personal identity and the intersectionality between them. For those
who might be unfamiliar, intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class,
gender and sexual orientation as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
A 2019 Boston Consulting Group study shows the impact of intersectional identities on the feeling of otherness in the
workplace. The study uses “white, heterosexual-cisgender men who are not veterans and who have no disability”
as the control group and reports that 74% of the people in that group feel that their perspectives are welcome and
valued at work.
However, “respondents with one dimension of diversity—for example, white females, racially diverse males, or
veterans—were on average 4 to 6 percentage points less likely to feel included. Moreover, the more dimensions
of diversity respondents reported, the less included they were likely to feel,” the study shows. People with three
dimensions of diversity—queer women of color, for example—showed an even higher rate of feeling excluded.
WHEN EMPLOYEES FEEL DEFINED BY THEIR OTHERNESS, FEEL EXCLUDED FROM A MAJORITY-
DEFINED WORKPLACE CULTURE, OR BELIEVE THEIR PERSPECTIVES ARE NOT WELCOME, THEY ARE
LESS LIKELY TO CONTRIBUTE IDEAS, LESS LIKELY TO DO GREAT WORK, AND MORE LIKELY TO LOOK
FOR EMPLOYMENT ELSEWHERE.
In today’s chaotic and competitive environment,
diversity, equity, and inclusion make all the dierence.
In fact, they may be your most valuable tools for driving
innovation and great decision making, but they must go
hand-in-hand. Inclusive language is the cornerstone of
an inclusive work environment. So, how do you
get started?
First, remember that you won’t get everything right.
What is important is that you keep learning and trying.
When you make a mistake, own it, correct it, and move
on. Inclusive language, in its most fundamental form,
focuses on learning, understanding, and embracing
the humanity of communication. Here is what that
looks like in practice.
8Say This, Not That | p.
Each category begins with an overview of the reasoning and context for general recommendations and then includes
a quick-reference table of specific recommendations for inclusive terminology.
Toward the end, you will find a final section of colloquial expressions that should be avoided because of their
discriminatory histories. This list is certainly not exhaustive but is intended to provide a quick glimpse into the
charged and complex etymologies of many common phrases.
The objective is to oer an inclusive language thesaurus for you to consult as necessary to improve how you speak
with others. The pages that follow may be particularly helpful as you prepare for a speaking engagement, enter a
meeting, or arrive at a sales appointment with a new account.
As you get to know people, pay attention to the terms and phrases they use for themselves. This is the heart of
inclusive language practice. Your language should mirror their own. However, it is important not to generalize or
assume. What you know about one person may not apply to another. For instance, even within the same family one
person may use the word gay or lesbian while another uses queer.
Inclusive language avoids generalization and seeks to customize identity descriptors for every person in the room. It
also rejects the false notions of normality and deviation that imply the dominant majority is normal and everyone else
is inferior, subordinate, irregular, broken, or incomplete. The truth is there is no such thing as normal. When you don’t
know what to say, remember these six rules.
1. Gender identity, sex, and sexuality
2. Disability and invisible illness
3. Mental, emotional, and cognitive diversity
4. Physicality
5. Race, ethnicity, and nationality
6. Religion
7. Acquired diversity
THIS GUIDE PROVIDES BEST-PRACTICE INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE GUIDELINES
FOR SEVEN CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUAL IDENTITIES:
What to Say When You Don’t Know
What To Say
9Say This, Not That | p.
SIX GUIDELINES FOR INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE
Put people first. For example, a person with a disability versus a disabled person.
This language acknowledges the complexity of identity; each person is so much
more than their descriptors. In addition, only mention descriptors when they are
relevant to the discussion.
Use universal phrases. It’s important to know your audience. Most idioms,
acronyms, and jargon don’t translate well outside your organization or to other
cultures and can easily impede eective communication, making people feel
uncomfortable, embarrassed, or left out.
Recognize the impact of mental health language. When we conflate
everyday behaviors, moods, and personality characteristics with real mental
diagnoses (for example, bipolar, PTSD, OCD), we minimize and deprecate the
impact of someone’s experience with these conditions. You should also avoid
derogatory terms that stem from the context of mental health such as schizo,
paranoid, or psycho.
Use gender neutral language. Reject the generic use of man (as in mankind,
policeman, or you guys). Those terms insinuate a preference for men. Instead, opt
for terminology that is gender neutral (like humanity, police ocer, or everyone)
and acknowledges the full spectrum of gender identities, including those that are
nonbinary (i.e. you all, team, or sta).
Be thoughtful about the imagery you use. Terms like black, dark, and blind
often hold a negative connotation as descriptors and can therefore be oensive.
Diversify your use of symbolism and try to speak literally (It was a sad day, not It
was a dark day).
Ask if you aren’t sure. Most people are happy to walk you through the language
that makes them feel properly respected. Take the time to find out how someone
self-identifies. Share your own pronouns when introducing yourself and explain,
“I want to be sure I’m honoring you properly. May I ask how you identify?”
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10Say This, Not That | p.
BEST PRACTICES
FOR INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE
Please note: Although this handbook
details current best practices, it is
important to remember that inclusive
language is ever evolving. Suggested
terms and their contexts may change
as we endeavor to find ways to honor
individuals and their experiences.
In approaching this subject, it is helpful first to understand the dierence between sex and gender. In short, sex refers
to a person’s biological features or anatomy and is typically classified as binary: female or male. Gender refers to
social constructs and identities. Therefore, it is self-defined, nonbinary, and can be changeable or even fluid.
Sexual orientation, on the other hand, refers to whom someone is sexually and/or romantically attracted. This
includes the sexual orientations of heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer —which is a broader term that can apply
to both gender identity and sexual orientation, pansexual, asexual, and others. People who identify as the gender
they were assigned at birth, are referred to as cisgender. However, in many cases, a person’s biological sex may not
match their gender identity.
AS BEST PRACTICE, YOU SHOULD NEVER PRESUME TO KNOW A PERSON’S SEX, GENDER IDENTITY, OR SEXUAL
ORIENTATION BASED ON THEIR CLOTHING, APPEARANCE, OR NAME. IF YOU DON’T KNOW A PERSON’S
PRONOUNS, ASK. IT MAY ALSO BE HELPFUL TO SHARE YOUR OWN. PRONOUNS ARE THE WORDS WE USE TO
REFER TO OURSELVES AND OTHER PEOPLE (I/ME, SHE/HER/HERS, HE/HIM/HIS, THEY/THEM/THEIRS).
As English speakers, when selecting a pronoun, we are typically also forced to choose a gender for the person we
are referencing. In other words, if we see someone walking down the hall and want to refer to them, we have to
decide quickly which gender we think they might be. In that moment, without knowing the person at all, we often
use their appearance to make broad assumptions and can easily misgender them based on social stereotypes.
Misgendering is a microaggression and can be experienced as “a form of social violence, particularly when a person
misgenders someone consistently or intentionally.”
GENDER IDENTITY, SEX, AND SEXUALITY
!
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
He or She
Ladies and Gentlemen
Ask for pronouns
They, them, theirs
Everyone
These terms imply that gender is binary (i.e. either man
or woman) and do not acknowledge that people may
identify anywhere along the gender spectrum and/or
their biological sex may not match their gender identity.
Inclusive language ensures that all people in a room or
at an event are acknowledged.
Homosexual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Pansexual,
Queer
It is important to ask what term a
person prefers and to not assign
one arbitrarily
Because of the clinical history of the word homosexual,
it is used in an oensive way to suggest that gay people
are somehow not normal or psychologically/emotionally
disordered—notions discredited by the American
Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric
Association in the 1970s.
Man the Booth
Mankind
Manmade
You Guys
Policeman / Fireman
Sta the booth
Humankind
Made by hand
Friends, colleagues, everyone, all
Police ocer / firefighter
Using man as a generic term excludes women and
nonbinary gender identities and overlooks their
contributions and roles in society. Inclusive language
acknowledges that people with many dierent identities
can fill the role and can contribute.
The problem is, until recently, English oered no grammatically acceptable solution for referring to someone you
don’t know without using binary he/she pronouns. So, the best strategy for inclusive language was to insert the
clunky -- and frankly still binary -- he or she or him or her. This solution created sentences like, “If an employee asks
for my opinion, I will give it to him or her.”
Thankfully, in recent years, English users have molded the language to be more inclusive and more concise. Now,
even the traditionally conservative Modern Language Association and American Psychological Association endorse
the use of a singular pronoun they. That means it is grammatically correct to say “If an employee asks for my opinion,
I will give it to them,” even if you are only referring to one person.
The singular they acknowledges and respects that some people do not consider gender identity or sexuality to be
binary designations. The acronym LGBTQIAP+ shows the range of diversity outside of binary concepts. A decade
ago, when the LGBT designation first made its way into the mainstream, it was a starting point for inclusivity.
However, as we listened and learned more about each other, the initialism expanded to LGBTQIAP+ (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/ally, pansexual) with the plus encompassing all other
gender identities and sexualities. That can be an intimidating idea for people who are new to inclusive language
practice. With such a spectrum of identities to consider, how can you possibly know what to say?
What’s important is that you not make assumptions. The best advice is to get to know people and listen for how
they refer to themselves and others. When you don’t know what words to choose, take the time to ask.
11Say This, Not That | p.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Male / Female Man / Woman
Inquire about and use the
individual’s gender identity
but only when pertinent to the
conversation.
Remember, there are genders
outside the gender binary of man/
woman, including, but not limited
to, agender, gender queer, gender
fluid, bigender, and gender variant.
Male and female refer to biological sex and not gender.
In terms of communication methods (articles, social
media, etc.), we rarely need to identify or know a
person’s biological sex and more often are referring to
gender. In these cases, using gender identity terms is
preferred.
Mr. / Mrs. / Ms. First or last name
Mx
If they are a Dr., use that title
While generally acceptable, using titles can be
problematic when you are not aware of a person’s
gender identity and try to guess, or when the use of the
title is against a person’s personal preference. These
terms also exclude folks outside of the man/woman
binary. When possible, and when it is not a personal
preference to use one of these titles, refer to folks by
first or last name. Mx is a gender-neutral title that can
also be used.
Preferred Pronouns Pronouns
What are your pronouns?
Using the word preferred in front of pronouns suggests
that gender identity, especially outside of the binary, is
a choice and that the pronouns don’t really belong to
the person, they are just preferring them over their true
pronouns.
Straight Heterosexual When used to describe heterosexuals, the term straight
implies that anyone LGBTQ+ is crooked or not normal.
Transgendered Transgender The word transgender never needs the extraneous -ed
at the end of the word. In fact, such a construction is
grammatically incorrect. Only verbs can be transformed
into participles by adding -ed to the end of the word,
and transgender is an adjective. For example, it is
incorrect to say, “Tony is a transgender,” or “The parade
included many transgenders.” Instead, say “Tony is a
transgender person,” or “The parade included many
transgender people.”
Freshman First-year Using man as a generic term excludes women and
nonbinary gender identities. Inclusive language
acknowledges that people with many dierent identities
can fill the role and can contribute.
Say This, Not That | p. 12
10%
of adults in the U.S. have
an invisible illness
60%
of adults in the U.S. have a
chronic disease
13Say This, Not That | p.
Did you know that 26% of adults in the U.S. have some type of
disability and that 60% of adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease?
Discriminatory and derogatory terms for people with disabilities
typically generalize the entire population and diminish the value of
individual personhood. Choosing the correct inclusive language
means remembering our number one guideline: Put people first.
When we say that a person is handicapped, for example, we
reduce the complexity and fullness of their humanity, defining them
only by their diagnosis, disability, or condition.
BY PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST, WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE
PERSON MAY LIVE WITH THAT PART OF THEIR IDENTITY BUT
THEY ARE NOT DEFINED BY IT. JUST BECAUSE A PERSON
HAS A DISABILITY DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE DISABLED.
It is also important to recognize and understand invisible disabilities
and invisible illnesses. This term refers to a wide range of medical
conditions and diagnoses that impact a person’s life but are not
immediately apparent to other people. Many of these disabilities
are neurological in nature, and some are chronic or incurable. The
list includes sleep disorders, joint problems, diabetes, phobias,
chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and fibromyalgia. An estimated
10% of people in the U.S. have an invisible illness, although it might
not be apparent in your day-to-day professional interactions. In the
absence of visible evidence, these conditions are often belittled,
ignored, or trivialized.
DISABILITY AND INVISIBLE ILLNESS
26%
of adults in the U.S.
have some type
of disability
Say This, Not That | p. 14
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Birth Defect Person with a congenital disability
Person with a birth anomaly
The word defect implies a person is broken or somehow
incomplete.
The Blind
The Deaf
Person who is blind or vision impaired
Person who is deaf or hearing
impaired
These terms align identity only with the person’s condition
or impairment.
CP victim
Spastic
Spaz
Person with cerebral palsy
Person with spastic cerebral palsy
Using these terms to describe a hyperactive person is
oensive, as it implies that people with cerebral palsy are
not normal.
Dumb
Mute
Person who cannot speak, has
diculty speaking, uses synthetic
speech, is non-vocal or non-verbal
Dumb and mute were once widely used to describe
people who could not speak. It implies that they’re
incapable of expressing themselves. Deaf-mute was
used to refer to people who could neither speak nor
hear. However, people living with speech and hearing
disabilities are capable of expressing themselves in
many other ways.
Epileptic Person with epilepsy
Person with a seizure disorder
Acknowledge that the person lives with a condition but
is not defined by it.
Handicapped
Disabled
Crippled
Suers from
Aicted with
Victim of
Invalid
Lame
Deformed
Handicap parking
Person with a disability
People with disabilities
A person who uses leg braces, etc.
Accessible parking
Parking for people with disabilities
These terms imply that people with disabilities are not
capable. Instead, acknowledge the disability but do not
use it to define a person.
Normal Person No replacement as it is never
appropriate to use this phrase to
describe a person
Implies that other people are deviations from the norm.
Paraplegic / Quadriplegic Person with a spinal cord injury,
person with paraplegia, person who
is paralyzed
Like so many other terms for physical conditions,
these terms generalize the population and minimize
personhood, which should be acknowledged first.
Wheelchair bound, confined or
restricted to a wheelchair
Person who uses a wheelchair
Wheelchair user
These terms acknowledge that the person may use
a wheelchair as a tool but is not confined, bound, or
restricted to it.
Say This, Not That | p. 15
MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE DIVERSITY
Mental and emotional health language is often interchanged with everyday moods and behaviors in a way that can
trivialize the impact of real medical diagnoses. Many of these terms are exaggerative, like depressed for someone
who is sad or OCD for someone who prioritizes organization.
Some of these terms stem from the discriminatory and abusive history of mental and emotional health (retarded, idiot,
demented, etc). Others define a person’s complete identity by their cognitive processing (i.e. He is ADHD) or rely on
the language of normality and deviation in ways that exclude diverse thinking. Inclusive language avoids derogatory
and insulting colloquialisms and encourages us to embrace the mental, emotional, and cognitive dierences each
person brings to the table. It requires that we speak more literally and specifically to remove mental and emotional
health stigmas.
The movement to embrace neurodiversity is especially relevant here. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variations
in human brain functions, especially around learning, thinking, and processing information. However, it is often
mistakenly applied only to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Asperger’s
syndrome, or Dyslexia.
THE BEST PRACTICE FOR INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE REGARDING THESE CONDITIONS IS NEURODIVERGENT.
Embracing neurodiversity means recognizing the broad range of natural cognitive functioning. In doing so, we
recognize that these conditions are not deficits, abnormalities, or problems to be solved. Rather, they are dierences
to be leveraged for increased creativity and innovation.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
ADHD Neurodivergent
A person with ADHD
Saying a person is ADHD minimizes their personhood
and makes ADHD the single defining trait of their identity.
Anorexic / Bulimic A person with an eating disorder Referring to a person as anorexic/bulimic minimizes
personhood. This description should only be used when
medically valid. To note, these are psychological disorders
and not physical disorders, although they are sometimes
used negatively to describe physicality.
Autistic Neurodivergent
A person with Autism Spectrum
Disorder
Saying a person is Autistic generalizes the population and
minimizes personhood. Use this term only when medically
valid and self-identified.
Crazy
Nuts
Maniac
Lunatic
Insane
Deranged
Psycho
Demented
Depressed
OCD
Surprising, wild
Sad
Organized, particular
Originally referring to mental illness, the terms crazy and
nuts referred to people who were often institutionalized
against their wills. Using these terms to describe
something that is surprising or unexpected minimizes a
real mental health condition. Likewise, depressed and
OCD are sometimes inappropriately used to describe a
mood or someone being organized.
Lame
Retarded
Stupid
Slow Learner
Moron
Idiot
Imbecile
Down’s person
Person with a mental illness, or
person with a learning disability
Boring or uncool as a replacement
when describing something that is
not engaging
Person with Down syndrome
Originally referred to mental illness and used as an insult.
Down syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the
presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21.
You should only refer to this condition when the diagnosis
has been shared and it is relevant to the conversation.
Senile / Demented Person with Alzheimer’s disease
Person who has dementia
Demented is slang for dementia, which is often not
the intended use of the word, and senile is often used
incorrectly to denote dementia.
Say This, Not That | p. 16
17Say This, Not That | p.
Like inclusive language around neurodiversity, inclusive language around physicality seeks to acknowledge the
wide range of natural human dierences that all deserve to be considered normal. Inclusive language about
physicality intends to make every person in the room feel welcome and respected, no matter their height,
weight, hair, skin, size, or shape.
Let us reiterate: there is no such thing as normal.
TO ACTIVATE THE DIVERSITY OF OUR TEAMS AND WELCOME EVERY VOICE AT THE TABLE, WE
SHOULD AVOID COMMON PHRASES AND TERMS THAT CREATE OR REINFORCE STIGMAS, SHAME, AND
STEREOTYPES ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S BODIES.
Some of these terms inappropriately use real medical conditions to describe physical diversity (like using the word
dwarf for someone who is not of average height). Others show an unconscious bias toward a certain body size or
shape. In general, referring to a person’s physical appearance is not just inappropriate but also irrelevant. In the
workplace, in general, physical descriptors are almost never necessary to the conversation. Instead, look for more
professional and appropriate identity descriptors.
PHYSICALITY
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Dwarf
Midget
Little person Dwarfism is a medical or genetic condition that results
in a stature less than 4 feet 10 inches, according to
Little People of America. When used in a nonmedical
sense, this term can be oensive, but many view it as
the acceptable term for the condition. The term midget
was used in the past to describe an unusually short
and proportionate person. It is now widely considered
derogatory.
Fat
Overweight
Obese
Heavy
Big
No replacement, as it is never
appropriate to use physical
descriptors of size or shape.
Use professional language and relevant descriptors
instead such as, “the person approaching in the blue suit”.
Skinny
Anorexic
Skin and bones
No replacement, as it is never
appropriate to use physical
descriptors of size or shape.
Use professional language and relevant descriptors
instead.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
American
America
U.S. citizen
Person from the U.S.
The Americas encompass many countries. Yet, when we
talk about Americans in the United States, we’re usually
just referring to people from the United States and not
acknowledging other countries.
Eskimo Indigenous
Refer to a person’s specific tribe
Comes from “ashkimeq,” a Danish word borrowed from
Algonquin, which literally means “eaters of raw meat.”
Other etymological research suggests it could mean
“snowshoe netter”. The term has historically been used
to stereotype and demean indigenous and Inuit people.
18Say This, Not That | p.
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND NATIONALITY
In understanding the context and terminology of cultural diversity, it is helpful first to know the dierence between
race and ethnicity. “Race is understood by most people as a mixture of physical, behavioral, and cultural attributes.
Ethnicity recognizes dierences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared culture,” according to
Nina Jablonski, an anthropologist and palaeobiologist at The Pennsylvania State University.
In fact, scientists today prefer the term ancestry instead of race, as it more accurately reflects the correlation between
present-day genetic variations and a person’s ancestral geographic origins. Ancestry speaks to a person’s genetic
history, while race relies only on categorization. It is important to note that, as a species, humans “share 99.9% of our
DNA with each other. The few dierences that do exist reflect dierences in environments and external factors, not
core biology.”
Therefore, when choosing inclusive terms for cultural identities, you should never assume that you know a person’s
racial, ethnic, or national descriptors based on their appearance. It is also inappropriate to make assumptions based
on that person’s name, language, accent, or dialect.
REMEMBER THAT A PERSON’S RACE AND ETHNICITY MAY NOT MATCH THEIR NATIONALITY, AND EVERY
PERSON WILL HAVE MULTIPLE, INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITIES.
Your second-generation Latinx accountant, for example, may identify simultaneously as Latinx, Argentine, Hispanic,
and a U.S. citizen. When you don’t know what to say, it’s best to ask. Avoid the oensive “What are you?” and “Where
are you from?” Instead, say “May I ask your ethnicity?” Remember, if this descriptor isn’t relevant to the conversation,
don’t ask at all.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Colored Person of color
Black
African
African-American
Afro-Caribbean
This is a highly oensive racial slur that was often
used during segregation to separate people of color,
particularly Blacks, from “Whites Only” restaurants,
bathrooms, drinking fountains, and seats on public
transportation, while designated “Colored” spaces were
the least-desirable locations and least-maintained spaces.
Person of color can apply to any culturally diverse person.
Black is a term that encompasses those who are a part
of the African diaspora. Calling someone who is African
or Afro-Caribbean African American is incorrect. Black
is a more encompassing term but to be specific, where
relevant, ask.
Hispanic Latinx, Latina, Latino
Use the person’s country of origin,
such as Cuban
This term is widely used to describe individuals from
Spanish-speaking countries. However, it is problematic
when people are called Hispanic based on their name
or appearance without first checking to see how they
identify. Many people with Central and South American
Indigenous ancestry (e.g. Mayan, Mexico) reject this
term because it implies their ancestors came from Spain
instead.
Illegal immigrant
Alien
Born in [insert country]
Immigrant
Undocumented immigrant
Refugee, if a person has been
forced to leave their country to
escape war, persecution, or natural
disaster
The term illegal immigrant was first used in 1939 as a slur
toward Jewish people who were fleeing the Nazis and
entered Palestine without authorization. Saying that a
person is illegal dehumanizes them and implies that they
are a criminal, not taking into account that they may be a
refugee seeking asylum. The term also suggests that the
individual, and not the potential actions they have taken,
is unlawful or illegitimate.
Indian Native American
Indigenous
Refer to a person’s specific tribe
The term Indian in the U.S. is associated with Christopher
Columbus, who mistook the Caribbean islands for those
of the Indian Ocean, which were then known as the
Indies. As a result of the error, people indigenous to
the Americas were dubbed Indians and the term has
stuck. It is sometimes associated with the subjugation
and decimation of American Indigenous after Europeans
arrived in the Americas.
Oriental Person of Asian descent, or use a
person’s identified race or ethnicity
The term Oriental is associated with a time when Asians
had a subordinate status and were excluded from the U.S.
It is oensive when used to describe people because it is
also used to describe objects, such as rugs, and because
the Orient is no longer an acceptable term for Asia.
Slave Enslaved people The term slave dehumanizes individuals. Slavery is a
condition, not a description.
19Say This, Not That | p.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Jew / the Jews Person of the Jewish faith
Jewish person
Jewish people
Put people first. These terms can be oensive and
derogatory and do not acknowledge the painful history
of labels placed on Jewish people.
Islamic Muslim person / people
Person of the Islamic faith
Islamic refers to the religion of Islam and can be used for
Islamic art, texts, architecture, etc. Muslim (an adjective)
is the appropriate word for people who practice the
Islamic faith. It refers specifically to people.
Mormon A Latter-day saint
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints
Originally used by people who opposed the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because they did not
consider its members to be Christian, this colloquial term
is now considered oensive by many practitioners.
20Say This, Not That | p.
RELIGION
When acknowledging any individual’s religion, remember that religious identity is always an adjective, never a noun
(a Jewish person instead of a Jew, or Jewish people instead of the Jews). This grammatical construction helps us
to reorganize our language choices and acknowledge each person’s intersectional identities. Religion, in particular,
is often conflated with race and ethnicity in ways that can be presumptuous, derogatory, and hurtful. Not all Arab
people are Muslim, for example, and every single country in the world contains a multitude of religious identities and
expressions.
Some people may identify culturally with their ancestral religion but not be active practitioners or feel comfortable
accepting that religious descriptor. A person who celebrates Easter and Christmas for instance may not identify as
Christian, just as a person of Hindu ancestry who does not practice Hinduism may reject the term for themselves.
As with so many other realms of diversity, never assume that you know a person’s religious identity or ancestry
based on their appearance, ethnicity, culture, or nationality.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Addicted
Like Crack
A fan of
Excellent
Delicious
While addicted can be appropriate in some situations, it
can also cause harm to those who are truly experiencing
addiction, are in recovery, or have friends/relatives who
have experienced addiction.
Starving
I’m broke
I’m hungry
I’m low on cash
When used in place of simply saying “I’m hungry” or “I’m
low on cash,” these terms appropriate real situations
of hardship and can cause harm to individuals who are
experiencing extreme poverty or hunger crises.
War / At war
War zone
Battle
Go to war
Hostile environment
Dicult
Confrontation
Dispute
Get after it
Go get ‘em
These terms are appropriate only when used to
describe actual war. Otherwise, when used to describe
dicult situations or meetings (i.e. This negotiation is a
war.), they evoke real tragedy that can be problematic
for veterans or survivors of war.
21Say This, Not That | p.
ACQUIRED DIVERSITY
Thus far, we have talked almost exclusively about inclusive language for inherent diversity: the traits a person has
at birth. Acquired diversity, on the other hand, refers to characteristics and ways of thinking that a person gains
by experience. Acquired diversity includes, but is not limited to, age, education, family commitments, immigration
status, marital status, travel, trauma, veteran status and those who have survived conflict. Inclusive language in this
realm avoids evoking real tragedy where it does not exist. (This negotiation is a war vs. This has been a dicult
negotiation.)
Most importantly, inclusive language insists that we avoid idioms and slang terms that reference or falsify real
trauma like addiction, poverty, incarceration, or even divorce. This includes exaggerations like “I’m starving today”
and “She’s addicted to coee.” These phrases trivialize the impact of challenging and dicult experience, reinforce
community stigmas, and show unconscious bias against people who have experienced trauma. They also work as
microaggressions, silencing people who have acquired those experiences.
In the same way that inherent diversity will push your business toward better problem solving and creative
innovation, acquired diversity invites a vast range of experiences and perspectives to the table. Businesses that
prioritize a strong mix of inherent and acquired diversity “avoid groupthink through cultures that welcome out-of-the-
box ideas.” A spectrum of people who express dierent viewpoints and have built their lives from varied experiences
will inevitably lead to more creative problem solving and a richer, more interesting workplace culture. Therefore,
inclusive language must help to create an equitable and accessible environment for all people, regardless of their
past experiences.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Basket Case Nervous This term originally referred to a person, usually a
soldier from World War I, who had lost all four limbs.
The basket in this sense refers to the basket that the
person would need to be carried around in and has
negative historic meaning.
Cake Walk
Takes the Cake
That was easy Slave owners would sometimes hold balls for
entertainment, where slaves would perform dances to
win a cake. Cakewalks became popular through the
racism of 19th-century minstrel shows, which portrayed
Black people as aspiring to be and dance like white
people.
Ghetto
Barrio
Use the ocial name of the
neighborhood you are referring to
These phrases have long histories but eventually came
to indicate any socially segregated, non-White, urban
neighborhood.
Gyp / Gip Use Romani to refer to a person of
Romani descent
Use cheat to refer to a person who
is dishonest
Most likely evolved as a shortened version of gypsy,
more correctly known as the Romani, an ethnic group
now mostly in Europe and the American continents.
The Romani typically traveled extensively and made their
money by selling goods. Business disputes naturally
arose, and the masses started thinking of Romani as
swindlers. Today, gyp has become synonymous with
cheating someone.
Long Time No See I haven’t seen you in a long time. Originally used to mock Native Americans or Chinese
Pidgin English.
No Can Do I can’t do it. Originally a way to mock Chinese people.
22Say This, Not That | p.
ADDITIONAL TERMS AND PHRASES TO AVOID
In considering common phrases and expressions, two of our six guidelines are especially important: Use universal
phrases, and be thoughtful about imagery. This list is intended to provide a short glance into the complex
etymologies of many colloquial expressions.
Although it would be impossible to include a full compendium of English phrases with discriminatory histories, the
point is to show that many of the terms we often use in casual conversation stem from a harmful and discriminatory
past. These expressions could be interpreted as microaggressions and quietly undermine the inclusive language you
have worked so hard to practice.
NOT INCLUSIVE MORE INCLUSIVE HERE’S WHY
Paddy Wagon Police car The term Paddy originated in the late 1700s as a
shortened form of Patrick and later a pejorative term for
any Irish person. Wagon refers to a vehicle. Paddy wagon
either stemmed from the large number of Irish police
ocers or the perception that rowdy, drunken Irish people
constantly ended up in the back of police cars.
Peanut Gallery Crowd
Audience
This phrase usually refers to ill-informed hecklers or
critics. In reality, the peanut gallery names a section in
theaters, usually the cheapest and worst, where many
Black people sat during the era of Vaudeville.
Pow Wow Use if referring directly to an
Indigenous tribal pow wow
Meet or get-together, if referring to
any gatherings outside Indigenous
culture
This term is appropriate if you are referring to an actual
Native American pow wow, which is a traditional and
modern sacred gathering or ceremony involving one
or more tribes. Applying the term as a verb (i.e. let’s
pow wow) or using it to describe a business meeting or
social gathering outside the Native American culture is
inappropriate.
Rule of Thumb Standard
General rule
The rule of thumb has been said to derive from an English
law that allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick as long
as it was no thicker than his thumb.
Sold Down the River Betray During slavery in the U.S., masters often sold their
misbehaving slaves, sending them down the Mississippi
river to plantations where conditions were much harsher.
Tribe / Spirit Animal Friends
Network
Squad
The term tribe, while used in a variety of contexts, is
oftentimes used to describe a group of close-knit friends
or colleagues. This term can be seen as an appropriation
of Native American culture, especially in the U.S.
context. This term is appropriate if you are referring to
an actual Native American tribe. Spirit Animal is also an
appropriation of culture and therefore inappropriate.
Say This, Not That | p. 23
24Say This, Not That | p.
Conclusion
Inclusive language is the cornerstone of an inclusive workplace culture. It activates the power of diversity and builds
the foundation for a fair and equitable work environment. By drawing attention to our own linguistic patterns and
moving forward with intentional, unbiased language, we speak to every member of the audience, respect each team
member’s individual perspective, and seek to understand the complexities of human identity.
It is easy to notice blatant racism, sexism, or discrimination. It is much harder to examine our own unconscious biases,
in-groups, out-groups, and deep-seated, potentially harmful, patterns of language. Still, real change requires work.
As you begin your inclusive language practice, remember that inclusion is a method, not an achievement. Inclusion
requires us to keep learning, keep practicing, and keep pressing forward. You may not get everything right, but you
are trying and you will make progress. Remember that the first steps are always the hardest, but the tangible
benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion—increased productivity, better problem solving, creativity, innovation,
employee retention, and an open, equitable culture—are absolutely worth the eort.
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