Explaining erasure — Worthwhile Language Advice
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“I’m not doing the greatest job explaining why erasure is so bad. Help?”
Erasure is more complicated than it might seem at first glance.
Here in the US, we’re currently seeing widely discussed erasure as part of a political agenda — for example, removing examples of female leaders and indigenous people at NASA and removing the word transgender from the National Park Service website on the Stonewall uprising.
In our everyday communications, erasure usually shows up in ways that aren’t purposely designed to serve a particular agenda. But even when erasure isn’t intentional, it has negative consequences, both in and out of the workplace.
This is why “Reflect reality” and “Prevent erasure” are two of my six Principles of Optimized Language.
Here are three ways that erasure shows up in our language use.
Avoiding talking about someone or something because they are too powerful, frightening, or stigmatized. This is called taboo avoidance.
Using phrasing that erases or disguises agency.
Not talking about someone or something because they are seen as unimportant or should be minimized.
These all appear in workplace communication, but #2 and #3 are more frequent and more damaging.
Taboo avoidance
It is human nature to avoid saying the names of things that scare us.
People will sometimes refer to cancer as the c word or say the word in a whisper.
In Harry Potter, the major villain is most frequently referred to as “He who must not be named” rather than his nom de villainy, Voldemort.
And the modern word in Russian for bear is medved’ (медведь), which essentially translates to “honey eater.” Early Russian speakers used this substitute so frequently instead of the “real” name that might have summoned a bear that it became the new name.
Taboo avoidance doesn’t show up all that often at work. Where I’ve seen it the most in US workplaces is when people avoid naming and talking openly about someone’s race. In fact, many people seem to feel that talking about race will be seen as racist.
Photo of 1938 railroad executive meeting from the Library of Congress
Disguised agency
Like taboo avoidance, erasure that disguises agency is usually done more consciously.
In fact, some of this erasure comes from people hired to expertly craft statements that use passive voice and convoluted syntax to mask who did what. For example, police department employees who write press releases with phrases that go directly into media reporting.
In my book, I cover this under the linguistic distortion I call softening language and have an activity where people look for and rewrite examples.
Here’s a real headline: “An off-duty officer is under investigation after a dispute with his wife resulted in a handgun being discharged and her being shot.”
My recommended rewrite: “An off-duty police officer is under investigation after shooting his wife during a dispute.”
I’ve seen this kind of erasure at work most frequently when people make excuses for someone with power who has behaved badly. For example, “Sure, some harsh words were said,” to describe an executive who had screamed and cursed at someone beneath him on his team.
And sometimes I see this kind of erasure used to minimize the contributions of someone seen as lower status. For example, “the problem was solved in time,” when it was one person who did 98% of the work to solve the problem.
When we reflect reality, we use language that accurately describes who did what, so we can have real accountability when someone has been inappropriate or give credit where credit is due.
Erasure that minimizes importance
This is the most common way erasure shows up at work. A “lower-status” person or group is erased 1) because they aren’t seen as important enough to pay attention to, or 2) to minimize their importance. This second one is done more intentionally.
In just some of the ways I’ve seen this erasure at work, a person or a group:
Isn’t mentioned.
Is ignored or spoken over in meetings.
Has emails and Slack messages that are ignored.
Isn’t cited as a source or brought on as an expert.
Isn’t on a panel or doesn’t speak at all at an all-hands.
Isn’t one of the potential job candidates or hired.
Isn’t invited to relevant internal meetings or to meet with clients.
Isn’t part of the C-suite.
Isn’t in photos of company retreats or company photos on the website.
Isn’t taken into consideration when designing the product, testing the product, or marketing the product.
Who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA?
Who taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey?
When European colonizers landed in North America, was the land “pristine” or had the landscape been thoroughly humanized by the original inhabitants?
Compilation of Roman mummy portraits from Egypt circa 2nd century CE (via The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Our brains make sense of the world through pattern recognition. So when patterns are distorted by erasure, then we end up with inaccurate mental models. Inaccurate and distorted models lead to lower-quality decisions, judgments, and world knowledge.
We end up believing that everyone in the ancient Greek and Roman empires was white.
With unconscious demotions that leave people emotionally or physically damaged.
With significantly worse medical outcomes.
When part of a deliberate political agenda, erasure can result in violations of human rights and civil rights, oppression, and violence (including genocidal violence).
But even unintentional erasure results in impaired career trajectories, financial injuries, isolation, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, marginalization, and more.
When it comes to erasure, you have often have the power to make things better.
Look out for the erasure of agency. If someone needs to be held accountable, suggest that they be held accountable. And if someone deserves more credit than they are getting, suggest that they be given the credit.
(But please keep yourself as safe as possible while you do this.)
Look out for the erasure of supposedly lower-status people and groups. Keep a critical lens on who is being erased and do what you can to unerase them. Interview and hire people, make sure they are invited to the right meetings, make sure they are cited as experts and on panels, keep them in mind during product design, testing, and marketing, and whatever else you can do.
If you are the one being erased, chances are excellent that calling out your erasure will make people angry. Your best bet is to find someone outside of the erased group who is willing to help.
Erasure, whether purposeful or not, has negative consequences. It’s bad for your organizations, and it’s bad for society as a whole. But by consistently keeping an eye out for and correcting erasure, you can make a real difference.
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