Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

adapt to the other person’s communication style or , then we can also impact perceptions of
affiliation. Research has shown that people who have similar speech also have more positive feelings for
each other. 17 However, speech can also work in the opposite direction when we , or when we
communicate in a very different fashion. For instance, a group from another culture might speak the
same dialect, even though they can speak English, in order to create distance and privacy from others.
Before discussing the concepts of sexism and racism, we must understand the term “bias.”
is an attitude that is not objective or balanced, prejudiced, or the use of words that intentionally or
unintentionally offend people or express an unfair attitude concerning a person’s race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, age, disability, or illness. We’ll explore more on the issue of biased language later in this
chapter.
or bias against others based on their sex can come across in language. can
be defined as “words, phrases, and expressions that unnecessarily differentiate between females and
males or exclude, trivialize, or diminish either sex.” 18 Language can impact how we feel about ourselves
and others. For instance, there is a magazine called Working Mother, but there is not one called “Working
Father.” Even though the reality is that many men who work also have families and are fathers, there
are no words that tend to distinguish them from other working men. Whereas, women are distinguished
when they both work and are mothers compared to other women who solely work and also compared to
women who are solely mothers and/or wives.
Think about how language has changed over the years. We used to have occupations that were highly
male-dominated in the workplace and had words to describe them. For instance, policemen, firemen,
and chairmen are now police officers, firefighters, and chairpersons. The same can also be said for some
female-dominated occupations. For instance, stewardess, secretary, and waitress have been changed
to include males and are often called flight attendants, office assistants, and servers. Thus, to eliminate
sexism, we need to be cautious of the word choices we use when talking with others. Sexist language will
impact perceptions, and people might be swayed about a person’s capability based on the word choices.
Similarly, is the bias people have towards others of a different race.
conveys that a racial group is superior or better than another race. Some words in English have racial
connotations. Aaron Smith-McLallen, Blair T. Johnson, John Dovidio, and Adam Pearson wrote:
In the United States and many other cultures, the color white often carries more positive connotations
than the color black… Terms such as “Black Monday,” “Black Plague”, “black cats” and the “black
market” all have negative connotations, and literature, television, and movies have traditionally portrayed
heroes in white and villains in black. The empirical work of John E. Williams and others throughout
the 1960s demonstrated that these positive and negative associations with the colors black and white,
independent of any explicit connection to race, were evident among Black and White children as young as
3 years old … as well as adults. 19
Currently, there is an ongoing debate in the United States about whether President Trump’s use of the
phrase “Chinese Virus” when referring to the coronavirus is racially insensitive. The argument for its
racial insensitivity is that the President is specifically using the term as an “other” technique to allow his
followers to place blame on Chinese people for the coronavirus. Unsurprisingly, as a result of the use of
the phase “Chinese Virus,” there have been numerous violent attacks against individuals of Asian descent
within the United States. Notice that we don’t say people of Chinese descent here. The people that are
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