The thing about language is that it is constantly evolving - which is also why it is important to define the terms you are using. This is something everyone learns in “Research Writing 101” - when in doubt about how a term will be received, define it before proceeding with the argument.
I had a really interesting situation arise a few months ago. I was in a meeting in which we were discussing publication guidelines that are meant to address biases in writing. We went through an exercise in which (i) a statement was presented, and (ii) replacement statements were listed as options as was the option “this statement is fine” or something along those lines.
I have one question that came up which really baffled me. I got it wrong because I said the statement was fine as is. When we discussed the exercises later, I brought up the specific question to ask the group.
The initial statement had to do with studying an urban environment. The alternative statements were all versions of replacing the word “urban” with defining the populations being studied based on race. There was no context given for the initial statement, so it was unclear to me whether this was a paper about an urban environment or a paper about particular racial groups in that environment.
(For context, I am a nearly 39 year old white female who grew up in a lower income neighborhood that was predominantly made up of Asian and Latin populations in Southern California. I have spent many years involved, one way or another, in movements to advocate for things that make a population-dense environment relatively easy to traverse without the need for a personal motor vehicle - examples include sidewalks, good lighting, bicycle lanes, mass transit. I know lots of people who have studied in programs and worked in jobs that address such issues. The word “urban” is used regularly in names for those programs & those jobs because it means “a population-dense environment” otherwise known as a city. In these circles, the word “urban” has quite literally always meant city or population-dense area.)
I selected that the original statement was fine because the replacement statements changed the context of the statement. I had others in the group explain to me that the word “urban” has often been used as code to refer to black people - or sometimes more broadly, non-white people. Listening to this explanation, I did recall that I have heard jokes in popular media in the past in which an older white person who does not live in a city would refer to a black person as “urban” - however, I have no actual understanding of how widespread this was or whether this has continued in the vernacular for younger generations. Someone else pointed out that there are radio stations that use the word “urban” in their names. I agreed - but figured that had to do with identifying with a cityscape, not necessarily with race. They then asked “yeah, but what kind of music tends to be on radio stations that use the term ‘urban’? It tends to be rap music stations - a musical genre that is dominated by black artists.” I acknowledged the truth of this and mentioned that it wasn’t surprising that this association would exist in the US because of the racialized nature of changes to housing that has occurred over the last several decades in the US. Having said that, the urban planning literature has plenty of examples around the world of using the term to only mean “city” (i.e. even if a city is populated 100% by white people, it is still an urban environment).
What was useful about this interaction was pointing out that we have to think about the context of our language. Language is complex and is constantly evolving. I may be right that urban means city - but (i) since language requires context to be understood, (ii) language continuously evolves as humans attempt to capture complex meaning with a finite number of words, and (iii) who has gotten to express their experiences using our shared language has been a function of power dynamics, I find that it is both important for us to carefully and intentionally define the terms we are using AND learn from how other people are understanding terminology. I have also found this extremely important when attempting to translate between scientists and safety professionals - for both groups do really enjoy creatively contributing to language :).
Best,
