"For the first time in his life, this person was suddenly seen as a representative of mayband," she says. "Instead of doing what he wanted to do, he is now busy trying to prove that he is not like those negative stereotypes around his category." 'We turn them into ga cages in when we an live with the ignorance of knowing who some one is,' Sohat adds.
Language is expressive, a way of opening doors or a tool for creating new dialogue. But a tool so powerful can also take us to unforeseen or unintended places. It can create narratives that become fixed, unhelpful, or exclusionary. Kübra Gümüsay is a writer and activist focusing on social justice and public discourse. Her new book is Speaking and Being, which looks at the power of words, asking whether language creates freeing new spaces or plays a part in walling them off. Our host for the discussion is Danielle Sands, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway University in London, where she works across disciplines bridging philosophy, literary studies and critical theory.
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