Social justice word salad

What I am extremely nervous, the words that come out of my mouth don’t make any sense in relationship to each other.

Each word sort of gestures at the idea of making sense, but it’s a ruse.

Unfortunately, this kind of “word salad,” particularly when it has a social justice bent, is a very effective coping mechanism. 

I’ve found I can avoid successfully a variety of unpleasant things when utilizing this defensive tactic, including:

Breakups.

Feeling guilty.

Feeling white guilty.

Being held accountable.

Learning something new. 

I don’t think I’m the only person who goes into word salad mode when uncomfortable — far from it. 

And frankly, in my opinion, word salad and the chronic compulsive activation that causes it, is the only explanation for a certain type of social justice jargon used in nonprofits across the country.

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You’ve heard “social justice word salad” before. You may have even deployed it.

Sometimes this word salad is deceptive enough to become actual policy — or, well, something resembling policy.

Justice Councils. Chief diversity officers. Listening Circles.

I think the last few years this language has landed on trauma therapy Instagram, where it has also evolved. Valid. Activate. Attachment.

Unfortunately, there is not necessarily a good predictor of the correlation between social justice word salad and actual social change.

People are awkward.

Or at least, I am awkward, so I want to defend other awkward people.

We are all uncomfortable when we do not have an answer for something.

It is hard, even with a lot of work and reflection, to be our best selves in most situations, especially stressful ones.

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It would be fun to list a bunch of social justice word salad phrases I’ve heard over the years, then end this email.

It would be kind of cathartic and probably very funny, at least for me.

But it would also be a little disingenuous.

Just listing embarrassing phrases would be kind of a social justice word salad in of itself, pointing at problems, gesturing at being in the know, while also refusing to do anything more controversial or meaningful with what I have.

Because the problem with social justice word salad is not the words themselves.

(Though after aggressive overuse, some social justice word salad combos have a memetic quality that make them counterproductive (We hear you. We see you. /Thoughts and prayers / the word diversity in almost any context).

The real problem with social justice word salad is that it is a defense mechanism most often used by people who have the power to do things that are a lot more interesting than word salad.

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So!

With this in mind, I’m curious.

When’s the last time you got stuck in your own social justice word salad?

What did you do to snap out of it?

And, maybe most importantly — then what?

What did you do next?