Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones: How Racial Linguistics Can and Do Hurt Me

It’s funny how that mid-19th century phrase “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” still has a place in our memory today. Although meant to explain how physical harm is real and name-calling does not have the same impact, the idiom over time has been altered and often dismissed as being inappropriate and out of touch with societal mores. I never gave the expression much thought until I began my deeper journey and analysis into racial equity education. I didn’t pay that much attention to the…