oa Editors’ Introductory Essay: On the Violence of and to Words—How Does Language Matter Now?

References

1. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. § 621 (1967) https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/age-discrimination-employment-act-1967
2. Alfonseca K. (2025, January24). A look at what DEI means amid Trump executive orders. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/dei-programs/story?id=97004455
   [Google Scholar]
3. Álvarez B. (2023, August3). Florida’s new history standard: “A blow to our students and nation.”National Education Association. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/floridas-new-history-standard-blow-our-students-and-nation
   [Google Scholar]
4. Anadale C. (2010, September). Hard headed philosophy: Misuse of language as dangerous to the soul. Emmitsburg News-Journal.https://www.emmitsburg.net/archive_list/articles/misc/hhp/language.htm
   [Google Scholar]
5. Angelou M. (2004) Continue. Retrieved fromhttps://nspirement.com/2021/05/28/continue-maya-angelou.html
   [Google Scholar]
6. Appell-Warren L. (2014) Personhood: An examination of the history and use of an anthropological concept. Edwin Mellen.
   [Google Scholar]
7. Baldor L. C., & Copp T. (2025, March22). The Pentagon’s DEI purge: Officials describe a scramble to remove and then restore online content. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-dei-diversity-social-media-purge-fb15996733408a8122a97acd3baa6820
   [Google Scholar]
8. Baldwin J. (1997) If Black English isn’t a language, then tell me, what is?The Black Scholar, 27(1), 5-6.
   [Google Scholar]
9. Baldwin J. (2016) An open letter to my sister, Angela Y. Davis. In Davis A. Y. (Ed.), If they come in the morning: Voices of resistance (pp. 19-23). Verso.
   [Google Scholar]
10. Baldwin J., & Bondy F. (1964) James Baldwin, as interviewed by Francois Bondy. Transition, 12, 12-19.
    [Google Scholar]
11. Behrens C. (2025, February19). Columbus school board rescinds transgender bathroom policy to comply with state law. The Columbus Dispatch. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2025/02/18/columbus-city-schools-board-to-decide-on-transgender-bathroom-policy/78987534007
    [Google Scholar]
12. Bell D. A. Jr. (2005) The unintended lessons in Brown v. Board of Education. NYLS Law Review, 49(4), Article 3.
    [Google Scholar]
13. BeMiller H. (2024, November13). Ohio Senate passes bill to restrict bathroom access for transgender students. The Columbus Dispatch. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2024/11/13/ohio-lawmakers-pass-transgender-bathroom-bill/76230169007
    [Google Scholar]
14. Blackburn M. V. (2022) Moving across differences: How students engage LGBTQ+ themes in a high school literature class. State University of New York Press.
    [Google Scholar]
15. Blackburn M., Bloome D., Harrison D., Hikida M., Katz L., Power-Carter S., & Khalid-Warraich A. (2024) Epistemic (in)justice and the search for ways to language research in the teaching and learning of literacies, literatures, and the language arts. Research in the Teaching of English, 59(1), 5-22.
    [Google Scholar]
16. Blair E. (2024, April16). Report: Last year ended with a surge in book bans. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1245037718/book-bans-2023-pen-america
    [Google Scholar]
17. Bloome D., Power-Carter S., Baker W. D., Castanheira M. L., Kim M., & Rowe L. W. (2022) Discourse analysis of languaging and literacy events in educational settings: A microethnographic perspective. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
18. Brown A. (2019) African American enslavement, speech act theory, and the law. Journal of African American Studies, 23, 162-177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-019-09431-z
    [Google Scholar]
19. Buber M. (1923) Ich und du. Insel-Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
20. Bucholtz M., & Hall K. (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614.
    [Google Scholar]
21. Burga S. (2025, May27). What the Trump administration’s plan to cancel all Harvard’s federal funding means for the university. TIME. https://time.com/7289000/harvard-university-trump-administration-federal-funding-cuts/
    [Google Scholar]
22. CBS News (2025, January29). Trump takes aim at critical race theory in schools, protests on college campuses in new executive order. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-orders-critical-race-theory-college-protests/
    [Google Scholar]
23. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e (1964) https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964
24. C.K.-W. v. Wentzville R-IV School
25. District (E.D. Mo. 2023). https://www.aclu.org/court-cases?issue=student-speech-and-privacy
26. Davies B. (2011) Open listening: Creative evolution in early childhood settings. International Journal of Early Childhood, 43(2), 119-132.
    [Google Scholar]
27. Du Bois J. (2011) Take a stance in the stance field; Get a life in the lifeworld [Lecture]. Center for Language Acquisition, Penn State University, PA.
    [Google Scholar]
28. Elshtain J. (1982) Feminist discourse and its discontents: Language, power and meaning. Signs, 7(3), 603-621.
    [Google Scholar]
29. Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) (1963) https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/equal-pay-act-1963
30. Fine M. (1987) Silencing in public schools. Language Arts, 64(2), 157-164.
    [Google Scholar]
31. Fine M. (1991) Framing dropouts: Notes on the politics of an urban high school. State University of New York Press.
    [Google Scholar]
32. Fine M. (1995) Silencing and literacy. In Gadsden V. & Wagner D. (Eds.), Literacy among African-American youth (pp. 201-222). Hampton Press.
    [Google Scholar]
33. Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) (2024, December10). Banned words: Iowa social studies teacher bans students from saying “Ohio,”referencing the Holocaust. https://www.thefire.org/news/banned-words-iowa-social-studies-teacher-bans-students-saying-ohio-referencing-holocaust
    [Google Scholar]
34. Fowler C. (2010) From identity and material culture to personhood and materiality. In Hicks D. & Beaudry M. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of material culture studies (pp. 352-385). Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
35. Freire P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Herder and Herder.
    [Google Scholar]
36. Hannah-Jones N. (2021) The 1619 Project: A new origin story. One World.
    [Google Scholar]
37. Haviland V. S. (2008) “Things get glossed over”: Rearticulating the silencing power of Whiteness in education. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(1), 40-54.
    [Google Scholar]
38. Henry M. (2024, November27). Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs transgender bathroom ban bill into law. Ohio Capital Journal. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/11/27/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-signs-transgender-bathroom-ban-bill-into-law
    [Google Scholar]
39. Hikida M., & Taylor L. A. (2023) “As the test collapses in”: Teaching and learning amid high-stakes testing in two urban elementary classrooms. Urban Education, 58(6), 1032-1060.
    [Google Scholar]
40. hooks, b. (1994) Teaching to transgress. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
41. hooks, b. (2000) Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Pluto Press.
    [Google Scholar]
42. Ismay J. (2025, April11). Who’s in and who’s out at the Naval Academy’s library?The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/us/politics/naval-academy-banned-books.html
    [Google Scholar]
43. Jones A. II. (2025, February3). “Paid administrative hell”: Some Department of Education staff put on leave after Trump’s DEI reversal. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/some-department-education-staff-put-on-leave-after-trump-dei-order/story?id=118398190
    [Google Scholar]
44. Kimmerer R. W. (2013) Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
    [Google Scholar]
45. Kosciw J. G., Clark C. M., Truong N. L., & Zongrone A. D. (2020) The 2019 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools. A report from GLSEN. Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). https://www.glsen.org/research/2019-national-school-climate-survey
46. Lacoe J. (2020) Too scared to learn? The academic consequences of feeling unsafe in the classroom. Urban Education, 55(10), 1385-1418.
    [Google Scholar]
47. Le Guin U. K. (n.d.). A few words to a young writer. Retrieved July 12, 2025, from https://autonomies.org/2018/01/for-ursula-le-guin
    [Google Scholar]
48. Le Guin U. K. (2006) Acceptance speech Maxine Cushing Gray award. https://www.ursulakleguin.com/maxine-cushing-gray-award
    [Google Scholar]
49. Limbong A. (2022, September19). New report finds a coordinated rise in attempted book bans. NPR. https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-09-19/new-report-finds-a-coordinated-rise-in-attempted-book-bans
    [Google Scholar]
50. Lorde A. (1982) Zami: A new spelling of my name. Crossing Press.
    [Google Scholar]
51. Lorde A. (1984) Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.
    [Google Scholar]
52. Love B. L. (2019) We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.
    [Google Scholar]
53. MacRae v. Mattos, No. 23-1817 (1st Cir. 2024). https://vdhboston.com/first-circuit-affirms-decision-dismissing-free-speech-retaliation-claim-by-teacher-based-on-pre-employment-social-media-posts
54. Lozano J. A. (2024, February22). Judge rules that Texas high school legally suspended Black student over hairstyle. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/judge-rules-that-texas-high-school-legally-suspended-black-student-over-hairstyle
    [Google Scholar]
55. McGhee G., & Shaulis D. (Eds.) (2025, July17). No Kings 2.0. Higher Education Inquirer. https://www.highereducationin-quirer.org/2025/06/nokings.html
    [Google Scholar]
56. Morrison T. (1993, December7). Nobel Prize lecture. The Nobel Prize. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture
    [Google Scholar]
57. Moyers B. (2012, April19). Yom HaShoah: Elie Wiesel speaks with Bill Moyers about remembering the Holocaust. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elie-wiesel-speaks-with-b_n_1438218
    [Google Scholar]
58. Muhammad G. (2020) Cultivating genius. Scholastic.
    [Google Scholar]
59. Orwell G. (1946) Politics and the English language. Horizon, 13-14.
    [Google Scholar]
60. Pérez A. H. (2022) Defeating the censor within: How to hold your stand for youth access to literature in the face of school book bans. Knowledge Quest, 50(5), 34-39.
    [Google Scholar]
61. Pérez A. H. (2023) In Dyches, Sams, and Boyd (Eds.), Acts of resistance: Subversive teaching in the English language arts classroom. Meyers Education Press.
    [Google Scholar]
62. Pitts J. (2023) Toward liberation: Educational practices rooted in activism, healing, and love. Beacon Press.
    [Google Scholar]
63. Power-Carter S. M. (2001) The possibilities of silence: African-American female cultural identity and secondary English classrooms [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University.
    [Google Scholar]
64. Richardson E., & Ragland A. (2018) #StayWoke: The language and literacies of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Community Literacy Journal, 12(2), 27-56.
    [Google Scholar]
65. Rubin A. (2025, April1). Tracking the foreign national detained by ICE as tourists or U.S. residents. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/20/tourists-us-residents-detained-arrested-deported-ice-immigration-trump
    [Google Scholar]
66. Schultz B. (2024, June6). A school board reinstated Confederate school names. Could it happen elsewhere?Education Week. https://www.edweek.org
    [Google Scholar]
67. Schultz K. (2003) Listening: A framework for teaching across differences. Teachers College Press.
    [Google Scholar]
68. Sheridan D., Street B. V., & Bloome D. (2000) Writing ourselves: Mass-observation and literacy practices. Hampton Press.
    [Google Scholar]
69. Sheriff R. E. (2000) Exposing silence as cultural censorship: A Brazilian case. American Anthropologist, 102(1), 114-32.
    [Google Scholar]
70. Silva D., & Lozano A. V. (2024, May18). College students who protested and those who didn’t share in disappointment at response from schools. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-students-protested-didnt-share-disappointment-response-schools-rcna152638
    [Google Scholar]
71. Spitalniak L. (2025, June17). Federal judge strikes down NIH directives against DEI research. Higher Ed Dive. https://www.highereddive.com/news/federal-judge-strikes-down-nih-directives-against-dei-research/750968
    [Google Scholar]
72. Stahl M. (2025, April22). Colleges must eliminate DEI programs to receive research funding, NIH says. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/colleges-must-eliminate-dei-programs-to-receive-research-funding-nih-says
    [Google Scholar]
73. Stellla (2015, July23). James Baldwin — The artist’s struggle for integrity [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/dU0g5fAA2QY
    [Google Scholar]
74. Strauss S., & Feiz P. (2014) Discourse analysis: Putting our worlds into words. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
75. Sue C. A. (2015) Hegemony and silence: Confronting state-sponsored silences in the field. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 44(1), 113-140.
    [Google Scholar]
76. Swerdin J. (2025, March20). Trump administration restricts use of words considered “woke”. The Free Speech Project. https://freespeechproject.georgetown.edu/tracker-entries/trump-administration-restricts-use-of-words-considered-woke/
    [Google Scholar]
77. The Trevor Project (2024) 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/article/facts-about-lgbtq-youth-suicide/Exec. Order No. 14151, 90 F.R. 8339 (2025). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/20/2025-01325/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing
    [Google Scholar]
78. Tuck E. (2009) Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409-428.
    [Google Scholar]
79. US Department of Defense (2025, April4). List of removed books from Nimitz Library. https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/2003683009/-1/-1/0/250404LIST%20OF%20REMOVED%20BOOKS%20FROM%20NIMITZ%20LIBRARY.PDF
    [Google Scholar]
80. Webb S. L. (2025, June2). Book banning. Free Speech Center. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/book-banning
    [Google Scholar]
81. Weedon C. (1987) Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
82. WFTV Channel 9 (2025, April10). Teacher loses job for using student’s “preferred” name[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQ-_kXxIlk
    [Google Scholar]
83. Woodson C. (1933) The mis-education of the Negro. Associated Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
84. World Health Organization (2025) Gender and health. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender
    [Google Scholar]
85. Zaharlick A., & Green J. L. (1991) Ethnographic research. In Flood J., Jensen J., Lapp D., & Squire J. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (pp. 205-225). Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
86. Zimmerman M. (1993) Renaming the nineties: Shifting the power paradigm. CUPA Journal, 44(2), 1-7.
    [Google Scholar]