3. Account for intersectionality to avoid oversimplification
An important part of using precise language is ensuring your marketing materials, websites, and any other assets reflect the world around us. Doing this effectively means acknowledging the intersectionality of people’s identities, and ensuring your campaigns represent this intersectionality accordingly.
Take this sentence as an example: “COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on people of color and women-owned small businesses.” Even with the best intentions — in this case, shining a light on an injustice — this sentence’s wording separates gender and race, and inadvertently excludes small business owners who are people of color. A more inclusive approach would be to say that “COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on small businesses owned by people of color and women.” You could even take this a step further by explicitly acknowledging the nature of this disproportionate impact: “As a result of preexisting financial, geographical, and social disparities, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on small businesses owned by people of color and women.”
If you fail to recognize and reflect intersectionality in your marketing, you run the risk of reducing rich, multidimensional identities into oversimplified stories that can perpetuate stereotypes and be hurtful to the people they’re intended to uplift. Always opt for nuanced narratives, and preferably ones that come directly from the…