Notes on Word Choice

When we use “birth justice” in lowercase, it is to refer to it as an emergent and discrete set of philosophies and practices as understood broadly and described here. When we use “Birth Justice" with capital letters, it refers to the definition in the Birth Justice framework coined by Jamarah Amani and Anjali Sardeshmukh.

When we use the terms “birth justice actor” and “birth justice movement” to refer to people, including participants in this landscape analysis, it is to refer to those whose work aligns with birth justice according to its many definitions as described in this landscape analysis. “Actor” is used to indicate action, not performance, and includes the acts of birthing, caring, and being, not just the actions of professional workers. We use the term “birth worker” to refer to the broad range of people who provide services related to pregnancy and birth.

We also use various words to describe positionality and demographic information about people. We spent a lot of time hashing out how to do this because it is hard. But it is so important, and a key takeaway from this work is that language matters and it is worth continuing to wrestle with how we talk about who we are.

When we use “people of color” we are referring to the broad coalition of people who are “not white” even though we know this is entirely problematic. Many of us do not fit neatly into any one category.

We use the word “Indigenous” as the term for people indigenous to the lands where this project was conducted, recognizing that some prefer “Native,” “American Indian / Alaska Native,” or more specific terminology to denote their Tribal affiliations. We also note that indigeneity is a socio-political category, not a racial one, though it is often lumped together with racial classifications in a way that can obscure this, so we aim to interrupt the use of “BIPOC” with more precise language, balancing that goal with clarity and efficiency. We aim to interrupt white supremacy power by using lowercase “white” while capitalizing “Indigenous” and “Black,” but we don’t expect these word choices to fully transform embedded oppressive structures. 

We often name specific forms of oppression, such as anti-Blackness, but at other times, we say “other forms of oppression” to refer to the wide range of oppressions people experience, including, but not limited to: colonialism, imperialism, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, transphobia, ableism, monolingualism, and classism.

Who are “we” and who are “you?”

We spent a lot of time thinking about these questions. Who is the intended audience for this (who are you, the reader)? What is the right voice for describing our findings (who are we, the authors)?

Because of the context of our concerns about equitable funding, funders and people who work in philanthropy are a key audience. 

But because one of the findings of this analysis is that people in the birth justice movement are a diverse group of people, working in a lot of different ways with varying frames of reference, we, birth justice actors, are also the audience. 

Some birth justice actors work within philanthropy, so they are, at times, part of both the “we” and the “you.” Many of us work within institutions whose missions are not to advance birth justice, but nonetheless use frameworks and strategies that do advance birth justice. Some people newly initiated into the term “birth justice” are doing the work of it without knowing it as a community or using it as a term. Our analysis found that “we” are not all in the same place and have different points of reference.

In our usage of the first-person plural, “we,” and second-person “you,” we aim to recognize that the community of people who contributed to this work are multiple and diverse and the community of intended readers are multiple and diverse too. We are diverse across many demographic dimensions [Who We Are + What We Do]. 

We are speaking from an inclusive “we,” despite the fact that this comes with risks and problems. The universal “we” has often been used to assert a dominant perspective, to silence, erase, exclude, and hoard power. But a more passive or academic voice (“the birth justice field consists of the following traits…”) is also risky because it obscures the positionality of the author and indicates authority. 

So, we are consciously using “we” to avoid the neutral observer problem and to acknowledge that creating this has been a rumbling, dynamic, group process. There are a number of people who have weighed in, thought deeply, offered criticism, written, edited, revised, and disagreed with this. We have engaged with deep respect, humility, and through discomfort. Every time you read the word “we” it contains the dynamic tensions of a group of independent beings attempting to move together in some sort of shared direction. That’s what we have found birth justice to be. 

Disagreement is expected in any coalition. By not hiding behind the neutral observer voice, we are also boldly acknowledging the challenges of “we” and the courage it takes to become “we.” We are asserting a set of values and beliefs that define this work, at least at Elephant Circle, where this project has been housed: we believe in a multi-positional, multi-racial coalition as both the process of achieving birth justice and the result of achieving birth justice. We know that the process of building this having been a rumbling, dynamic, group process has made it better than it otherwise would have been.

We hope that by showing that we have made choices, you can see and define yourself and your position in the movement in relation to those choices. There will likely be parts you agree with, other parts you would say differently, and still other parts you find triggering or strongly disagree with. We hope respectful engagement with our disagreements and differences helps us all develop and grow the birth justice movement. We hope this landscape analysis will, above all, help us locate ourselves, better understand ourselves and each other, choose our priorities, and help us find new ways of navigating and adapting to the current climate.