Jessica Dawson
Practicing Person-First Language
I have been learning how to describe people by what they have
versus what they are,
like: “Jacob lives with paralysis” instead of “Jacob is paralyzed.”
It’s the “is blank” that weighs the person down, like two freshly
immobile legs attached
to the waist of a healthy, young, black male.
In person-first language, Jacob has a disability. In person-first language, you’d say:
Jacob is living while black.
Jacob has been another victim of police brutality.
Jacob’s children will live with seeing their father shot in the back, multiple times.
When using person-first language, remember:
Jacob and his children are not the condition in which they are forced to live.
—Submitted on 08/30/2020
Jessica Dawson‘s poems have appeared in Cantilevers, as well as in the anthology From the Ashes (Animal Heart Press, 2019), edited by Amanda McLeod and Mela Blust. Originally from central Florida, Dawson lives in Chicago, where she is a rape crisis counselor.
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