Holy Cannoli: Be Careful What You Say

Last Wednesday night, I was remarking about something surprising and said, "holy cannoli!" Now, I was being very intentional with my language when I said this. At Whitman there is a campus wide event called the Power and Privilege Symposium, which is a student run initiative to create a forum for discussing issues of racism, sexism, able-ism, the power of language, inequality in education, and many other topics. Last year I attended a workshop entitled: Holy Cow: Why Language Matters, which was led by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, regarding religiously charged language in everyday life. Although a humorous title, it actually points out something most people don't think of very often. Saying "holy cow" is actually a religiously charged phrase, and can be offensive to Hindus who view the cow as a very sacred and holy animal.

This year (last Thursday) I attended four workshops with Rachel. All classes are canceled for the day, and lunch is provided for the entire Whitman community! The first workshop: Call the PC Police! How Language Can Uphold Systemic Oppression and Undermine Identity, discussed the problems with the term "PC" and "trigger warning" and worked to develop a new way of looking at oppressive language. The second workshop, was led by Jim Sporleder, who was the principal at Lincoln Alternative High School in Walla Walla for several years, and lowered school suspensions by 85% in one year by reexamining his discipline methods. After lunch we attended a panel on mental health, called: A Flaw in Chemistry, Not Character: Living with the Mental Health Stigma, which is a topic very important to me, and close to my heart. I was both pleased and saddened by how many people clearly have this on their minds, based on the probably 200 people that were packed into the 40 person classroom (fire hazard??). The last talk was led by one of my fellow music majors, and was called: Who Aren't We Talking About? An Examination of Ability in the Whitman Community. In that session we worked to develop a (working) definition of what it means to be disabled. We listened to part of a very interesting podcast about a man named Daniel Kish, who is tired of people remarking at his ability to ride a bicycle, simply because he is blind. I recommend listening to it! You can download it on iTunes (Daniel Kish Invisibilia). They also mentioned a Ted Talk, called "I'm Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much" by Stella Young. It was interesting to look at disability in a new light, and recognize that not everyone who looks disable would consider themselves disabled, and not everyone who looks able-bodied is.

It was an enlightening day. And I think it inspired me to reevaluate my own assumptions and understandings as it made me want to help others do the same.

The trouble was, I could not shake the desire for cannoli! Although I had avoided using the phrase "holy cow," my words still had consequences! Generally when I get it in my mind that I want some sort of baked good or pastry, I end up making it within not that many days. So on Thursday night, I could not stand it any longer, and I made cannoli. It was a fun project that required a bit of ingenuity, but turned out really well.

Ta-dah! On my way to being an Italian Pastry Chef! 

All language has consequences, but some of those consequences are pretty tasty.