University of Windsor symposium hopes to 'open the door' on the conversation about slurs

A three-day symposium at the University of Windsor is aimed at opening up the discussion about slurs aimed at different communities.

"How do you open the door to this conversation because it's always something that's spoken about behind closed doors," saidMarium Tolson-Murtty, the school's director of anti-racism organizational change.

The symposium is taking place during the university's equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization week and will explore slurs as they relate to "substance use, academic freedom, intersectional gender x race, 2SLGBTQIA+ issues, ableism, mental health, indigeneity, and racism."

"How can we move forward in terms of 'OK, I want to discuss this in my classroom, I want to discuss this in my work environment, I want to discuss this in my research paper' but knowing there could be parametersin terms of 'that is not allowed', well why?"Tolson-Murtty said.

She said that initially they had explored the idea of holding an event simply focusing on racial slurs, "but it goes way beyond that, it affects so many different communities," she said.

"Every community is impacted by slurs, someway, somehow," she said

"There are disparaging and derogatory remarks, things to make people seem inferior."

It will also discuss how some communities have reclaimed slurs as a way to "take the stigma out of" them.

"For example, women and people of African descent," she said. "They use that terminology to describe themselves or describe other people that are part of that particular group or community and it's a way of controlling the narrative as some groups will tell you."

She said she knows the symposium will contain triggering moments for participants and each session will come with a content warning for each session.

"Those particular words may be used and people may be triggered and people will be encouraged to take a break and walk away if they need to and resume if they feel comfortable enough," she said.

'Slurs have gotten subtler'

Natalie Delia is theinterdisciplinary and critical studies head at the university and isin charge of women and gender studies. She will be running a session on the intersection of race and gender when we think about slurs.

"Slurs have gotten subtler," she said. "It's a series of what are known as dog whistles. 'How do I undermine someone's identity for example, as a woman, for example as a person of colour without explicitly using a historic slur, but really performing the same thing and degrading and de-legitimizing them in a way that's ultimately the same thing."

The symposium takes placefrom Tuesday to Thursday this week.