A Point of View

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A Point of View: The War with Words

The War with Words

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Bernardine Evaristo on news that Girl, Woman, Other may be banned in some US schools.

Bernardine Evaristo calls for a rethink of 'hackneyed catch-all' vocabulary like 'woke' and 'cancel culture'.

'We must never underestimate the power of words to shape public opinion and politics', writes Bernardine Evaristo. 

This comes in the aftermath of a call from a school authority in South Dakota for the banning of her novel, 'Girl, Woman, Other' on the grounds that it - and four other novels - are unsuitable for seventeen and eighteen-year-olds.  

Bernardine argues that we should avoid vocabulary that fosters outrage and try instead to find words that convey our exact, and reasoned, argument. 

Producer: Adele Armstrong 
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

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