I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

Each year I find myself removing once beloved palms for my syllabus.

I have taught for years, but read through the lens of inclusivity and frankly safety,

they just don't cut the mustard nor seem appropriate. For better or worse, I try not to exclude

those in my classroom for the purpose of making some point about poetic craft.

I try to create an environment where difficult conversations are welcome

and sensitive topics are rigorously discussed, but without the unintentional act of

demeaning or dehumanizing a student. My logic is this, I can find an equally suitable

palm to model. This is controversial among some of my colleagues. I get it.

Who wants to or even can navigate every possible means of alienating someone.

I applaud the sensitivity and consideration we give each other in classrooms and workplaces.

Words have histories. Sometimes we pull back their layers and our usage to unintentionally

reveal their fraught legacies. Freud, who himself is fraught to many?

Believed jokes represent it an opportunity to release pent-up anxieties and repressed hostilities.

Some time ago in my work as an accountant, I managed a small staff.

This one particular day of reporting deadlines, a coworker jokingly blurted out,

you're working me like a slave driver. After nervous laughter and silence,

they apologized. It's too easy to discount the moment as a case of political correctness,

as some do when held accountable for implicit or biased speech. Why choose mockery and dismissiveness

over decency and thoughtfulness? I believe we should be able to make blunders,

but that we should also afford each other grace and forgiveness.

Today's palm reveals how language and is slippery in this implicates itself.

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