We live in connection — to people, institutions, and the culture at large. Communication is the web that creates and facilitates those connections. We learn who we are by absorbing communications from the world around us — from family and friends, from movies and television shows, from laws that are passed, and from the news that is reported. Communication is powerful: It tells us who belongs and who does not. It tells us what is valued and what is not. It tells us what is right and what is not. Of course, these are subjective judgments that change over time and among cultures. But communication reinforces these subjective assessments so masterfully that we can grow to believe that they are set in stone and just the way things are.
Communication researchers call communication that excludes, degrades, silences, or stereotypes a group of people “disenfranchising." Disenfranchising communication creates and/or reinforces a belief that certain groups are of less value and undeserving of societal acceptance. Most of us who live with chronic........