Next week, from March 18 to 22, the Human Relations Council (HRC) is presenting its campaign titled, Think Before You Speak. Each year HRC puts on four campaigns that each focus on social issues, both in the Newport Beach community and globally. The purpose of Think Before You Speak is to raise awareness of the implications of words that have the potential to be offensive and hurtful. This campaign is looking to promote more respectful words to replace stereotypical words that are used out of context.

This campaign does not aim to police or alter anyone’s language because people have the right to their words. Rather, it is looking to introduce the idea of the possibility for people to consider the extent and effects of words. The campaign promotes the idea that words truly matter, and each word has a true definition that can be negative. The campaign is using the hashtag, #Useadictionary, to promote the idea of understanding the true meaning of words.

On Thursday of the campaign, or March 21, HRC will be hosting a speaker in the Lecture Hall. The speaker is from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States. The speaker event will begin at 6:00 pm. All are encouraged to come and bring friends and family.

The ultimate goal of this campaign is to instill awareness among people, in an effort to encourage people to gradually think more about words and decrease the automatic urge to use words that could be taken offensively.