hey i’m a nonbinary person and ive seriously been wondering if i should be calling myself enby or nb?? because i heard that nb means ‘nonblack’ as well and i want to respect that but so many of my nonbinary mutuals still call themselves nb. maybe its just their ignorance but i’m conflicted
I don’t usually like to wade into social justice issues because my focus is language, but this question kind of fits my narrow lane of “gender and language” so maybe I’ll give it a try! Having said that, I’m not sure that I can really be any kind of authority on this. No one has ever criticised me for using NB to mean nonbinary instead of non-black, because I never abbreviate it. Also, while I am interested in and sometimes vocal about race issues online, I’m white and don’t really talk about race issues relating specifically to black people much - I grew up in an ethnic majority area that was mostly South-Asian, so my experience is mostly in that kind of cultural background.
I don’t think a particular community can have a monopoly on an abbreviation. It’s okay for abbreviations to mean different things in different contexts. But I do think it makes sense to be somewhat aware of when and how you abbreviate. Abbreviations only make sense when it’s clarified or clear from context what exactly you mean, and misunderstandings can lead to offence.
So, as an example, I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is frequently abbreviated to EDS. I have only ever seen EDS used to abbreviate Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I mentioned it in a social network account once, referring to it as EDS, and had someone ask me which EDS I meant. It turns out that even in a medical context EDS can mean several different things.
Like, there’s “lack of clarity due to lazy/careless typing” and “deliberately using misleading language in order to Claim an abbreviation for a particular marginalised group”, and the latter is much shakier ground. It doesn’t sound like you’re in the second camp. In cases of the former, I’d encourage some thoughtful proof-reading.
So yeah, based on the idea that no one can culturally claim an abbreviation, it seems like using your common sense in order to avoid misunderstandings will pretty much thwart in advance any potential issues regardless of whether it’s insensitive?
So I guess my advice would be:
In discussions about the intersection of race and gender, don’t abbreviate nonbinary or non-black at all.
In conversations that are extremely obviously entirely about gender and don’t mention race and there’s no racial context, there’s nothing ambiguous going on, abbreviating nonbinary is probably fine? “My sibling just came out as nb!” “Oh what are their pronouns?”
Similarly, in conversations that are only about race and don’t mention gender, and there’s no ambiguity anywhere, abbreviating non-black is probably also fine? “Honestly, my nb friends have no idea what it’s like living in fear of a systemically racist police system.”
If you’re not sure or it’s a bit ambiguous and you intend to continue using NB to refer to gender issues, you can take the academic approach: “Many nonbinary (NB) people...” and then after that it’s clear that when you say NB you mean nonbinary.
If you’re not sure or it’s a bit ambiguous and you intend to continue using NB in a race context, you can take the academic approach: “Many non-black (NB) people...” and then after that it’s clear that when you say NB you mean non-black.
Don’t do both of those last two in the same document and you’ll probably be fine! (Or I don’t know, maybe go wild and try nB = nonbinary and Nb = non-black, get creative with it as long as it’s easy to read and keep track of, unlike my radical example here.) I think probably if your intentions are good and you’re trying to be respectful and clear, you’ll probably be fine.
