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Duke athletes take on homophobia, other slurs with powerful 'You Don't Say' campaign

41 athletes share the hateful and hurtful words they don't say.

By Jim Buzinski

"You Don't Say," a powerful campaign to combat word that marginalize and belittle people based on their sexual orientation, gender, race or disability features 41 student-athletes at Duke who pose in their uniforms next to words they don't say.

You Don't Say is a campaign founded by senior Daniel Kort and juniors Anuj Chhabra, Christie Lawrence and Jay Sullivan that aims to raise student awareness about the offensive nature of phrases and slurs used in everyday conversation through photographs shared using an online campaign. Starting Jan. 7, the group began to roll out its second online push, only this time instead of 17 students [in 2014], the project featured 41 Duke student-athletes.

"Sports are really integral to our campus culture, and with that comes a pretty big microphone around our athletic culture," Kort said. "It's easier to dismiss a message if it's coming from a social justice-oriented group on campus.... By getting people who aren't traditionally seen as the social justice kids on campus to stand up for this message, it carries a lot more weight. It's also that these student-athletes care a lot about the issues."

You can check out the campaign's Twitter feed for a full list of the words you don't say. Here are the ones that deal with homophobia.

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