There is silence in the classroom. Even amidst the clockwatching ten minutes-before-the-bell-rings clamor of a typical high school class there is silence, deafening and thick as quicksand. I have asked the class a question about the widespread use of the words "bitch" and "ho" to describe young women of color on campus and several boys are holding forth in response...They are bursting with perspective on this topic, but the girls in the room are silent. Some twist in their seats, some study the tops of their desks in calculated boredom, transporting themselves outside of the room, slain by the language of dehumanization. Finally a few girls chime in and say they use the terms casually with friends, as in "my bitch or my ho," supposedly neutralizing their negative connotations akin to the way they use the word "nigga." Some claim the words are justifiably used to describe "bad girls" who are promiscuous and unruly, not realizing that black women have always been deemed "bad" in the eyes of the dominant culture, as less than feminine, as bodies for pornographic exploitation.