Definition
Plain language
Being harmed not by a lie but by having the tools to understand your own situation kept from you.
As stated in the literature
A form of epistemic injustice, named by Miranda Fricker, in which a person or group lacks the shared interpretive resources needed to make sense of their own social experience.
Why it matters: It highlights that missing shared concepts can silence people just as effectively as disbelief, which matters when designing tools that help or hinder how experiences get described.
For example, before a shared word existed for workplace harassment, people enduring it had no accepted way to name or explain what was being done to them.
Heard on the show
“She calls it hermeneutical injustice, and the plain version is this: you can be harmed not by a lie, but by having a tool for understanding withheld from you.”Episode 216 — The AI Tutor That Gives Poor Kids a Thinner History