You can help amplify the voices of people who stutter by sharing this new Bias Busters book
By JOE GRIMM
Director of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters project
You might not guess that Cleveland Browns first-round National Football League pick KC Concepcion was bullied as a kid.
Badly.
His stuttering made him stand out and, at first, he was unprepared to defend himself against the taunts.
But times change. Concepcion still stutters. 1% of American adults carry stuttering with them their whole lives. Most are males. The way they speak is always on their minds, even when they are not speaking. This can hurt their confidence.
For 100 Questions and Answers About People Who Stutter: A Listener’s Guide, a Michigan State University journalism class asked people who stutter what they wanted people to know about them. Many were happy for the chancer to speak about their wishes to an audience.
Now, Concepcion has a large megaphone to tell people what he wants as a man who stutters—and he is not shy about using it.
He wrote an open letter to NFL general managers, including:
So, to any kid out there who is carrying something heavy right now—a stutter, something that makes you feel different, anything that’s ever made someone look at you sideways … just know this: My success … it is your success, too. I want you to come along on this journey with me. Because you and me? We’re not weird. There is nothing wrong with us. Whatever makes you different — that’s not the thing holding you back. That’s your thing. Own it. Be you, fully. Without apology.
It takes strength to stand up to the people who own football franchises. Then, to use that platform to encourage kids, well, that is special.
Being an exceptional football player gave Concepcion a platform to became a role model for kids and adults who stutter.
But as we worked on this stuttering guide, the man who wrote its Introduction, Dr. J. Scott Yaruss, reminded us: Role models surround us. Yaruss is directly responsible for much of the book including these lines: “We can highlight famous people who stutter, but there are many more stuttering role models in our midst. These include individuals such as teachers and doctors, lawyers and plumbers, cab drivers and scientists. Everyday, regular people who stutter and who have learned to cope with stuttering so that it does not stand in their way are examples of success.”
We hope you meet some of these good stuttering role models. And this guide will prepare you to have a good conversation with them.
100 Questions and Answers About People Who Stutter: A Listener’s Guide will be released on Amazon on July 28. If you have a friend or acquaintance you would like to know better, but just don’t quite know what to say or ask, you’ll find some good answers in this guide. The problem, people say, is that other just interrupt too often. Read a copy. And then, just listen.
Right now, the book is available for pre-sale in paperback or Kindle editions
Your pre-order right now of a $9.99 Kindle version will dramatically help spread public awareness of this book across the Internet.