In the article, Yoshino defines the word covering in his own words, “To cover is to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream”. After the definition, he goes into great detail about how everyone covers, even if they don’t mean to, as well as saying that everyone tries to fit into the mainstream, as it is a “necessity of life”. Yoshino uses lots of examples when trying to define the word covering. He talks about how people can change their name to something easier to pronounce, or keeping their personal life private, such as religion, politics and even same-sex parters. He even mentions how Franklin D. Roosevelt would make sure that he was the first person into the room and to have the wheelchair covered, as he was not able to walk and he thought that being in a wheelchair made people see him as weak and not a good leader. Since Yoshino gave lots of examples, it helps the readers to get a full understanding if the definition of the word covering. I think the definition that he used for covering was good. As stated earlier, he said “to cover is to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream”. He is saying that if someone doesn’t like something about you, or you’re worried that you might get judged for a certain trait or opinion you have, people tend to cover it. They will most likely use a different trait or opinion that is more”mainstream” or universal so that you fit in.
