Re: Yes, by St. Jerome, but there is, Horatio, and much offence, too!

--- Matt Kozusko <mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu> wrote:

> Are they, in fact, hate-filled, the terms? Can they be hate-filled if
> they were uttered in the spirit of hardnosed affection and
> season-celebrating chumminess? Does it matter?

Cripes. I'm away from my email for a few days and now this. So. I
think: yes, of course it matters, especially if said chumminess is not
understood and acknowledged by all parties.

Now, now, before you call me a handkerchief-wringing pantywaist, I must
first explain something to you: I am fully convinced that words are
things. Words spawn feelings which spawn actions which spawn uglier
words. In the context in which they were written, I understand that the
meaning was a sort of jocular bonhomie, but until the hatred that created
those labels disappears, they shouldn't be used.

I was part of a discussion not too long ago over the use of the so-called
"n-word." Randall Kennedy recently published a book on the subject (you
can find a review and a much better discussion of this issue on Salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/01/22/kennedy/), and it spawned a
dialogue across this country about the meaning of such slurs and if they
can ever be used innocuously or "taken back" by the people and redefined
as a powerful word. I've thought about this, and I think: no, not as long
as that word still has the power to hurt.

Trent Lott recently proved that the kind of mindset that we all like to
think is a thing of the past is still alive enough to find a place in the
national arena. Are we Americans oversensitive? I don't think so. Every
day, I walk down the street and I DON'T see faces that look just like mine
staring back at me. The only ways that so many disparate cultures can
coexist are in the way practiced in the early part of this nations history
-- total subjugation by a single group over all groups, or by careful
restructuring of the very way the nation's inhabitants think.

It's not just handwringing on the parts of pansy liberal academics.

It's about the very real consequences of words. Certainly it's a shame
that some of the most colorful words in the language have been whitewashed
as the political correctness movement takes the argument to the extreme,
but that doesn't mean that the original argument isn't correct. A kid
whose father tells him racial or ethnic jokes may not grow up to be a
racist, but you know probably far better than I how those ideas and mores
will affect the formation of the mind. Hatred is far too easy to grow.

This sounds so damned preachy. It annoys even me. The idealism I'm
laying out here is just a little too fresh-faced. It seems impossible,
too, just another theory that will go out of fashion -- is already going
out of fashion. This, however, doesn't mean that I don't believe every
word.

However, I'm not jumping on the vilification train. Authorial intent on
bananafish has always been the most important way of dealing with my
fellow bananafishers. And this author, I think, intended only to yank an
already well-oiled chain.

Happy Damn Holidays, by the way.

Regards,
Cecilia.

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Received on Thu Dec 26 02:16:50 2002