Jesse Tiffen
Last week on the phone with one of my friends, he jokingly made a racially charged comment to describe his roommate. Largely because of his position of privilege I immediately called him out. “I was mostly joking, dude. It’s not like I had truly malicious intentions!” he responded.
Interactions like this seem to happen far too often. We all understand we have the freedom to use whatever words we desire. I am not trying to play Big Brother here, but far too often “we” fail to understand the consequences of language. This notion can be applied to almost any discussion of privilege and most contentious topics in all walks of life.
I’m sure many of us have heard before “That’s not what I meant!” in the classroom. Sometimes fellow students appear to be sincerely distraught exclaiming, “No, no, no! I totally did not mean for it to come out that way!” But whether it’s a student in a class who unknowingly says something deeply offensive or coded to an unrepresented group or even something as mundane as the social interaction with my friend, they seem surprised by the impact of the language and words they choose. It often feels like they are shoving their feet in their mouth while digging their own grave and they are still astonished how they got there in the first place.
This notion is so painfully evident, yet we often deny its salience. Our language is loaded and leaves room for infinite unintentional assertions.
Even using “we” is loaded in itself. Who am I really referring to? Often “we” is used to refer to the privileged. I would like to clarify I use this term to apply to everyone. It’s a pretty well-established notion individuals that in a position of privilege are more prone to denying the accidental, politically incorrect statements. In reality, I’m sure most of us at one point have uttered, “you’re totally twisting my words!” or “that was not my intention at all!” and not necessarily in regards to race.
I am only trying to pick at a broader issue of privilege here. I think to most sensible people, racism appears to most of “us” as a very serious issue … for other people. Growing up in this day and age, many of us (ideally) are aware of our actions and do not actively commit racist hate crimes (at least I hope not). Yet we still see the issue in a detached light. I know personally growing up, and most likely if you were privileged enough to never have to deal directly with hate, racism is something only the most loathsome and intolerant people commit. As if racism is something abstractly removed from “us,” the respectable, ethical and sincere folks.
In reality, prejudice is misconstrued and needs to be understood as problems even the most admirable people commit. When we render intolerance as something far removed, it leads many of us to disregard the experience of those not present, callously throwing around words.
As the popular social justice blog Son of Baldwin would say: “How curious. All this racism and not a racist to be found.” Intentionally or unintentionally, taking a nonchalant approach to the language we use everyday allows insults directed at “others” to permeate our vocabulary.
Given its history and pervasiveness, racism might be the easiest issue to discuss this, but in reality this notion can be applied to classism, gender discrimination, ableism, etc. I do not expect anyone to be a wholly and morally firm individual. In reality, we are all fallible. But I do think everyone should critically examine the language they employ everyday and the most mundane of actions; for their implications are endless.