Words are important. Words give a people, nation, society, or profession a means of communicating ideas and information amongst themselves. Here in these United States of America, the greatest nation to ever grace the face of Planet Terra, we speak English. But it's American English, American, an extension of British, or the Queen's, English, and much broader in scope. It's an amalgamation of several languages using BritSpeak as a base, then incorporating words from other languages as immigrants assimilate into our culture, new processes and products are developed with no adequate descriptions using current terminology, or just to more easily communicate a concept.
Sushi, which shall never ever pass between my two lips, truffle, stucco, zero, nit noi, pizza, spaghetti, gravity, heretic, negro, and homosexual are all examples of words that have been incorporated either directly from other languages or derived from foreign roots. We have contractions that're shortened forms of a phrase or several words. Transistor, an electronic device, is a blend, or portmanteau, of transfer resistor. And we have acronyms, words that're formed by combining letters, generally the first letter, from each word in a phrase. Snafu came into popular use as GIs came home after the Second War to End All Wars, WWII, and is the shortened form of the phrase Situation Normal All… uh, let's pick another that's a bit more socially acceptable. Laser, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, is a good one. Radar, RAdio Detecting And Ranging, is another, and sounds much better than the original, spark gap modulation, which described the basic process by which the pulses were generated.
Several years ago I sat discussing a technical manual's text with a customer, quite a babe I might add, and a TechnoGeekGoobGal who not only knows how to use pi, but can bake pie. Too bad she's retired now. She was always one of those people it's a pleasure to work with. Anyway, she commented how frustrating it is for people to use the improper form of a word. The generic “there” is her favorite; “They're under the tree there yonder, trying to catch their breath after baling hay all morning.” But that's one of the glorious frustrations of our language. Another is words that sound the same but are spelled differently and those that're spelled the same with different pronunciations and meanings; “Mr. Bass lounged at the base of his favorite river rock strumming his bass guitar while serenading his Chiquitita” or "It's difficult to bale hay while bailing water out of the tractor."
For this reason most professions have assigned very specific meanings to certain words. Let's take accountants, uh, let us not. Those folks use words like debits and credits solely to confuse normal people. Pitch, to a carpenter, has a specific meaning that's quite different from that of a musician. A period to a language arts teacher is a punctuation mark but to a technogeek it's the time between two events. Vacuum has a different meaning to a housekeeper, HVAC technician, I&C technician, automotive technician, chemist and physicist.
But we also allow our language to become bastardized by allowing some to improperly use words for their own purposes, without challenge when context and usage are totally incorrect. One of my favorites in this category is “racist.” According to Mr. Webster's gang, Noah not Daniel, a racist “believes that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” When invoked, politicians and others afraid to take a stand run for cover. Those who're prone to throw it around like I do treats to The Gang have done a pretty good job of weaponizing… a word.
Another fave is bigot. Mr. Webster's gang defines this as “a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.”
Cruising through the pasty white northern end of Hamilton County, there's a small gas station that until recently didn't accept EBT cards. A couple years ago they hung a huge banner at the road stating they now accept EBT cards and have since done some significant renovation. Coincidence? Perhaps. After 20 or 30 years, and the only apparent change is accepting those cards working people provide for those who don't, such a windfall might cause a person to wonder. Standing in line at another convenience store an observant person might have cause to wonder at the person ahead purchasing a 12-pack of beer, a couple packs of fags, some potato chips and other guidunk, maybe a couple of lottery tickets, handing over one of those EBT cards… and no cash being exchanged.
An observant person might even see people outside a Wally World loading groceries into a cab, then at a later time have occasion to ask a cab driver about such situations… to discover that working people pick up the tab for those who don't to go shopping, to and from work, daycare, and school via cab. Their race doesn't make any difference.
Working versus non-working? We certainly do need to assist those who cannot fend for themselves, but not those who are perfectly able to work and will not.
An experienced person would know the term “gangbanger” was originally used in reference to Chicano gang members and today doesn't discriminate between Chicano, black, pasty white, 'Rican, Italian, Irish, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Greek, or any other group.
Make a comment about those of us who get up and go to work every morning so we can provide a living, or a better living, for ourselves and our families, only to have what someone else believes we ought to be giving to those who will not, and use the force of a government gun to enforce their wishes against our own and... BANG! Accusations of “You're a bigot!” come from those who automatically assume, because far be it from them to ever presume, that comment is aimed at some specific race, ethnicity, religion, or other group of individuals.
So, who's the bigot?
Whose right is it to tell any other person how they should or should not use the fruits of their own labor? Then they turn around and demand their own rights? Who has a right to steal the inheritance of those who may not even have been born yet? In the name of tolerance and charity?
Some of us just suffer serious cases of white guilt and feel a need to accuse others of unstated, unprovable cases of bigotry, racism, or any number of those other words in our language that have been weaponized in an effort to bully others into submission… and often by those who, in fact, are the ones harboring those negative feelings. I often wonder how those folks would react upon discovering the discriminatory hiring policies our company practices. One must be a veteran... but we also have three token civilians just to keep it fair.
Some people really need to get out more. It reduces the tendency to shoot from the lip, or fingers, which ever the case may be. It might reduce the number of kamikaze statements they make.
I might have been impressed by Lady Godiva back in the day. Her namesake chocolates aren't really all they're cracked up to be.
Royce Burrage, Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org