If I Didn't (Sadly) Know Better, I'd Think This Was Satire

I don’t comment on other people’s articles as often as I’d like. In fact, I don’t read other people’s articles as often as I’d like. And when I do, it’s usually because I’ve been suckered in by a moronic, clickbait title like “7 Racist Slurs Which You Should Drop From Your Vocabulary”.

The “racist slurs” in question were utterly harmless words and phrases like “cakewalk” and “nitty-gritty” and “fuzzy-wuzzy”, accompanied by instructions on how they could be considered offensive if you tried hard enough. 

It was so jaw-clenchingly infuriating, that by the time I made it to number 7, (hip, hip, hooray), I couldn't resist leaving a comment.

As with a frustrating number of race writers on Medium, the author wasn’t interested in defending the nonsense she’d written. So I didn't hear back from her. Fortunately (or perhaps, unfortunately), a fellow reader named Ono decided to weigh in:

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Steve QJ:

It is advisable to drop the ‘Hip-Hip’ while using the phrase, and only ‘Hurray’ be used to convey the speaker’s original intention.

If I didn't (sadly) know better, I'd think this was satire. Does intent or just the graudally changing meaning of words mean absolutely nothing now? Only the possibility of finding offence if you really, really look for it?

Should we scrap the word "gay" in reference to homosexuality because it originally meant happy and gay people aren't, nor should they be made to feel like they should be, always happy?

Better yet, should we abolish all language ever used by anybody who ever said or did something reprehensible? Maybe we could create a new language called Newspeak and be done with it.

This abstract linguistic virtue signalling isn't helping anybody. Can't you see that? What happens when every "bad" word has been excised from the English language? Does all the hatred and bigotry magically disappear with it?

The idea that swapping out a few words makes us better people or diminishes racism is hopelessly simplistic. The work is much harder than that. Maybe that's why some people prefer to play language games instead.

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This fascination with language (and particularly manipulating the meaning of language), is a common theme amongst “woke” people. It’s a quick and easy way of identifying who will fall in line with the latest rules, and more importantly, who won’t.

Transgressors are then immediately labelled racists (or in my case, self-hating) and it’s no longer necessary to think or engage with differences of opinion in good faith.

People who don’t fall in line are simply evil. After all,