So, I was reading a website the other day and I saw an article about the terrorist brothers who shot and killed twelve people, kidnapped several others, robbed a gas station and caused the city of Paris a few days of panic. They called him a gunman.
Unfortunately, here in America, that has very romantic and very positive associations. Why would we use it for those who kill and terrorize others? Is our vocabulary so wanting that we have no other appropriate and less romantically loaded words? How about murderer, killer, even with alleged in front they are more accurate.
Terrorist, murderer, killer, kidnapper. We are afraid to call things what they are.
Yet.
We also have issues with name-calling in this country. We love to call others terrorist for supporting democratic policies. We call women especially nasty things when they speak out. We terrorize them when they disagree with us. Yes, I am a woman and I am using we. Because we are all guilty when we do not speak out.
What is the answer? How can we negotiate conversations when our partners sling accusations and exaggerations? Does that make it harder to call out people for what they've done? More problematic? What about when someone says or does something blatantly racist? Do we call them out? I've heard some talking heads argue that is 'playing the race card.' It's like some people have turned the meanings of words upside down to suit their own purposes.
But, that does not stop things from being what they are. We need to stop calling terrorists gunmen; thereby romanticizing them. We need to start calling society out on its racism, sexism, hatred and injustice. Lord, lead the way.
Who has the power?
No comments:
Post a Comment