The racism of words
Commenter “janetoo” describes a time when she visited her daughter’s college and attended a dance performance that included one selection featuring three Asian woman. In a conversation with her daughter and her daughter’s friends afterwards, janetoo was asked which dance had been her favorite. The following exchange ensued:
“Oh! That lovely one performed by the oriental girls!” Well, if looks could have killed, I would have been dead on the spot. They all, to a girl and boy, informed me that I was being racist and horrid and that the word I should have used was “asian.” It was a very revealing evening. My daughter had to explain to all of her friends how I had meant no harm, that I had grown up using this word without any bigoted or racist intent. She said they all forgave me (lucky me) but it was a chilling lesson in free speech or the lack there of.
Yes, using the right word for a minority group (even if the wrong word was never previously thought pejorative) seems to have become the marker of being a good (i.e. non-racist) person. A while back, “Oriental” became a banned word and “Asian” a good one. Likewise, when I was growing up, “black” was considered a bad word and “Negro” a good one. I can’t remember when the switch occurred; perhaps in the late 60s when the black power movement got going? To the best of my recollection, the word “colored” went out of favor even earlier, but it survives to this day as a sort of vestigial organ in the name of the NAACP (that’s what the “C” stands for).
It can be hard to keep up, even if one tries. But especially among the young, terminology has become an important marker to show that one’s heart is in the right place regarding racism. It’s a sign of goodwill, and violations are considered almost as bad (or maybe worse?) than overtly racist actions, which are more rare these days than in the mid-twentieth century.
Which brings us back to recent events at the University of Oklahoma. Yesterday I wrote about the constitutional issues involved in the SAE suspension and expulsions and agreed with law professor Eugene Volokh that the two ringleaders on the bus should not have been expelled from the university because their speech, however offensive, came under the heading of protected speech. That is still my point of view.
But despite the very important constitutional issue, and awareness that the remedy was almost certainly wrong (including the fact that apparently members of the group who didn’t even participate in the racist song were punished by having to scramble to find new housing), there are still reasons why the SAE speech was especially offensive, more so than the mere use of a word deemed racist.
Granted, a lot of people have been looking for evidence to implicate fraternities of something bad. Just two words—Duke* and UVA—will suffice to show that. And fraternities being fraternities, one of these days there was little doubt that an offense or offenses would be found. This doesn’t tell us much about most members of fraternities, but it certainly tells us something about some members of this one. And likewise, a lot of people have been looking for evidence of overt white racism, and this video provided that too, although the form it took was of racist speech rather than actions.
But the reason the SAE speech functioned as a particularly egregious example of racist speech is that it referred to actions, and those actions weren’t the least bit benign. The students singing the song weren’t just saying the n-word, they were also vowing to exclude black people from membership, and even worse they added, in an unambiguous reference to lynching, “you can hang them from a tree…”
Were they just joking? Were they just drunk? Perhaps, although it’s likely that actual racism was also involved. But some things aren’t funny (although again, they are constitutionally protected unless a serious threat is issued, which this obviously was not). Imagine, for example, that the song had featured some sort of pejorative word for “Jew,” and an assertion that Jews would never pledge the fraternity, and added “you can burn them in the ovens” or something of the sort. It’s an interesting hypothetical, not the least because it’s something that one can easily imagine, but also because it’s very believable that the university might not have acted with the same vigor to punish the offenders.
Interestingly enough, the SAE n-word song seems to have been of recent vintage. In fact, not all that long ago, the fraternity pledged a black member who was quite happy there:
Jonathon Davis, who is black, says his time with the fraternity from 1998 to 2002 was a positive and proud experience.
“We did embrace diversity, and somewhere along the line, everything went off the rails,” Davis told NBC Denver affiliate KUSA.
He enjoyed his time there so much, he added, that when some of his Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers encouraged him to move to Denver after school, he did.
This article adds that the racist song seems to have come into play just a couple of years ago, according to the SAE Oklahoma Board of Trustees:
The OU SAE Board of Trustees has discovered that a horrible cancer entered into the OU chapter of SAE three to four years ago and was not immediately and totally stopped. It should have been.
So something changed for the worse at that time at SAE. Could it have been a reflection of the fact that more people than not believe that race relation have generally gotten worse in the US in the last few years? Had the entire fraternity become racist? Or was the SAE song the result of a small number of individuals being racist and transgressive smart-asses, and the rest not speaking up against it?
[* NOTE: In the comments section I was reminded that at Duke the accusations were leveled against a lacrosse team.]
[ADDENDUM: Here’s an excellent new piece on the SAE case by law professor and free speech expert Eugene Volokh. In it, he goes into depth on some questions I asked in this post yesterday, especially question number 4: where do you draw the line? Can’t almost anything be defined as hate speech by some group or other? As Volokh writes:
Moreover, this [remedy of expulsion] surely wouldn’t be limited just to people who use epithets ”” president Boren’s statement speaks generally of the viewpoint of the speech (“racist and exclusionary”) and not just the particular words that were used. Nor would it be limited to things that really are contemptible; as we’ve all seen in past years, “hate speech” and “hostile educational environment” is a label that is cheerfully thrown around, to refer to criticisms of illegal immigration, to people deliberately trampling the Hamas flag, and much more. To quote Justice Jackson in West Va. Bd. of Education v. Barnette (1943), First Amendment law is “designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.”
Indeed.]
The Duke controversy involved a lacrosse team not a frat.
I wonder, could the SAE members who were expelled sue the university for damages?
Within the hierarchy of oppression mandated by identity politics, racism trumps misogyny as an evil; thus, the rapper Waka, whose “lyrics” are vile and repulsive, can be praised for refusing to perform at the University of Oklahoma. White feminists are unwilling to criticize the pervasive misogyny of rap, just as they were unwilling to address the horrors of Rotherham, out of fear of being called racist.
The funny thing is that the fascists NEWSPEAKERS who coined the term “Asian ” to replace “oriental ” didn’t take into consideration that there are more Caucasians in Asia thsn orientals in Asia.
A former co-worker used to teach Spanish at an inner-city high school. One lesson was on colors, and the Spanish word for “black” is “negro.” She was physically threatened by the students in the class, and then fired for being racially insensitive.
I refuse to use the term African American. It’s completely meaningless to describe race. I was once watching the Olympics and heard the American announcer describe a Jamaican running for Great Britain as African American. Ridiculous.
A trend that I’ve noticed is that gender terminology is the new frontier for PC speech codes. You have to know the correct pronoun for those who self-identify as a gender other than male and female. Ze is most popular. I’ll be refusing to use that as well.
One wonders, given the vile and repulsive nature of much of RAP, had these boys stated that they were making a RAP video would they have had a different result. Probably wasn’t offensive enough for RAP, so more than likely not.
Steve:
I had forgotten at Duke it was a team and not a fraternity. I’ll correct that.
A former co-worker used to teach Spanish at an inner-city high school. One lesson was on colors, and the Spanish word for “black” is “negro.” She was physically threatened by the students in the class, and then fired for being racially insensitive.
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There was also the incident a few years ago when someone was fired from a university for using the word ‘niggardly’. The word has nothing to do with race, but it sounds a lot like a word that does. So…
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I refuse to use the term African American.
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Likewise, though for a very specific reason. MLK and the other civil rights leaders of the era embraced the term ‘black’ as a way to combat black on black racism. Specifically, having a lighter skin tone was seen by many in the community as being better than having a darker skin tone, and popularizing the term ‘black’ (i.e. the darkest shade possible) was seen as a way to combat that.
So singing a vile song is a cancer but having a Communist on the faculty is something else; commendable?
Do you remember the fuss over some politician who used the word “niggardly” — which is not derived from anything to do with race or skin color — and had to resign?
My memory, based on my childhood in Maryland, is that “Negro” had become a bad word by 1960 or so — in part because when people say it with a southern accent, it can sound quite a lot like the n-word. I remember being taught in the early ’60s that it was more polite to say “colored person.” However, by the late ’60s, “black” had become the correct expression and “colored person” was offensive. Then, of course, along came “African-American” — which the media now sometimes eagerly use as an all-purpose designation for people of African derivation, whether or not they’ve ever set foot in the United States.
It’s all so silly.
“terminology has become an important marker to show that one’s heart is in the right place regarding racism”
Add to that truth all of the politically correct categories. Gender, wealth, sexuality, etc,. etc.
Verbal (and written) political correctness is about control, both of the narrative and of thought itself. Socialistic systems require control to survive and as reality increasingly intrudes, greater control is needed. Thus the predictable truism that, any socialistic system must eventually evolve into a State where all thought, speech and behavior is categorized as either mandatory or forbidden.
“The funny thing is that … there are more Caucasians in Asia than orientals in Asia.” Avi
Statistical sources please. Asia includes India as well as China. It greatly violates credulity to accept that assertion at face value.
junior and Mrs Whatsit:
I remember the “niggardly” incident. But the one I remember best was “water buffalo.” See this.
Yeah, I remember the water buffalo incident. Even Doonesbury parodied it, iirc.
One lesson was on colors, and the Spanish word for “black” is “negro.” She was physically threatened by the students in the class, and then fired for being racially insensitive.
Negro Modela baby! my favorite mexican beer.
Crazy that she would have been fired for teaching properly.
The new term seems to be ‘person of color’ which is ridiculous.
Bob Says:
If you ask one of the easily offended why the word “Oriental” is an insult while the word “Asian” is proper, you may very well be told that “Oriental,” meaning land to the east, is Eurocentric, which is bad. However, anyone who has studied ancient history knows that the Greeks divided the world into three parts — Europe, Africa, and Asia — with the latter term meaning land of the sunrise (i.e., oriental). Hence Asian is every bit as Eurocentric as Oriental. But a knowledge of etymology will not have the slightest effect on people who have learned that passive-aggression and playing the victim bring enormous personal and social rewards.
G.B., check out this map of Asia. It includes a large number of countries that aren’t populated by orientals:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Asian+Continent+Countries&FORM=IRMHRS#view=detail&id=EECDD65DD1BD85DF3A5E3E9B3298121518EDA713&selectedIndex=1
Also, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race
Couldn’t find numbers, but there is a kernel of truth to Avi’s statement.
Yes, Asian is the PC word these days as I learned from my very PC wife, who works at a University. When I point out that Israelis, many shades, and Russians, blond hair and blue eyes, are Asian and that Oriental is more appropriate for the Chinese since they’re from the Orient = the East she’s very nonplussed and blusters a bit. Logic wins but it’s very hard for her. No doubt it’s the same for the members of her department.
JJ,
First, my understanding of Oriental and Asian are that they are different in that ‘oriental’ includes Asians and the various ethnicity’s of the M.E.
So, I find the first map highly problematic, Saudi Arabia is not part of ‘southwest Asia’. And the second as well, in that India and the M.E. ethnicity’s are not part of the same ‘brown’ race. I attribute these maps as typical of the sloppy academics of today.
This map of Asia is far more accurate to my way of thinking, though it doesn’t show Mongolia, which is obviously Asian.
It has been argued that the names change, partly because the goalposts move on their own — an epithet is replaced by a euphemism, and over time, the euphemism becomes the new way to say what the epithet used to say, which therefore becomes offensive.
But the goalposts are also moved deliberately, by people who feel it necessary to have a reason to get angry at other people for not speaking correctly. This, to my mind, is where the “people of color” circumlocution came from. (And yes, there are people who deliberately mold language for their own ends; look up the history of the pejorative noun “santorum” sometime.)
To return to the starting point for this discussion — using the word “oriental” is not evidence of racism, particularly not in such a positive context, and the oh-so-knowledgeable students should certainly not have shamed their elder for using the word. I view this the way I’d view similar violations of the First Amendment — as an attempt to stifle free speech by persuading the speaker than the slightest misstep could cause untold damage.
A lot of people here have written about their childhoods. When I was a boy, it was common to say “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me”.
I’ll make an exception for the so-called “N word”; I’ve been trained that I must never say it. But for the ever-changing rest? We don’t have enough letters in the alphabet to describe them.
(When I married and took on three stepdaughters, one of them asked me one time about use of the “S word”. Which one did she mean?? It turned out she was referring to the action of drinking a beverage through a straw. Ah, such innocence.)
I am an advocate for free speech, even if it’s idiotic, and I understand this is a public university, but don’t they have the right to expel students for not meeting a “code of conduct?”
One of my myriad (when you are as erudite as I, words like, “myriad” effortlessly emanate from one’s keyboard) degrees is from a public University and I seem to remember being issued some sort of conduct manual and informed that certain activities could lead to expulsion.
Plagiarism is one such thing, right?
I abhor political correctness for political correctness’ sake and believe all should be free to say what they wish (it’s a lot easier to spot the morons that way), but I have no remorse for these cretins nor the situation they find themselves in. If I were Chancellor at this University I would likely demand they meet me in my office. If regulations made expulsion difficult I would present them with a prepared document to sign, stating that they are voluntarily leaving the University.
Political correctness is an obnoxious regime that constantly monitors speech and punishes even minor transgressions–such as janetoo’s horrific act of using the hateful word “oriental.”
Everyone knows they’re being monitored and comes to resent the loathsome, insolent, bad-faith effort to impose by force stupid speech codes on people who overwhelmingly do not intend anything bad, for example by using “oriental” instead of “Asian.”
The punishments doled out by the PC Police can be quite serious (eg job loss, threats, vandalism, physical violence, etc), and the worst is reserved for whites who commit PC “offenses” against blacks.
Neo wrote:
So something changed for the worse at that time at SAE. Could it have been a reflection of the fact that more people than not believe that race relation have generally gotten worse in the US in the last few years?
No. Race relations have “generally gotten worse in the US in the last few years.” Much of this was caused by the actions of the narcissistic, imperious, hard-left Obama and his odious, lawless AG, Eric Holder. Add to this the unofficial appointment of the despicable Sharpton as Obama’s “racial ambassador” and you’ve got a mighty toxic brew, leading the way in exacerbating racial tensions.*
With the PC MSM backing Obama et al with blatant double standards, the intensity of racial PC has doubled, accompanied by increasing resentment of whites who are sick and tired of PC monitoring and constant accusations of racism.
Back to the fraternity. What young men in fraternities do is throw parties, get drunk, do pranks and stick their middle finger in the face of authority. Right now, PC monitoring is the most pervasive, offensive and repugnant “authority” around. I strongly suspect that singing the racist song was primarily their way of saying “F*CK YOU” to the PC police, not an expression of racism.
* In retrospect, it should have been totally predictable that this particular (lefty, entitled, narcissist) First Black President would have degraded race relations–precisely the opposite his campaign hype and what many expected.
What did they know and when did they know it?
Rufus T. Firefly:
Did you read the 2 Volokh posts? He says that case law says “no,” the first amendment trumps the (public state) university’s right to have the code, if the code expels students for “mere speech.” Read what he wrote. There is a limit to what the university is supposed to be able to do to enforce speech codes. Plus, in this case it is highly unlikely they followed their own stated procedures, so there is a due process question as well.
We are turning out a society of drones. We should be deeply ashamed.
They have already becomes slaves, yet they declare themselves free, equal, and empowered. What ridiculous emotions, declared from a low order livestock.
“Colored” is still around. They just use “person of color” now.
“The funny thing is that … there are more Caucasians in Asia than orientals in Asia.” Avi
Statistical sources please. Asia includes India as well as China. It greatly violates credulity to accept that assertion at face value.
the vast majority of Indoaryans are caucasian. as are arab , jews turks, kurds iranian and benggalis.
caucasian includes polar bear white to various shades of brown. admittedly some stormfront, aryan nation types want to only count polar bears.
btw, are you saying that Indians are part of the mongoloid/oriental race?
A man of Scots ancestry wore his Clan pin to work one day at a Chicago museum. When asked what it was, he told the story. The black employee was offended and file a complaint. (Too stupid to know there are clans that have nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan? Too depraved to care about the difference and looking for a chance to hurt white people?) The museum, afraid of Louis Farrakhan and his fascist allies, fired the innocent employee.
Incidents like this tend to foster dislike and distrust of black people.
…not to mention dislike and distrust of cowardly liberal administrators.
Too stupid to know there are clans that have nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan?
Got to keep em field slaves dumb and popping out babies.
Democrats have several centuries of this economic redistribution scheme.
Don’t know if this idea has legs, but I hope so;
“OU Could Be Making A Huge Mistake With Its Expulsions.”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/10/ou-could-be-making-a-huge-mistake-with-its-expulsions/
It mentions another such case of expulsion without following the university code of due process. The student fought back in court and won. (Though the verdict is on appeal.)
Soooo….all the black students who call each other the N word at OU will get expelled too, right?
ArmyMom: How about all the black students who call white people “crackers” and other epithets?
“Colored People” is a horrible racist insult, while “People of Color” has the highest encomium of political correctness. Just think how much power flipping word order and throwing in two letters has!