The Importance of Critically Engaging with Language

Growing up, I’d be riding with someone and as we drove through a parking lot, the person may look at a Cadillac or a car that was not parked correctly and say, “Gotta be a Democrat.” Or, while waiting in line somewhere, a person might say, “Look at that Canadian acting like that.” In each of these cases, the speaker attempted to code their racist language by using “Democrat” or “Canadian” instead of “n*****.” The words become a way for the person to shrug off their racism, saying, “I wasn’t referring to Black people. I was using the terms as a joke.” It seems innocuous, but we know it’s not. It’s deliberate coding to cover deliberate hate.

When we encounter words, we bring our own ideas and thoughts to them. Thus, a word can mean different things to different people, even when they see the same text. As such, we know that words are powerful because they do not just relate a denotative meaning; instead, they tap into connotations that have grown within us over the years. So, when we see words such “black” or “white” we immediately bring years of baggage alongside us as we read those words. Understanding this is important, especially when parsing out rhetoric that uses words to stoke fears and sow division amongst individuals.

We see this in action everywhere, but recently a specific incident jumped out that I want to look at…