Aztecas_SPM
Charlatan
Joined: Dec 06, 2009
Posts: 63
Location: Mexico/USA |
My Stand
By studying the history of many diverse societies, one will find that the dominant group has recurrently carried out tactics and strategies to inferiorize and control the subordinate group(s). This is frequently the case; however, minority race-ethnicities have found ways of adapting and countering oppressive and morally demeaning circumstances. One of these predicaments is the use of racist language. Racist language is any derogatory word or phrase directed at someone based on their race-ethnicities’ characteristics, usually physical ones, intended to dehumanize its victims. Malevolent users of racist language discriminate against minorities while pronouncing their supposed lack of intelligence and other merits. Trying to cope with such degrading situations, minorities have developed a technique to render such language useless while refining the meaning to give them a sense of pride and triumph over stereotypes.
Racist language was invented for the sole purpose of maintaining higher status and power over subordinate groups in societies. Regardless of the society, dominant, privileged groups utilize racist language to inhibit the progress of minority groups. One prominent experience in my life was during high school when I was chosen to participate in Knowledge Master. People are chosen for this competition based on their intellectual merits and then the selected group must answer a series of questions in one school day. Once the group’s “test” is completed, the high school’s score is compared to other schools across the country. During the event, there was this question I knew the answer to so I raised my hand and said I was sure about the answer. The teachers were out of the room and the person in charge ignored me and chose to go with another student’s answer. His answer ended up being incorrect. After that, I overheard one of the participants whisper to another, “He’s still a stupid wetback”. I never felt so much anger and discrimination in my life. My peers made that racial remark in order to maintain their higher status. In Gloria Naylor’s “The Meanings of a Word”, she experienced a very similar situation “In my third grade class our math tests were being passed down the rows… I remarked that once again he had received a much lower mark than I did. He snatched his test from me and spit out that word [******]” (Naylor 489). The boy stated that racial slur to justify that he is more competent and capable even after the test score; meanwhile inferiorizing Naylor.
An advantage of being a human-being is being able to adapt to the conditions of an environment. Minorities have adapted to racist language by altering the negative connotations that follow it. For example, I have redefined the term wetback, which is aimed at Mexicans. The original meaning of being a wetback is a Mexican who illegally crossed the Rio Grande to get into the U.S.A. and got his/her back wet during the process. My definition of “being” a wetback is a Mexican who has so much diligence in doing something that he sweats thus meaning that he is a hard worker. I have used this term with my friends but before I used it, I gave them the refined definition. This is the kind of transformation racial slurs undergo; their negative connotations are converted to positive connotations. The newly innovated term then creates a sense of pride among its users. The users of the term, such as my definition of a wetback, can now freely use it to express motivation for each other during some activity, to express endearment for one another, and most importantly to express the historical liberation and triumph over the stereotypical word and its effect on its victims. In Gloria Naylor’s “The Meanings of a Word”, she gives her positive, refined definition of the term ****** “In the singular, the word was always applied to a man who has distinguished himself in some situation that brought their approval for his strength, intelligence, or drive…” (Naylor 490) If an African-American read her definition, he/she would feel a sense of pride in his/hers’ race-ethnicity and it’d be easy to see why they could use it among each other.
Minorities often take offense to an outsider’s use of their in-group’s redefined term. The simple reason to explain this is that they personally don’t know the outsider and his/her meaning of the term while it is used. Minorities have been oppressed to the point that they have become cynics with other peoples’ use of “negative” terms especially if they don’t share a common race-ethnicity. There are two exceptions; however, if an outsider is raised around the in-group and becomes close friends with them then he can be allowed to use the term even if he/she is of a different race-ethnicity. The other exception is if an outsider somehow manages to become close friends with the in-group then he/she will be able to use the term, once again, even if he/she is of a different race-ethnicity.
The use of “racist” language has come such a long way that it has evolved two “flip-sides”. In contemporary times it is used to morally degrade its victims but at the same time it has become embedded into the everyday lives of minorities. They have learned to manipulate the meanings to describe their dignified lives and to overtly celebrate their victory.
Works Cited
Naylor, Gloria. “The Meanings of a Word”. The Bedford Reader. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009. 488-491.
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I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.--Genghis Khan
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random....one would think this is another spam topic from "Anonymous."
