Friday, August 21, 2020

Idiotic Idioms

 

Identity Politics is changing our language in order to advance its agenda. One example is “people of color.” Hemingway would have convulsed at such a laborious construction. Does its nearly Global use today  suggest  that “people of whiteness” should also be adopted for consistency? While the simpler “colored people” technically has the same meaning, perhaps its potential racist connotation can be avoided with another simple term such as “minority.”

Another example that is nearly mandatory is “enslaved people” instead of slaves. The true meaning is the same, but presently the first expression is a codified way of signaling the writer’s awareness that slavery was evil. It simultaneously, and falsely, implies that those who do not use the term,  deny the evil in slavery.  In reality, everybody knows that slavery was, and remains, wicked. There’s no valid need for another tortured construction to restate the obvious.

2 comments:

  1. The erosion of clear standards — the loss of a shared value system — produces confusion, and makes what was once called “common sense” a scarce commodity.
    -- Robert Stacey McCain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. makes what was once called “common sense” a scarce commodity.

      Well said.

      Delete