October 6th, 2008

The discussion on Monday night and tonight about language and the importance of paying attention to the words we use brought up several ideas in my mind. The first one is that we need to understand the power of words. A good example of this is the use of the N word. For most people this is a derogatory term that should never be used, no matter what the situation. However, growing up it was a term that I used all the time when I was talking with my friends.

The thing to understand is that most of my friends growing up were African American and that when we used the term it had a different connotation for us than it would if someone at my boarding school (where most students were white) were to use it. When my friends and I used the words in New York, we were appropriating the word and in some ways robbing it of its power, but when I have had derogatory terms used toward me in other settings I was immediately aware that the use of those terms was an expression of power meant to indicate my perceived inferior status. There are many other examples of how other groups have appropriated derogatory terms and stripped them of their power. One that comes to mind is the use of the word queer in the gay community.

It seems that the people in power also understand this point about the importance of words. As we have read a couple of times in our readings, the slogan "No Child Left Behind" was originally associated with the Children's Defense Fund. Since then it has been appropriated by the Republican administration as a way to sell their education legislation by making it sound more acceptable. After all, who would be in favor of "leaving a child behind." Other examples from this election include "hope" (again, who would be against that?) and "change" (during bad economic times, who can oppose a change?). In this case, words are being used to manipulate how we feel about an idea and tap into our sentiments as described by Michael Apple.

In addition to these more obvious cases, which we consider because they are associated with hot topics, there are other examples from research that we skip over without much thought. I was happy to see Vicki bring up the idea of what we consider "urban" tonight as a way of highlighting how the same word can have different meanings to each of us depending on our experiences. While for some of us urban meant a geographical area, for others the term described a cultural or class identification. As I read the remaining books we have to read this semester, I will try to be more aware of the terms that are being used and also try not to make assumptions that the author means exactly what I think they mean when they use a word.