It is a sad state of the world where being offended is viewed as being wrong.
Especially when it comes to racism and bigotry.
There are racial terms going around that should not be used when describing a group of people.
This is not a rant about how we should all guard our language and no one should ever say anything ever.
I’m not saying you have to stop using them now. Go ahead and use terms you know are offensive. Just do not get upset when someone calls you on it.
They have the same right to be offended by what you say that you have to say the things that are offensive.
I laugh at the jokes that go around on Facebook.
Most of them go like this:
A (insert certain race or religious affiliation here) does something that white people would never do and we all laugh at them.
One such joke involved the invention of the condom. The funny part of that joke was that I’ve seen that exact same jokes with 4 different ethnicities involved.
First it was the Irish.
Then it was the Scottish.
Then it was Ukrainians.
Now it is Muslims.
Everyone thinks they are just a harmless joke but they do affect people and people are sick of hearing them.
They influence the way people think towards another group and can have a lot of power in this world.
That is the thing about offensive language; people do not understand that power language has.
I am a white women living in a very catholic town.
We tend to shy away from talk about racially or religiously insensitive topics.
I was a bit hesitant to put this editorial to words since I can be the one saying that some language can be racially offensive but just by my saying it doesn’t really get the point across.
People working with both immigrants and people with disabilities see the affects of insensitive racially or bigoted changed language quite frequently.
People like Nicole Kinzel who works at Humboldt and District Community Services.
She says she sees offensive language users as people who have never seen oppression first hand, either through friends and family, or “they might not be in any position where they have been oppressed themselves,” she says.
Our world has gotten smaller and this idea of social justice that Nicole works towards on a daily basis is something so new to people.
“Many of these people do not have any relevant experience with it, who are saying, ‘I’m not offended by that so I don’t understand how you could be.’”
Nicole works with people with disability all day and for most people it is finding that understanding.
Daphne Eklund at the Humboldt Regional Newcomer Centre says that referring to immigrants as they, them or those people can really divide them from the community.
In her line of work where she is trying to bring immigrants together with the community, that can be a very detrimental attitude.
This statement alone encompasses the us versus them debate.
Stephen Harper described them as “old stock” Canadians because that sets up that divide that he thought would get him votes. He set it up as “old stock” on one side are the us and, the ‘oh, be careful of those people over there,’ as the thems.
They are very scary because they are not like ‘us’.
Fear is a big factor here.
Klaus Gruber at the Refugee meeting on Dec. 10 had a good point about the people who use these terms; they are afraid.
There is nothing wrong with being afraid. But being afraid of a person because they belong to a certain group can change the way you act towards them, for no other reason than they are black, or Muslim, or speak Arabic.
The problem with this, as beautifully described by Daphne and her colleges at the Newcomer centre, is that these people are more than just the colour of their skin or the God(s) they worship or don’t worship, or the language they speak.
That is the main problem with racism. People who are racist do not see the people they joke about as human first.
Who you are insulting is a human being, not just some punch line.
Nicole, Daphne, Klaus, and any other person that cares about these issues have a right to be offended by this language.
They have a right to tell you how damaging that language can be.
This is not just a matter of PC-ness getting out of hand, this is a matter of our world getting smaller. This is a matter of realizing that the colour of your skin, your religion or your language does not make you any less of a person.
These things should not make you a punch line. Because as soon as you put a race into the context of a joke, that is what you are turning them into; only a punch line.
