Racism 101: Are you a Racist?

I’ve talked before about the issues with policing someone else’s language. The other side of that coin is that the person that is doing the policing should be concerned about their need to do this in the first place.

Policing works because of the systematic outlook people have on “Acceptable” language. Okay, we’ve been through that. The thing is, from the perspective of the person doing the policing, I see it as a sign of weakness. The only true reason anyone would need to police your language or even the way you type something would be because they are incapable of forming a coherent argument against your views point.

In theory, this would be great for the person being policed. However, because of the ingrained systematic thinking on language, it often works against them because it puts the person being policed in a defensive and often shameful place.

You said a curse word or said “Dat” instead of “That?” You must be ill educated, poor and less worthy than I.

This thinking is not only false, it’s irrelevant. Usually it doesn’t come out this way. Normally you’ll see this thinking as “If you are going to talk like that, I am just not going to talk to you any more.” This is a trick. A good one but a trick none the less. Imagine the idea that the WAY you say something somehow makes the content of the statement more or less valid. It makes no sense. None at all. The same can be said for those that feel the need to point out those that don’t use capital letters, have poor grammar or spelled something incorrectly. 

Is meaning lost if the capital letters are not present? This implication is asinine.

I saw this in someone’s “About me” section. The entire thing was about who they would or wouldn’t reply to based on how their words were written. Yes, the use of capital letters was on their list of criteria. My immediate thought was that this was a person who is aware that they are usually factually incorrect in their views and has given themselves an automatic out when those incorrections are brought to their attention.

It’s interesting because it is both a genius move and a move that shows a lack of intellect. 

Policing is truly a tact for the weak. If you find yourself policing the language of other’s, you’ll need to take that as a sign that you should likely do a bit more research on whatever it is you are currently discussing.