Self-censorship and the power of the word

[ssk7882]

Amanda wrote:

> "Here I must say that I categorically don't use that euphemism. "N-
> word." How have you let a set of sounds have such power over you, 
> that you won't even type it out? To quote Dumbledore, "Always use 
> the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the 
> thing itself." 

Well, I do generally *try* to use the proper names for things.  In my 
particular cultural and historical context, though, you know, the 
proper name for a person of color is "a person of color."

It is true that I do not like typing out the Word Which Must Not Be 
Named.  I'll do it, but I admit to a pause and a wince when I type 
those letters, and I will also try to rearrange my phrasing to avoid 
doing so.  This is because I recognize that it is a word that has 
tremendous power to wound those who read it.  Even when it is being 
used in a relatively benign context, the word *does* have the power 
to hurt.  It has the power to intimidate, and it has the power to 
cow.  I therefore tend to view its use as inherently aggressive.  It 
is an affront to the psyche, and so I try to avoid it whenever I can.

On these lists, for that matter, I also try to avoid using many words 
which, unlike the Dread N Word, I *do* use in real life.  I try not 
to swear, for example, even though in RL, I swear like a sailor.  In 
my social circle, the F Word does tend to get used as an all-purpose 
gerund.  But I realize that many people consider that sort of 
language an affont to their sensibilities, so I go out of my way not 
to use it here.  This is just courtesy, is it not?


> "It is not a pleasant word, it is offensive, it represents 
> reprehensible things--but for that very reason I will *not* give it 
> such power as to fear to say or type it."

I don't think that people try to avoid use of the "N Word" because 
they are afraid of it per se.  They try to avoid using it in order to 
show consideration to people for whom the word is an assault and an 
offense.  

It is not reluctance to use the word that has made it an assault and 
an offense. It is the accrual of meaning that the word carries along 
with it.  It is the fact that the word connotes far more than 
simply "a black person."  It means lynchings.  It means enslavement.  
It means Jim Crow and cross burnings and church bombings.  It means 
some customers being trailed by security in retail stores while other 
customers are left in peace; it means someone standing out on a 
street corner getting drenched in a New York downpour while yellow 
cab after yellow cab drives by, AVAILABLE signs clearly visible 
right above their windshields.  It means some people having to work 
twice as hard and twice as well just to get what other people are 
handed for free -- and then being told that their achievements can be 
chalked down to "tokenism."  It means police brutality.  It means a 
disproportionate number of the young men a certain segment of the 
population imprisoned or dead by violence before they reach the age 
of thirty.

That, at any rate, is what the word means to *me.*  And that accrual 
of meaning cannot be negated simply by refusing to recognize that it 
exists.  That accrual of meaning will only be negated when the social 
conditions which have led to it have been abolished, a goal which 
using the word does absolutely nothing to accomplish.  Until it *has* 
been accomplished, use of the word will continue to have the power to 
injure, and to anger, and to threaten, and to intimidate.

As I don't really want to do *any* of those things to the people 
reading my words, I try to avoid using vocabulary which might have 
that effect.


> Even if you are avoiding the usage in order to avoid giving 
> offense, "N-word" gives so much power and strength to a set of 
> sounds! I can't think of another single word that is treated with 
> such deference. 

The "C Word."  That one gets treated with tremendous deference as 
well.  At least where I live it does.


> We sound like the frightened students of Hogwarts, discussing You-
> Know-Who.

Do you think so?

I think that we sound rather more like Ron in _CoS,_ when he really 
has to struggle to bring himself to be able to repeat to Hagrid the 
loathsome epithet that Draco Malfoy has just flung at Hermione.  He 
can speak it, but it takes him a moment to bring himself to do so 
because the word's meaning is just so vile.

I can't say that when I read that scene my first thought was: "Oh, 
that Ron!  There he goes, being afraid of words again."  My reaction 
to the scene was just to think that Ron's parents had raised him 
right.

"Voldemort" isn't the Potterverse equivalent to "nigger."  "Mudblood" 
is.  If there is an equivalent to "Voldemort," then I'd say that on 
this list, at any rate, it is "Holocaust."  

Or perhaps, going by the "speak of the Devil, and he will appear" 
logic, it might be "Richard Abanes."

<glances quickly right and left>

But soft.  Keep your voice down.  Because you *know* that We Do Not 
Speak Of Such Things here. 



-- Elkins