The Power Behind the Word Racism

I had always known how effective a single word can be. Ever since I learned how to read in grade school, I realized how words play a bigger part in my life than I failed to admit. Words can hurt, demolish, and ruin a person’s life. Yet, on the other hand, words can uplift, reassure, and inspire greatness. What I have learned is that it’s all about how you perceive words. The connotation behind them can make or break your perception of what is being said to you. Taking a look at the word racism, it has so much power given by society that we have come to misperceive it. Such a simple word has impacted us greatly that it has effected the way we as a society, view others. Again, it is in the context of how we use the word racism that it will have the intended purpose.

How I digest the words spoken to me, is ultimately up to me. If I want to take them offensive, it is up to me. If I want to take them as a joke, it is up to me. I cannot rely solely on the definition of words because it is in the context of which the words are said, not necessarily the meaning of each individual word. This is why the syntax and semantics of a sentence, a paragraph, or even a joke, is of the utmost importance. For example, let’s take the word “walk”. If I were to say to someone “take a walk”, this could have slightly different meanings. One of which could be taken as a suggestion as I am talking to an older woman and suggesting activities to do if she does not want to stay inside her home: “take a walk.” The other interpretation of this could be taken as a command. Picture this scenario in your head. In a movie, you have a drug dealer “talking” to the guy who owes him money. Of course, this type of “conversation” is private and no outside person belongs to this sort of meet up because things will almost always go south. Now, a person, who is obviously not invited, decides to voice his opinion about what is going on and the drug dealer tells him to “take a walk.” This command is obviously followed because the way that sentence was perceived was like a warning that he should walk himself right out of that situation.

In the previous example, it is shown that words can be taken differently depending on situation or context of what is said. Based on your knowledge of the meaning of a certain word, will show how you perceive and use those words. We all have different perceptions and understandings of what is grammatically correct when it comes to forming sentences. Looking back at the second example, try imagining the random man taking what was told to him as a suggestion rather than a command, I am sure you could think of what would happen to him if he refused the drug dealers “suggestion”, it would probably be his last time forming any sort of sentences!

“it was a general categorizing term, similar to and interchangeable with such terms as type, kind, sort, breed, and even species (allen, 1994, 1997; hannaford, 1996; a. smedley, 1999a, 1999b). toward the end of the 17th century, race gradually emerged as a term referring to those populations then interacting in north america — europeans, africans, and native americans (indians). In the early 18th century, usage of the term increased in the written record, and it began to become standardized and uniform (poliakov, 1982). by the revolutionary era, race was widely used, and its meaning had solidified as a reference for social categories of indians, blacks, and whites (allen, 1994, 1997; a. smedley, 1999b). more than that, race signified a new ideology about human differences and a new way of structuring society that had not existed before in human history.” (Smedley 20)

The way we use and perceive the word racism now is different. It is used to call people out who have a disregard or lack of care for others’ cultures and beliefs. However, according to Smedley’s quote, race was only invented to categorize us socially by traits-race. That, of course, does not make racism any better, just stating that how it is used now, is like it has been given a greater responsibility that extends far past skin color and physical traits. Ideas, beliefs, practices, religion, etc. all fall under the umbrella of racism.

Marcus Barlow, from the Indianapolis Business Journal, makes a good point saying that someone is not a racist just because they discriminate against someone’s religion or beliefs. This misperception of racism is what I find very interesting. As we covered, racism pretty much is talking about one’s physical traits and where that puts them in society. Racism does not talk about what one believes in or how one colors or what one’s likes or dislikes are. We have a tendency to call everything racist because other people are opposed to a certain type of group or people. However, I can definitely see the fine line between the two and can understand how people can mix them up.

I believe the word racism or racist is such a word that has no value. It is just a word government uses to categorize citizens and that society has used as to offend some. Some may say it has lost its meaning, which, if you are one of those who do not see skin color, you would not care if the meaning was lost or not, but I think a lot of people still cherish the meanings of words and how they are used which is why misusing such a profound, powerful word is a big deal. Racism, I think will still be looked at as skin color regardless of the context, negative or positive connotation. It is hard to not judge based off skin color and I think that is where we all agree. “Skin color will continue to serve as the most obvious criterion in determining how a person will be evaluated and judged.” (Tharps)

Regardless of the meaning of racism, I still think that people have their own interpretations of it and will act upon their beliefs. Let’s look at this last example. If a homeless man came up to me and asked for a dollar and I kindly rejected him, would that be racism? Most people who have opposing viewpoints than me on what racism is, would say yes because I am being racist against his social status. We all have different meanings and experience to help us decipher what would be classified as racism, but that example I gave, would not be one. I feel a lot of people don’t realize the impact the power behind the word racism or racist could have. Syntactically speaking, I do not think you can put that word racism into a sentence, knowing its meaning, and have it mean something to the contrary. This is where our understanding of the context of words comes in to help us be better linguists and acknowledge impact of powerful words such as racism.

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