When you "wade in to check assumptions" you're derailing something meant to translate into positive action, taking focus away from racism and the people it hurts most. You're making about your understanding, your feelings, your point of view and you.
Casual academic interest is not appropriate here, because this is not casual or academic. It is serious, it is real. Please respect that.
For someone who claims to be about not hurting people and about trying to end the hurts that are embedded in society, you're pretty free with throwing the hurt and accusations out there. My interest is academic, yes, because I'M AN ACADEMIC. I deal with language. I deal with words. That's my job. And every year I spend hundreds of hours with roughly 250 white, rural, Christian, males--many of whom see no difficulty at all with casual use of the word colored to describe someone. I need to be able to go into my interactions with them and explain HOW LANGUAGE HURTS. Not just that is does, but why it does. In order to do this, it means I need to understand how you're using the terms and what they mean, because you're a living example of someone who is invested in the argument.
Your accusations that my interest in the "ongoing conversation" diminishes what is happening/has happened is horribly, horribly ignorant, and I'm frankly appalled that you're still claiming an earned English degree. The words we use influence how we think; how we think is reflected in the language we use. It is well documented that if you want to change how someone thinks, and therefore how they act, one place to start is by changing how they talk. This makes rhetoric and theory essential elements in any fight. There is no such thing as a topic being "merely" academic.
Perhaps you need to check your own biases and prejudices, as you seem to be more interested in showing how offended you can be than in actually helping people make the world better.
no subject
Casual academic interest is not appropriate here, because this is not casual or academic. It is serious, it is real. Please respect that.
For someone who claims to be about not hurting people and about trying to end the hurts that are embedded in society, you're pretty free with throwing the hurt and accusations out there. My interest is academic, yes, because I'M AN ACADEMIC. I deal with language. I deal with words. That's my job. And every year I spend hundreds of hours with roughly 250 white, rural, Christian, males--many of whom see no difficulty at all with casual use of the word colored to describe someone. I need to be able to go into my interactions with them and explain HOW LANGUAGE HURTS. Not just that is does, but why it does. In order to do this, it means I need to understand how you're using the terms and what they mean, because you're a living example of someone who is invested in the argument.
Your accusations that my interest in the "ongoing conversation" diminishes what is happening/has happened is horribly, horribly ignorant, and I'm frankly appalled that you're still claiming an earned English degree. The words we use influence how we think; how we think is reflected in the language we use. It is well documented that if you want to change how someone thinks, and therefore how they act, one place to start is by changing how they talk. This makes rhetoric and theory essential elements in any fight. There is no such thing as a topic being "merely" academic.
Perhaps you need to check your own biases and prejudices, as you seem to be more interested in showing how offended you can be than in actually helping people make the world better.