Three Words to Expunge from Our Vocabulary So We Don't Reinforce White Supremacy

Have you said any of these racial buzzwords?

Image by Alex Motoc on Unsplash

Language is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal. It can inflict emotional pain and ameliorate those wounds at the same time. For instance, when language is used to distance and dehumanize, it becomes a destructive force. But when language is used for liberation, it transforms calamity into humanity.

Language is constantly changing, and terms come and go. However, racism and white supremacy are omnipresent and equally evolving. For instance, the difference between the words slave and enslaved perfectly encapsulates white supremacy's struggle to maintain itself today. The word slave is a problematic term that is often used today when discussing U.S. American history. Not only is the word a relic of 17th century white supremacy, it purposefully erodes the truth and romanticizes the condition of enslaving human beings.

As a professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, Anthony Bogues states, the word slave is stripped of nuance. Bogues goes on to say being enslaved means "you were actively captured and turned into a slave; in other words, you were a human being who was turned into [something else.]."

White supremacy loves to strip the nuance from stories surrounding its violence.

Moreover, white supremacy will continually sell us pathologized narratives as standard everyday speak. Therefore, it's necessary to question certain words and phrases we use because they are likely steeped in racism and white supremacy. Here’s are three words to expunge from our vocabulary, so we don't reinforce both.

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