The Dangers of Wokespeak
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
I am a bit dismayed that so-called conservative media has adopted the language of the left. I once wrote an essay for a solidly conservative organization that proceeded to capitalize “black” but not “white.” I asked why did they change my style. They replied that they used the AP Stylebook. A bit later I wrote a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal complaining that they also capitalized “black” and not “white”. Their response was that they too followed the AP style guide. I then wondered if they were then going to refer to pregnant women as “birthing people” as the AP style guide recommends. Here the so-called conservative press veers away from the style guide and continues to use the term “women” (and not womyn) to refer to “women.” Yet the conservative press often uses feminine terms to refer to men who claim to be women and male terms for women who profess to be men. It also now calls illegal aliens “migrants.”
Other examples of woke-speak are creeping into everyday usage. Abortion is now “reproductive health care.” We now have “cisgender,” “transgender,” “binary,” “cultural appropriation,” “marginalization,” “microaggression,” “privileged,” “safe space,” “systemic racism,” “social justice,” “anti-racism,” “unconscious bias,” “gender fluid,” “gender-affirming care,” “Latinx,” “preferred pronouns” and “woke” itself. And then there are the personal pronouns that broadcast one’s sexuality and border on silliness. All have intruded into our everyday language.
When Stanford University devoted thousands of dollars and manhours (woke alert!) to write and publish a glossary to eliminate “harmful language” it was mocked to the point that it withdrew the glossary. Stanford said, “The goal of the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative is to eliminate many forms of harmful language, including racist, violent, and biased (e.g., disability bias, ethnic bias, ethnic slurs, gender bias, implicit bias, sexual bias) language in Stanford websites and code.” The glossary was extensive with the preferred translation of hundreds of words. Its website cautions that the website contains language that is offensive or harmful.
I did not find the content harmful or offensive. I guess only those whiners who suffer microaggressions, feel hurtful and need the shelter of a safe space would be offended. Nonetheless, the left is relentless in seeking to alter how we speak and how we speak does affect the public’s perception of things. Note that we have substituted “handicapped” for “crippled.” We seldom hear the word “retarded.” We now use Native American instead of Indian. I am awaiting the press to use alternatives for black box, blackball, white paper, white hat, black sheep, black mark, brown bag, yellow fever, white paper and “go off the reservation.” It’s a wonder I haven’t been pressured to change my last name although I once reviewed a paper that listed me in the references as “Harold African-American” – I kid you not.
One must understand the power of language. The left seeks to change our language. It insists that in its current form injustice will continue until the language itself – which they insist represents privilege – is dismantled. The left attacks what it calls “imperialist and patriarchal” systems and charges that “capitalism is racist and racism is capitalism.” We are now in the world of the “oppressor versus the oppressed” and universities now feel obligated to acknowledge that they occupy “stolen” lands. As I have written before, if they feel so guilty then why not give the tribes back the land that they likely stole from some other tribe and pay them rent?
All of this wokeness has migrated into the classroom. The teachers’ unions are led by unhinged leftists. Our school children lack proficiency in reading and math but are proficient in wokeness. School systems have dumbed down their curricula and eliminated standards. Some states are proposing to eliminate entrance exams to law and medical schools and then eliminate proficiency exams to be admitted to practice. Schools have ethnic studies curricula that are anti-capitalist, pro-transgender and woke to the extreme. Years of indoctrination in our schools will not lead to a more just and equitable society. Rather it will be a society of that will foster resentment and racial strife. It will also produce generations of illiterates who cannot perform basic skills. This is woke America until we all awaken.
