The Power of a Word

Despite the recommendations of so many people I respect, I’ve never spent much time listening to NPR, at least in part because its content is often a little highbrow for me. The other problem: every time I tune it in, (and the only place I really listen to the radio is in the car) the somnambulant voices of most of the hosts make driving even more hazardous for me (and others) than usual.

But the hyper-agitating Rush Limbaugh carries its own dangers, because I reflexively start slapping the radio presets when I hear him ranting, desperate for any other station, so there’s no telling what comes over the speakers. That’s what happened a couple days ago as an NPR conversation filled the car on my way to my (almost) monthly friendship-maintenance luncheon with Norm Berkowtiz. The interview caught my attention to the point that I sat in the parking lot of the restaurant (I was early) to hear the end of it.

Thus it was that NPR was still on as I started my return trip home and why my perception of something I had taught for decades changed forever — slavery.

What caught me, and what I hope catches you, is how a simple change in terminology can alter your whole perception of something that you’ve “known,” at least interllectually, since grade school or earlier. The artist being interviewed talked about how she is working to alter her language, exchanging “enslaved person” for the word “slave.” It shocked me how much difference such a simple substitution made in the way I viewed slavery. Using the term “slave” not only sanitizes the term, but also at least discounts, if not completely erases, the humanity of the person in bondage.

I found myself wishing I had had heard this while I was still teaching; but I find it so profound I feel the need to share it now. And why I’m tagging those connected to the teachng of American history.

Language matters.