Some years ago I took a college course on how to read the newspapers--no joke. The professor, who had been a journalist for decades himself, pointed out how slants can be put into news articles that are supposed to be as unbiased as possible. Those adjectives and adverbs matter, as do the actual nouns and verbs we use.
I am leaving out certain details right now for a reason. I want you to build a picture with each fact or set of facts as you read them.
One story we read as it played out had to do with the unfortunate death of a young man. Start your picture here.
The man was a college athlete and a good student, an he was considered very good-looking. He was popular at school, and his teammates and coach thought highly of his abilities on the field. Given those details, think about what the man must have been like. What picture do you build?
Now let me add that he was shot by police. Given the events we've had making the news the past year of various people shot by police, did your picture change at all?
Our initial pictures, our initial biases, shape how we see the world, how we see others.
When I tell you I have had trouble with the police a few times over the years, without elaborating, what do you think?
When I tell you that this man has had trouble with the police much closer to weekly than annually, what do you think?
We have our biases, and they are reflected in how we think. Think, for a moment, about the term "African American." Take a moment. I'll see you below the fold.
We have been taught in the US that all citizens are Americans. It's a lovely dream. And sadly, it's still just a dream. Our history puts the lie to it. The first people in America were corralled and killed off; the main part of the second wave in America, which did the corralling and the killing of the first wave, denigrated most every additional wave of migrants, especially forced migrants. See also "slaves".
Over time people have come here from around the world, from all walks of life, of all human shapes, sizes and appearences. And our country does not treat them equally.
If I say the phrase "American man" or "American woman", what does that mean to you? What faces do you see? What shapes? What colors? Do they wear glasses? Are they smiling?
Did you picture somebody not of European descent?
This is where we get to one of the important little nubs. We have "African Americans" and "Asian Americans", "Mexican Americans" and "Cuban Americans" and "Native Americans". We used to have "Irish Americans" and "Italian Americans", "German Americans" and "Jewish Americans" too, until these categories mostly became flavors of "Americans".
This is my point. We have never had "European Americans" or "Caucasian Americans". Caucasian European Americans have been the default Americans in language since before our country became a country. American is the default. American is treated with respect, with legitimacy. American is what we are. American is how we should all be called.
The shorthand we use for description carries so much baggage, so much otherness, that it is patently unfair to use. When I say "African American", what do you see?
Do you see President Obama? Do you see a young man wearing a sweatshirt and jeans? Do you see a young woman? A baby? A grandmother?
Or do you feel a wave of associations we have with the term "African American" and an inchoate host of faces?
This has to change. We are Americans first. The fact that we are Americans should be more important than our baggaged descriptions. This does not mean we don't use descriptive terms, but it means we should not keep using biased ones.
It should be more important than whether we our ancestors came from Europe or Africa, whether they came from Asia or Australia. It should be more important than whether we are male or female, it should be more important than if we don't know what gender we are or should be. It should be more important than if we are Christian or Jew, Muslim or Hindu, atheist or Modern Pagan. It should be more important than if our forefathers were rich or poor, slave or free, criminal or upstanding citizen.
When I was a child, I played with other children. They were kids. I was a kid. Sometimes kids were mean, but generally we wanted to play with other kids. We didn't worry quite so much about being a boy or a girl, or the color of our faces and our hands. We all looked pretty much the same all covered in mud.
We cannot keep all of our societal biases and keep treating people with the dignity they deserve. My biases shame me, and I work to not pass them on.
And so I call to newspaper editors and writers, in the US and around the world: please figure out a better way to say "An American with more melanin than average." It might mean spilling extra ink and pixels, but better those than blood.
4:15 PM PT: Community Spotlight--thank you all :-)