Terminology is fascinating in the English language. It’s also faddish. I remember the years 2002 and 2003 almost everyone had to somehow say the phrase “it’s a moot point” at least ONCE a day. Just as suddenly as “it’s a moot point was in fashion, it came out of fashion.
Oh, and can anyone out there remember when the word “proactive” needed to be used at least once a day? I disliked that word….because it implied that “everyone else” (i.e. the ones NOT proactive) were lazy, slow or unimaginative.
Acronyms also came and went – “Y2K” – everyone knew what that meant and it’s significance (year 2000 and the slight possibility that computers would all stop working). Hey, I kid you not….I even knew one guy who turned his basement into a bomb shelter stocked with food, batteries, water, supplies…..I’m not quite sure exactly WHAT he was expecting to happen in “Y2K” but he was darn sure was going to be prepared for whatever menacing thing lurked out there.
The saddest of all was when and why “911” came into usage and how its meaning changed from emergency numbers into the date of one of the most devastating days on the planet since World War II.
Another word that was in vogue for a while was “redact”. Oh, nothing was ever “erased”, “blacked out”, “covered over” – it was ALL redacted.
Then the word “gentrification” became used almost as often as “it’s a moot point”…..but the word carries a lot of implications and baggage. When one first hears the word it almost sounds like “neighbourhood improvement” but it’s clearly a word used with negative sentiments. Basically, when a neighbourhood is “gentrified” it’s current meaning is “a lot of White folks bought up cheap houses in minority neighbourhoods, fixed them up…..and this upsets the existing residents”. I’m still not clear why it upsets existing residents….certainly their own property increases in value when other houses are spruced up. It even encourages slumlords to clean up their properties or risk being an eyesore. Anyway, it’s definitely a word of “exclusion” and does little to build bridges to harmony.
Another strange word in the English language is the word “gay”. I am OLD enough to remember when it meant “extremely light-hearted, carefree, merry and happy”. Suddenly it was not OK to use for “happy” because it became to mean “persons of same sex preference”. Then it took on a second meaning in youths – “oh, that’s so gay!” and that seems to mean (remember, I’m OLD, so I definitely don’t speak the “lingo” of youths!) that something is “silly” or “rubbish”….and supposedly when kids use that terminology they mean nothing derogatory against same sex couples.
I’m old enough to remember when peers (and I….how embarrassing!) used “groovy, man” or “far out!” when something was positive. The word “groovy” was gradually replaced with “cool” and the word “man” was gradually phased out with “dude”. I remember when it was fashionable for everyone to say “Ciao” instead of “Bye”, and when young people who’d never even been to Hawaii liked to say “Aloha” in place of “Bye” (I was in a courtroom when a young man said “Aloha” to the judge on his way out…..as you can guess, it didn’t go over well with the judge!). I’m old enough to remember when “weed” was some unwanted plant in one’s garden that you got rid of. I remember my Mum telling me about the “flapper girls” in the 1920’s and 1930’s….I had never seen a “flapper girl” and when I finally saw a picture of some, I was amazed.
Now we come to the term “person of colour”. I do not use this term because once again it’s a term of exclusion. Moreover, I’m not sure what a “person of colour” is….seriously. I have Mexican friends who would be very much offended to be called a “person of colour”. I have a Chinese/Thai/African-American friend who said she would also be thoroughly insulted if someone referred to her as that. And – is it about “colour”….if so, what shades of colour are acceptable in that exclusive category…..is an Iranian a person of colour?.....then as we move geographically to Egypt, Syria, Israel….are these persons of colour?....what about Turks?....what about the country right next to Turkey…..Greece. Are Greeks persons of colour? Are Chileans with blond hair and blue eyes persons of colour? Why do we have to put labels on people? Wikipedia defines “person of colour” as : Person of color (plural: people of color; persons of color) is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. Labels divide and exclude; they are not inclusive words. This world has so many people of different skin hues, religions (or even lack of), sexual preferences….different cultures, languages…..that is what makes this world so wonderful. The minute we start trying to categorize people into a specific box, we become exclusive to the people who can’t or don’t fit into that box. The best response I ever heard was an interview Oprah Winfrey did with Tiger Woods (whose heritage is Thai, African-American and Native-American). Oprah asked him “to which race do you identify with the most?”. Tiger thought long and hard then responded “the HUMAN race”. The audience went wild with applause. Division is not a good thing. Look how many wasted years of war there were in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. Look at current disputes between Sunni and Shi’ite Moslems. Look at North and South Korea…sharing the same ancestral origin, the same language….yet allowing an ideology to divide them.
And then we have “the bucket list”. I can’t remember when I first heard those words but I thought it had something to do with a mop and bucket and scrubbing a floor and wanted nothing to do with that, thank you!!! Now I understand its meaning…basically “a list of things to see/do before one dies”. I’m still not sure how that term began (I hope it wasn’t some poor soul scrubbing a floor and died near the bucket!), but I do have a “bucket list” which I’ll share with you in another blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment