"Why is squaw such a bad word?" Some would argue that it's not... This is a blog post that my boyfriend wrote regarding censorship that I feel is moderately applicable to our discussion regarding McIlwraith's piece and the idea of censorship of information/words and taking offense to words that other people use.
An Obscure Blog - [censored]
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ReplyDelete"Squaw" is a bad word because of the hateful and painful history that is contained in that word.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we should censor it, though. It's a word that explains a less than pretty part of North American history-- a true part of it.
I fear if we censor the word, we will lose that history, a signifier of how crappy the indigenous people were/are treated by colonizers
Recently, "the powers that be" decided that the "n" word should be removed from Mark Twain's works of literature. Some people, myself included, believe that while the "n" word is a pretty awful word, it is a large part of American history, a very, very hateful and painful one as well. Erasing that word, in the context that Twain provided loses the didactic meanings in books like Huck Finn-- slavery and American racism against the African-Americans was an incredibly atrocious act.
If we revise our history to make it less "painful", we are deluding ourself about the truth.
The truth is "squaw" is a word. A hateful, painful word. It is still a word. It is part of our history.
Don't call me a "squaw", but don't erase it from the lexicon.
I read your bf's post - he's a good writer. But is profanity the same as racist, sexist, homophobic (etc: hurtful) language? The post argues that the distinction between profanity and appropriate language is "arbitrary," which it may be. But like OneArrow, here, I think the distinction is *historical,* which is not quite the same. Words aren't born with meaning; they acquire it over time, and as a result of human actions/inactions. And since we find ourselves inside history each and every day, we can't will those associations away. One mark of being educated, to my mind, is knowing how history has created the world we inhabit today, and, more specifically, how history has made words mean certain things. If you know that, you can use language in exactly the way you want to - to hurt ("squaw"), to help ("the n word"), to align yourself with one side or another ("oilsands" vs "tarsands"), etc.
ReplyDelete(BTW, thanks for sharing. I found the link really thought-provoking - as I hope my longish comment makes clear!)
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you! I had actually talked with my boyfriend a bunch about this particular post of his, and I have provoked him to write another entry involving the use of profanity and why he uses some words freely, but others he withholds because history has "blacklisted" some words and imbued them with horrible prejudices.
ReplyDeleteI pointed out that he uses the word "faggot" regularly, but he refrains from the "n word"... This troubled him because he didn't know why words ought to be treated differently.
I will link to his blog again when he posts it, if you're interested.