Book Sets Sights On Hidden Racism Controversy in U.S.
Added: (Sun Aug 15 2004)
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World.Net.News copyright August 2004
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BOOK SETS SIGHTS ON HIDDEN RACISM CONTERVERSY IN U.S.
by Cedric Fred
A new book by a first time author has come out with a bang, and in more than one way. "Race Code War", by U.S. talk radio show host Kahari Enaharo, has made its mark on a number of best seller lists in the U.S. with its biting and laser like focus on the nature of words and images and how they are applied across the racial and color divide in the land of the free and home of the brave. Subtitled "the power of words, images and symbols on the Black psyche", this book pulls no punches in describing what the author feels is rampant racism camouflaged in the language and media of the eurocentric traditions of white America.
Critics will say that the book goes too far in identifying examples and in fact there is a case there. For example, the use of the word "black" to describe a negative context, such as "black mood", "black cloud", etc. are not the reciprocols of "white mood" or "white cloud". No one uses the word "white" to describe a mood, and the facts of nature are that black clouds bring storms and tornadoes and white clouds don't. However, "white" isn't used to describe clouds much, aside from a popular toilet tissue by that name. When one says the word "cloud", the assumption is that is white, unless described otherwise. But if Enharo does see a coded attack behind every metaphor it isn't the case that there never are any. Clearly there has been a long and terrible history in America of manipulation, cooercion and outright brutality against the minorities in its society, sometimes crafted with diabolical sophistication. In the wake of slavery and Jim Crow laws, it is worth taking note that there are more than 200 negative words associated with the word black and more than 100 positive meanings or synonyms attributed to the word white. Taken at face value, that means less until it is viewed how they are used. Words are mere ammunition, which is why the pen is mightier than the sword, but swords can be beat into plowshears and as that connotation implies peace and constructiveness, plowshears can also be used as weapons. It's all in the perspective of the observer. For example, it would be interesting to examine if the same perceptions exist in Britain where there also is a black minority which has experineced racism, but on a much simultaneously speaks English. Are the very same words and phrases seen the same way by minorities in the U.K.?
The book's analysis of semantics and semiotics claims to illustrate how "words are not racially neutral and can convey negative values within the African American community or any community of color." Whether one agrees or not isn't the point. The point is that they can be viewed that way, particularly by people especially disenfranchised by the practices of a racialist elite. If they shouldn't be seen that way, then action needs to be taken to "de-racialize" these words. Enaharo, in the style of political correctness, would have us just use other words instead, but many won't be sold on that point. It is, however an important position, like the book itself, if it provides the catalyst for further comprehensive discussions that could lead to those blacks, who are effected, learning to parry those words which may seem offensive but aren't intended that way, while the white establishment reconsiders the words and images that it uses to communicate.