Racism: It’s a Judgment Call : When Words Start to Shape the Very Reality They’re Supposed to Represent, Keep a Sharp Ear Out

I have often marveled at the transformative power of distance, how it can render changes in the descriptions of very similar settings, circumstances and traits of individuals living continents apart.

For instance, in our mainstream media, a simply constructed home with a thatched roof is described as a cottage in Wales and a hut in Botswana. A group of elders in Kampala are described as “dirt farmers eking out a living,” and a group of elders in the Cotswolds are “upholding a tradition of farming.”

The same startling power is apparently held by the color of human skin and other phenotypic characteristics. An African-American man with a grade-school education is described by a daily newspaper as “uneducated,” while the same publication touts a European-American man without formal education as being “entirely self-taught.”

A TV news report shows a spirited group of African-Americans walking toward a government building carrying signs protesting employment conditions. The voice-over begins: “An angry crowd marches on the City Hall building. . . .” Less than five minutes later a clip of an equally large and spirited group of European-Americans protesting environmental conditions is described as “an enthusiastic group of demonstrators.”

The images, words and messages of the mass media have pervasive power in forming the perspectives society holds of particular groups, whether racial, ethnic, socioeconomic or occupational.

One of the most striking concepts was that reality--or the perception thereof--is essentially a man-made phenomenon.

When an idea, theory or opinion is repeated often and widely, most people believe it. If it is repeated in print, it must be true.

Not only is reality or the perception thereof a social construct, it is a relative construct as well. A local broadcast on the Chinese New Year beautifully illustrated this point. The announcer explained the symbolism of masked characters in a parade: “This character is traveling west in search of happiness, the west being India.”

Even our views of geography are skewed by our own world view, which educational and political institutions are instrumental in shaping.

Upon hearing the term Far East, one might ask, “Far from what and whom?”

Reality is a constantly changing phenomenon. Race, for example, is a sociological rather than a biological construct. South Africa’s apartheid system initially declared that anyone who wasn’t white (that is, anyone who was black, brown, yellow, colored) was nonwhite. The definition of white miraculously expanded when Japan became an economic power. Only in the interest of international trade can yellow and green combine to produce white.

America’s neurotic preoccupation with race is another case in point. The “one-drop” concept works, but in one direction only. As sociologist Harry Edwards mused, “If one drop of black blood makes you black, why wouldn’t one drop of white blood make one white? Race is clearly a sociological definition.”

African-Americans have traditionally been astute in the political and intellectual ramifications of reality as a social construct.

This awareness was among the psychological tools handed down from one generation to the next. Our parents taught us critical thinking as a skill for surviving and thriving in this society. As institutional racism is more subtly manifested, it is imperative that the power of language is understood by young people, that both implicit and explicit messages about historical, social and economic conditions related to our experience are understood and interpreted by us.

Our youth must be equipped to use oral and written language effectively, to reason and to empower themselves. It is our responsibility to name and define ourselves, lest others do it for us.