It would seem that the Enlightened, i.e. those whose moral sensibilities are offended by the name of \u201cRedskins\u201d for a professional sports team, want to purge our language of every \u201cracist,\u201d \u201csexist,\u201d \u201cclassist,\u201d \u201cimperialist,\u201d \u201ccolonialist,\u201d and \u201chomophobic\u201d word.<\/p>\n
The funny thing is, though, given their <\/em>terms of choice, the Enlightened make it painfully clear that they aren\u2019t particularly enlightened at all.<\/p>\n To begin with, the Enlightened, like most of us, live in a universe composed of words of a specific language, namely, the English <\/em>language.\u00a0 The latter, of course, is not only a product of European or Western civilization; it is the<\/em> dominant <\/em>language of the world today.<\/p>\n In the idiom of the Enlightened, we can say of English that it is as \u201cimperialistic\u201d or \u201ccolonialist\u201d a language as any, for the entire cosmos is carved up, and is expected to be parceled by others, in terms of this <\/em>language, that of a European, i.e., a white<\/em>, people.<\/p>\n But this is the language of the Enlightened.<\/p>\n Secondly, the Enlightened demand of the rest of us that we substitute for \u201cblack\u201d when describing Americans of the Negroid race the more sophisticated nomenclature of \u201cAfrican<\/em>–American<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0How primitive: this last moniker is doubly insensitive. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAmerica\u201d derives from the name of the Italian\u2014a European, Western, white, <\/em>male\u2014<\/em>explorer Amerigo <\/em>Vespucci.\u00a0 \u201cAmerica\u201d is the feminine version of \u201cAmerigo,\u201d and it was coined in 1507 by a German\u2014a European, Westerner, white<\/em>, male\u2014cartographer. In 1538, when another German\u2014a European, Western, white, <\/em>male\u2014<\/em>cartographer, the famous Gerardus Mercator, was mapping out the world, he chose to ascribe the name of \u201cAmerica\u201d to its regions on both <\/em>sides of the equator.<\/p>\n \u201cAfrica,\u201d it may interest inquiring minds to discover, is a term of Roman<\/em>\u2014European, Western, white<\/em>\u2014coinage. The Romans\u2014the largest group of \u201cimperialists\u201d and \u201ccolonialists\u201d the world had ever seen until that juncture in history\u2014used the Latin term \u201cafri\u201d to reference, first, a Libyan tribe in North Africa that dwelt outside of Carthage, the capital of \u201cAfrica Province,\u201d and, later, Carthage as well.\u00a0 The suffix of \u201cAfrica,\u201d \u201c-ica,\u201d signifies a land or territory.<\/p>\n So, even \u201cAfrica\u201d is, ultimately, the invention of a bunch of wealthy, imperialistic, colonialist, white guys.<\/p>\n Thirdly, there is the word \u201cNative American\u201d that the Enlightened insist we use in place of the \u201cracist,\u201d \u201cethnocentric\u201d term, \u201cIndian.\u201d After all, reason the Enlightened in all of their brilliance, \u201cIndian\u201d is a term that the evil Columbus and his cohorts imposed upon the indigenous peoples that they \u201cencountered\u201d while asserting their \u201cimperialist\u201d designs upon the latter. And this was only because the European oppressors thought that they had arrived in India.<\/p>\n However, as we just noted, \u201cAmerica,\u201d to a much greater extent than \u201cIndian,\u201d reflects the incorrigibly ethnocentric impress of the Europeans\u2014the whites\u2014<\/em>who \u201cencountered\u201d the indigenous peoples to whom, the Enlightened demand, we assign the label, \u201cNative American.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n How \u201cracist,\u201d how culturally \u201cinsensitive\u201d can we get?!<\/p>\n Fourthly, the Enlightened routinely lecture us on the \u201cmisogyny\u201d underwriting the use of the word \u201cman\u201d in contexts that should encompass both men and <\/em>women.\u00a0 Thus, they tell us, since the masculine \u201cman\u201d and its cognates\u2014\u201che,\u201d \u201cmen\u201d\u2014are \u201csexist,\u201d we must delete them from our vocabulary and replace them with \u201chumankind,\u201d \u201chumanity,\u201d \u201chuman beings,\u201d \u201che or she,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n Wow. Do these people really want for us to return to the \u201cDark Ages\u201d of rampant \u201csexism?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMan\u201d stems from a word that originally referred to all <\/em>humans.\u00a0 The word for a male <\/em>human is a different word altogether.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until the late 13th<\/sup> century that the word for \u201cman\u201d began to be used to describe male humans. But rather than reclaim the original, gender-inclusive meaning of \u201cman,\u201d the Enlightened have chosen instead to become accomplices to the ravenous misogyny that lead to the \u201csexist\u201d narrowing of this definition in the late 1200\u2019s.\u00a0 This is the only verdict to draw from the fact that the Enlightened have long ago charged as \u201csexist\u201d any author or speaker who dares to continue the age-old practice of employing \u201cman\u201d and \u201che\u201d to signify both men and women.<\/p>\n Finally, the Enlightened inexhaustibly extol \u201cEquality\u201d as the queen of all virtues. In doing so, they just as tirelessly condemn the \u201chierarchical\u201d and \u201cpatriarchal\u201d character of Western civilization.<\/p>\n In spite of this, the Enlightened refuse to abandon the use of titles <\/em>and other reference terms that undermine the cause of Equality.\u00a0 Words like \u201cMr.\u201d, \u201cMrs.\u201d, \u201cMs.\u201d, \u201cDr.\u201d, \u201cPresident,\u201d \u201cSenator,\u201d \u201cCongressman,\u201d \u201cYour Honor,\u201d \u201csir,\u201d \u201cma\u2019am,\u201d \u201cgentlemen,\u201d \u201cladies,\u201d \u201cyouth,\u201d \u201cadolescents,\u201d \u201cthe elderly,\u201d \u201cyoung adults,\u201d \u201cmiddle aged adults,\u201d \u201cseasoned citizens,\u201d \u201cboys,\u201d \u201cgirls,\u201d \u201cwomen,\u201d \u201cmen,\u201d and even \u201cmom<\/em>\u201d and \u201cdad<\/em>\u201d at once express and reinforce the infinitude of distinctions <\/em>to be found between people. More damning, they reveal and cement the hierarchical relations that exist between human stations.<\/p>\n Only the un<\/em>enlightened could fail to see that for a truly \u201cclassless<\/em>\u201d or egalitarian society to arise, these <\/em>are among the words that must be purged from our language.<\/p>\n It bears underscoring that I<\/em> am in no way advocating on behalf of any changes in our vocabulary.\u00a0 The point, of course, is that in quality and quantity, the hypocrisy, moral posturing, and inconsistencies of the Enlightened are epic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It would seem that the Enlightened, i.e. those whose moral sensibilities are offended by the name of \u201cRedskins\u201d for a professional sports team, want to purge our language of every \u201cracist,\u201d \u201csexist,\u201d \u201cclassist,\u201d \u201cimperialist,\u201d \u201ccolonialist,\u201d and \u201chomophobic\u201d word. The funny thing is, though, given their terms of choice, the Enlightened make it painfully clear that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n