Hanging Onto Every Word in Social Movements

In today’s incredibly polarized era, Americans often turn to bland language to describe deeply divisive issues. Rather than labeling ourselves “feminists,” we use the less controversial term “egalitarians.” We claim that all lives matter, instead of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. We decide that it’s less inflammatory to focus on being inclusive than it is to recognize the problems and privileges of certain groups. There is a strange compulsion to tone our political and social voices down and make our stances smaller.

While this can originate from a place of wanting to reach as many people as possible, it has its own dark side. Sterilizing the language of these movements erases their original purpose. Of course all lives, genders, sexualities and races matter. Of course everyone is entitled to a safe and peaceful existence, not just insert-minority-group-here people. However, using broad language ignores what some groups have had to endure in order to “matter” to the American public.

Take the word “feminist,” for example. We use the term in order to recognize where the movement started and what it has achieved. Feminism has a similar meaning to the words “egalitarianism” or “equalism,” but its connotation (and even dictionary definition) is entirely different. While feminism focuses on raising women to the same level as men, egalitarianism calls for equality of all people. This definition ignores the historic disadvantages of underprivileged groups, particularly women, who suffer in a number of ways.

We have to recognize that, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, women are at an incredibly high risk for sexual assault. One-sixth of American women will be the victim of an attempted or successful rape during their lives, and one-fifth of college-aged women will be the victims of rape during their lives. In addition, we need to understand that even if some of the problems of women in America have been solved, women across the world still suffer from injustice.

In the same vein, saying “all lives matter” instead of “black lives matter” fails to recognize that black lives are undervalued in the United States. According to a report by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health entitled “Years of life lost due to encounters with law enforcement in the USA, 2015–2016,” “the young people affected [by police brutality] are disproportionately people of color.” According to the magazine Toward Data Science, even though black people make up only 12 percent of the American population, they comprise over 25 percent of the people who were killed by police in 2015-16. In addition, black people face different biases, social and economic conditions, stereotypes, and risks than white people do.

A problematic element of these words is their historic connection with disregarding intersectionality. In the past, feminism has been criticized for prioritizing gender oppression over other issues of race and class and ignoring the ways that sexism interfaces with other aspects of oppression. In terms of the Black Lives Matter movement, some black Americans are forced to choose which aspect of their identity is more important: their race or a host of other characteristics like sex, sexuality and gender identity.

However, the language that we use is still vital, and modern conceptualizations of these terms can help bring intersectional efforts to the surface. Kristen Intemann, Ph.D., department chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at MSU, said that, “Using this language — language that marks the different social conditions certain groups face — is important both for understanding those differences and for overcoming those inequalities.”

Through using non-controversial language, we lose the power of our words.  A defensive reaction to these movements only disadvantages us all. We disengage from the brutal and bloody history of these movements. We choose to let go of exactly what makes these campaigns so significant and meaningful. Rather than recognizing the past and its impact on the present, we choose to say that everyone is now fully equal, which is patently untrue.

Being overly bland never benefited anyone but the makers of saltine crackers. Instead, let’s give these important movements the words that define them and honor their bloody and painful histories.