Small Civilized Steps
Have we learned nothing from an unfortunate history of using words that lack sensitivity?
When someone who otherwise self-identifies as a good human knows that a term can be offensive to another human nonetheless uses such hurtful words, I fail to understand why. This question has now reared its ugly head with the use of the term, “Chinese virus.”
Recently, someone I know referred to the source of the 2020 pandemic as “the Chinese virus.” Because this person is in the ministry, a Christian ministry, I decided to push back a little. He is also right-leaning, but not so far that we can’t broach discussions of ideologies. So I asked if he could appreciate how choosing to use that term could be problematic for many people. He attributed his choice to the historical element, being that China is where the virus was first identified. I said that, while that was technically correct, didn’t it also possibly foster (or bolster) sentiments such as racism and xenophobia? It felt important to try to plant a seed, because in this man I felt it might actually take root.
The idea of a society being more correct, collectively, about the words we choose to use toward one another has developed over the past several decades, as the timid and oppressed began to gain the space, courage, and support to say, “hey, that hurt.” In the circle where my colleague and I both once spent time, the topic of “political correctness” often cropped up. But typically outnumbered, I tended to keep quiet when “tree-huggers” or other “others” came into the conversation, since I was several of those things. Older. Female. Yes, an environmentalist. Straight but not narrow.
But I’m weary of pejoratives. A pejorative is defined as having a “disparaging, derogatory or belittling force or effect.” To me, the term “Chinese virus” is not a geographical historical marker. It is a pejorative, and for once, I decided to speak up.
I did it because it seems that many of the social strides made in the past fifty years have been booted backwards, hard, and are barely hanging on to the ropes. Innumerable times, people around me have rolled their eyes disdainfully when the idea of political correctness arose. In this instance, then, I wanted to see if I could nudge one person—just one person—toward a small, civilized step.
He stammered around the concepts of racism and xenophobia awhile. I asked if he knew that people who look Asian are being targeted, attacked. He reiterated the theme: it’s just a term indicating a site of origin.
Several days later (and what feels now like eons ago, but was just March 18), an internet post carried a photo of a beaten-up Asian face [source: on People.com: “Racist Attacks Against Asians Continue to Rise as the Coronavirus Threat Grows”] The subtitle said, “Countries worldwide are reporting an uptick in assaults against citizens of Asian descent.” I sent it to my friend. His reply referred to the way people can certainly be “crappy” to one another, he’d never deny that, and also that, “unfortunately, there are some people who are just jerks and others who freak out and lose all common sense.”
Certainly, people manage hard times differently. So I offered the following reply: “Isn’t that the truth! Hoping you’ve been moved to change the terminology you’re modeling for how you refer to the virus.” At the time, the term “Chinese virus,” was still being used consistently by the U.S. President and widely promulgated among his base. Was there any chance of shifting this stigmatizing habit of my friend, I wondered. Maybe.
“Honestly,” he texted back, “I still don’t think it should be that big of a deal – calling it Chinese virus or Wuhan virus simply denotes its point of origin – I have a list of all the other diseases we’ve labeled the same way...Ebola, Zika, Spanish Flu, and German Measles are all on the list...” He added that people who will go after one another are going to do it anyhow, and they all know where the term came from, so, he continued, “it doesn’t matter if we use that term...think of how some treated the Japanese during WWII and Muslims in recent history due to actions by others of their race/religion.” (The familiar quote of how people who pay no attention to history are doomed to repeat it occurred to me then. It’s definitely a related battle.)
Then he went on to text, “I really don’t use that term anyway because it’s more difficult to say...and since I don’t need to use it, I have no other issue avoiding it for the sake of not offending someone unnecessarily, even if I don’t think they should be offended in the first place [author emphasis added]...”
Again, my concern for the erosion of what is good and right and fair about the concept of political correctness filtered through my brain. Oppression stems from judgment that another person is “less than.” It’s easy to shrug off the realities of those who are “other” when one is seated in the position of power. The lion never writes the history of the hunt.
On March 23, another article appeared, this time at NYTimes.com, titled, “Spit on, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese Americans Fear For Their Safety.” Assaults against Asians in America were continuing to rise, and this time, a correlation was made to the use of the phrase, “Chinese virus.” The words appeared to be helping to fuel the attacks. I forwarded the link to my friend. Bless him, he is overall a kind-hearted man, and I do believe in his capacity to hear different points of view, so it was worth a try.
He replied, “People are jerks...and there’s absolutely no excuse for it, no matter what their motive or context is. I’m just not as convinced that the ‘name’ has as much to do with that since those same people know it came from China anyway.” Sigh.
The wounding power of words is real. It has the capacity to give bullies permission to act on their hatreds. I’m not taking sides here so much as sending out a plea to heed the edicts of decency promulgated by Buddhists, Moslems, Hindus, Christians, Jews, and anyone else who follows the teachings of their personal spiritual paths. I remain committed to the ideal that many—most—are good, regular, plain, everyday people who just want to follow the Golden Rule.
In the end, happily, it seems there was some headway accomplished. My friend finished his text with this: “...either way I really have no need to call it that anyway, so if there IS any correlation I don’t intend to add to it anyway.” I think it was his way of agreeing without having to say so. Maybe, just maybe, the world does have the capacity to shift on its axis.
