Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Slurs.

A detailed Summary of Racial, Religious, and Ethnic Slurs.

Words today mean so much in society that we seldom look back on the consequences they hold. These words can cause much pain, anguish, and conflict amongst people who don't even know each other. People say slurs such as "jap," "flip," "chink," and "jew" to others, but they don't know who these other people are. These racial, religious, and ethnic remarks are made to demoralize others and to make others feel inferior. Sometimes these slurs are made in society where we have learned to live with them, by them, and from them. The terms of race, religion and ethnicity have evolved in our society as time continued. "The negative connotations of words sometimes change because of deliberate changes in the way they are used." (Hayakawa 232.)

When slurs are made towards us about our race, religion, or ethnicity, it plays a large role in we perceive ourselves. When we hear a slur made upon us, we feel as if we are less of a person. This is because there is a weakness in all of us. This weakness is the vulnerability that others can create by making a remark about us. By doing so, these people look down upon us, and more importantly, they degrade us to something less that what we are. It is dehumanizing to be labeled as a "fob," "w

"People gotta see the pain and sufferin' that we African Americans gone through. Ain't no one gonna see anything if we bein' soft with our sh*t. We gotta be able to express and show how we feel and to do that, we gotta used the terms they (white people) use to look at us blacks." (qtd. Hip Hop 78.)

An elderly Japanese woman of my acquaintance used to squirm at the mention of the word "Jap." "Whenever I hear that word," she used to say, "I feel dirty all over." She was reacting to the negative connotations as it was used during the second World War and earlier. (Hayakawa 232.)

Racial, religious, and ethnic slurs are examples of intolerance in today's society. It should not be accepted because no one deserves to be treated as less of a person. We all must see the truth behind the slurs and know that it is wrong to call someone a "spic," "nip," or "gook." It hurts us emotionally and gives us an image of ourselves that we would rather not see. This image is one that we see ourselves as inferior to those around us. "Names that are 'loaded' tend to influence behavior toward those to whom they are applied." (Hayakawa 232.) We see ourselves as what our environment portrays us. If we are seen as a "dirty chink," then you will feel as if you are a "dirty chink." The influences that society has on us is what forms us as a person. People may not always see eye to eye, but the use of slurs and acts of violence should not be used because its effects are negative. When people are being ridiculed for being who they are, they should not retaliate and do on to others what has happened to them. If they do retaliate and make those slurs, they have gone to the dehumanizing level of those who began the slurs.

A black friend of mine recalls hitchhiking as a young man in the 1930s through an area of the country where very few blacks lived. He was given a ride by a white couple, who fed him and gave him a place to sleep in their home. However, they kept referring to him as "little nigger," which upset him prfoundly. He finally asked them not to call him by that "insulting term," a request they had difficulty understanding, as they had not meant to offend him. One way my friend might have explained his point further would have been to say, "Excuse me, but in the part of the country I come from, white people who wish to show contempt for my race call us 'niggers.' I assume this in not your intentions. (Hayakawa 233.)

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Approximate Word count = 1648
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics