Back...With Words
I took some time off over the Christmas period and decided in order to fully recharge my batteries I needed to take a break from this Blog. But, I am back again and will be sharing my reflections again in 2017.
I am reading a new book called "The Good Immigrant". Can I
just say right off the bat, that it is brilliant. Do yourself a favour and buy this book!! The book focuses on reflections by minority groups in the UK. It is deeply moving, eye-opening, and engaging on so many levels.
In one of the chapters Chimene Suleyman reflected on the power of words. How we in the western world use words to racial classify the other. Often when we use words from other languages we misuse or use them in really blasé ways. Suleyman spoke so eloquently about the power of language and how language and words really do matter.
One thing that strikes me about 2016 is that it has been a year where we have questioned the use of politically correct terminology in western societies. Many felt that we as a society have become to politically correct. Most of Donald Trump's campaign ran on the back of this sentiment. Whether it be Muslims, Women, Blacks, the Disabled, no one was spared from this rhetoric.
I want to use the following example as I think it makes me reconsider my place in society. I remember growing up under my parents house and being told that I needed to respect my parent's rules because I lived under their house. I had to play by their rules. When I got my own house I could do what I ever I wanted but whilst I lived there I had to tow the line. I was the person who was just passing through and their ways needed to be adhered to. Thus, I became an immigrant in my own home. How can you call something yours, if you do not have a shared understanding of the responsibility of power. In this state there can never be an acceptance of the other.
Family if it is going to be healthy and flourish takes the needs of all members into account. It values all members and respects that all members are participants in the shared outcome. If one person feels that their values/rules are more important than the other then how can that family be anything but a dictatorship. It becomes a place between the haves and the have-nots.
So too, a country/community has to take the opinions, culture, values of a variety of people and try to create a symbiosis. Where all people are valued and cared for. Countries can never have a single ideal, or value, because they are made up of a multitude of people.
Now this is what gets me...
If someone says to you what you are saying I find offensive, then why the hell do we find it so hard not to say it? Why do we find it so hard to stay away from those terms? Why do we find it so hard just to care for those people. It has nothing to do with being over PC it has everything to do with caring for the other.
I think we need to understand a simple thing, WORDS MATTER. They may not matter to you but to other people they matter a great deal. So I think in 2017 our challenge is to reclaim the PC not for its divisive nature but rather to claim it for its caring for the immigrant, orphan, refugee, the minority group.
In one of the chapters Chimene Suleyman reflected on the power of words. How we in the western world use words to racial classify the other. Often when we use words from other languages we misuse or use them in really blasé ways. Suleyman spoke so eloquently about the power of language and how language and words really do matter.
One thing that strikes me about 2016 is that it has been a year where we have questioned the use of politically correct terminology in western societies. Many felt that we as a society have become to politically correct. Most of Donald Trump's campaign ran on the back of this sentiment. Whether it be Muslims, Women, Blacks, the Disabled, no one was spared from this rhetoric.
I want to use the following example as I think it makes me reconsider my place in society. I remember growing up under my parents house and being told that I needed to respect my parent's rules because I lived under their house. I had to play by their rules. When I got my own house I could do what I ever I wanted but whilst I lived there I had to tow the line. I was the person who was just passing through and their ways needed to be adhered to. Thus, I became an immigrant in my own home. How can you call something yours, if you do not have a shared understanding of the responsibility of power. In this state there can never be an acceptance of the other.
Family if it is going to be healthy and flourish takes the needs of all members into account. It values all members and respects that all members are participants in the shared outcome. If one person feels that their values/rules are more important than the other then how can that family be anything but a dictatorship. It becomes a place between the haves and the have-nots.
So too, a country/community has to take the opinions, culture, values of a variety of people and try to create a symbiosis. Where all people are valued and cared for. Countries can never have a single ideal, or value, because they are made up of a multitude of people.
Now this is what gets me...
If someone says to you what you are saying I find offensive, then why the hell do we find it so hard not to say it? Why do we find it so hard to stay away from those terms? Why do we find it so hard just to care for those people. It has nothing to do with being over PC it has everything to do with caring for the other.
I think we need to understand a simple thing, WORDS MATTER. They may not matter to you but to other people they matter a great deal. So I think in 2017 our challenge is to reclaim the PC not for its divisive nature but rather to claim it for its caring for the immigrant, orphan, refugee, the minority group.
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