Came across this article from the Trib on coded prejudice. Since openly using racial slurs is no longer cultural acceptable (at least in most places) people use code words to refer to minority groups. Well, duh! How many times have white people talked about going to the "urban" (i.e. black) part of town or about a neighborhood that is "gentrifying" (i.e. kicking out all the poor, black people). What's interesting about the article is the implication for federal discrimination law.
Coded prejudice is cloaked dagger -- chicagotribune.com
Saturday, July 12, 2008
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2 comments:
"Gentrifying" doesn't necessarily imply wealthy white people pushing out poor black people. In Los Angeles and Texas, it often means wealthy whites pushing out poor Hispanics. Also, your assumption that it is racist is flawed, too. Especially in situations where poor black people are pushed out by wealthy black people or poor Hispanics by wealthy Hispanics. The phrase is still "gentrification."
I wasn't implying that every time a person uses the word "gentrification" it means wealthy white people pushing out poor black people. Clearly you're correct that it can mean a lot of different things. Based on the context of the article I was referring to, however, what I meant was that "gentrification" can sometimes be a coded word for exactly that. I've certainly used the word to mean other things. The use of coded language to make racist comments doesn't mean that every time that code word is used it's in a racist way. The point is that words that in some contexts can be completely benign can also be used in coded racist ways. That's why it becomes more complicated in terms of the law since it's harder to prosecute someone for workplace discrimination if a word they were called can be interpreted in multiple ways.
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