Language and Culture
According to Robert B. Moore in Racism in the English Language, language not only expresses ideas, but shapes thought as well. Therefore, if our white culture is racist, then our language is racist too. Moore provides a number of examples of racism in the English language, beginning with the connotations of black/white. He proceeds to address obvious bigotry and color symbolism such as white representing purity and positive and black as evil and negative. Moore also discusses words and phrases that denote ethnocentrism, such as slave or master. He talks about using passive tense to shape our perspective such as “the continental railroad was built” and omitting information about the Chinese who built most of the railroad and their oppression. Moore also discusses the politically correct terminology such as “underdeveloped” and how many of these words gloss over reality. Many words also lead to a demeaning characterization of certain groups of people like Native Americans and Africans, words such as squaw, brave, tribe, pagan, savage, etc. Other problems of the English usage include misplaced qualifying adjectives and portraying ethnic groups in the media as speaking stilted English. Moore says that recognizing racism in language is the first step, but a conscious effort must be made to learn and use terminology that is positive and does not continue perpetuating racism.
Laurel Richardson, in Gender Stereotyping in the English Language, proposes six general ideas about sexism in the English language. According to Richardson, women do not have an independent existence—they are part of man. For example, women are included under the generic man; the pronoun he can be used generically to represent he or she. Secondly, pronoun usage is used to attribute different career choices for men and women. He is often used to refer to a high-status occupation, and she is used to refer to lower status ones. Thirdly, women are often defined...