The English Language Held Hostage By A Biased Media
Standing on the checkout line at the supermarket yesterday, I overheard a conversation between a customer, the cashier and the bagger - all males. The customer was black, the cashier was Hispanic, and the bagger was white. The three men were talking about the increase in crime on city streets and their fear of being attacked by a mugger if they were out after dark. One man used the word “thug.”
It was a lightbulb over the head moment for me as I remembered an editorial I had written a few years ago.
In 2020, then President Donald Trump used the word “thug” to describe the protesters wreaking havoc on the streets of Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd. In 2022, Beto O’Rourke used the same “thug” term to describe Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Also in 2022, Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a thug in a comment which included the accusation that he was “incredibly evil.”
I could fill paragraphs with examples of white men calling each other thugs. An equal number of paragraphs could be filled with names, places and times of black men calling each other thugs. Undoubtedly, there is no shortage of white men and black men calling each other by that name… a word that until a few decades ago was mostly used to describe young inner city ITALIAN males who hoped one day to become a member of whatever real-life crime family was in power at the time.
By now, I am sure you are asking, “What the hell is she talking about?” ‘ the she in question being me. Well, as a one-time opinion columnist, I have file folders filled with articles published over the past 20 years on every topic imaginable. Nothing that happens today is “strange” or “unusual.” We, the people, are the living example of “… the more things change.” When it comes to co-opting words to forward an agenda, the media are experts at pontificating. Here is an example…
On February 15, 2014, the Palm Beach Post published an article by then Miami Herald journalist Leonard Pitts titled “What thug really means.” Mr. Pitts referenced the murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, a young black man, by Michael Dunn, a white man. According to an eye witness account, Mr. Dunn, having parked next to an SUV filled with black males listening to loud, bass-heavy rap music at a Jacksonville gas station, said “I hate that thug music.”
The eye witness went on to state that an argument erupted between Dunn and the young men, which prompted Dunn to get his gun out of his glove box and start firing. The unarmed Jordan Davis was shot and died. Dunn was charged with murder.
I am not arguing the facts of the case or disputing the eye witness’ testimony. My ire lies with Mr. Pitts claim that the word “thug” is racist. Pitts presented two scenarios and asked the reader to imagine what would be seen in his/her mind’s eye. Test number one: close your eyes and picture a California girl. Test number two: close your eyes and picture a chess prodigy.
Mr. Pitts claimed that it was more than likely the reader would see the California girl as a Farrah Fawcett look alike and the chess prodigy as an owlish nerd – both, of course, being white. For those of you born after the Farrah Fawcett craze, think Barbie.
I do not know where Mr. Pitts was raised, but I am a Jersey girl. Although I moved to Florida more than 30 years ago, I have never actually left the Garden State. Many of my views and attitudes were formed while growing up in an ethnically diversified inner city neighborhood in West New York, New Jersey – a Hudson County suburb that closely resembled the Martin Scorsese movie, Mean Streets (circa 1973).
My father was of German/Irish descent. My mother was Austrian/Italian. Both were kind, decent people without a prejudiced bone in their body. My dad was born in the United States. My mom was born on the outskirts of Vienna.
You may have heard that old joke “… for the longest time, I thought my name was guinea wop?” Well, that is what my mom faced throughout her formative years in the United States and, yet, I never heard her say a mean word about anyone -- except thugs!
Mom did not need to close her eyes and imagine. Thugs were a part of everyday life. These tough guys may have preferred Dean Martin to rap, but that did not make them any less frightening. Some of them held high political office while others worked at menial clean up jobs. For comparison purposes, I would like to point out that the family living directly across the street from our house was black. There were 10 children and I had the biggest crush on the oldest son. He was gorgeous, smart, kind… did I say gorgeous? He was also the first boy I ever kissed, and I have never forgotten that moment. He was a brilliant student and achieved great success in life. There were no thugs among them.
Let us fast forward to the mid-1970s. My husband became a police physician in the town where we lived – not the same town I grew up in. This town was considered high class with many wealthy people residing in luxury apartments and big homes overlooking the Hudson River. I ran his medical office for 25 years and often laughed at the juxtaposition of law enforcement officers and criminals who populated our waiting room – at the same time. Those less than stellar men were definitely thugs and they were all white. Some of them were even police officers.
The point I am trying to make is that racism is not about words and gestures. It is a mindset. Thugs come in lots of colors – like shoes and paint. They come with attitudes and cross all ethnic, educational, financial, residential and religious barriers. A thug to me resembles John Gotti not the late Jordan Davis. Thugism (yup, it’s a word) is an equal employment opportunity.
The late Kobe Bryant, the late Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abul Jabbar were/are known for playing chess. None were prodigies on the checkered board but they were amazing players on the basketball court. Kareem Abul Jabbar also wore goggles while playing. This was the result of suffering a scratched cornea during a game and not because he was a nerd.
Jamaican born Maurice Ashley is a chess grandmaster, author, commentator, app designer, puzzle inventor, and motivational speaker. He was a Joint Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard and the Media Lab at MIT. Mr. Ashley might qualify as a nerd but I am not going to tell him because nerd might then become a racist word.
Using words as a form of attack has become commonplace. “Racist” carries the weight of an atomic bomb when levied against someone… anyone… trying to explain a viewpoint that is different from the opposition. Yes, I did write opposition because expressing oneself has become a form of warfare and words… labels… are the weapons used to force an opponent into submission. If Mr. Pitts had had his way, “thug” would carry the same negative connotation when in actuality it is a word that has never been race specific. It applies to all people – regardless of ethnicity – who use physical strength to bully another person. When I was growing up, a thug was a gangster. There were plenty of them roaming the streets and we were too scared of them to notice or care about color.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of words which originated through race bias and prejudice. When first uttered, they were intentionally disrespectful and demeaning. Today, many if not most of those words have been tempered by time and a deeper knowledge and association with people from all walks of life.
Words will always be weapons. We all carry an unlimited arsenal within our character or lack thereof. No one is so uninformed that they do not know which words are hurtful and harmful. No one is so out of touch that they do not know which words can start a war. We can all agree that certain language should be avoided, but we should not be prevented from using words and phrases from a by-gone era which no longer carry the same meaning.
I know a thug when I see one and, if need be, I will describe that person as such. No one will silence me into submission by hurling a different word at me.
