How 'Tribal' Words Can Be Dangerous to Us All

Cooperating with words

The word tribe, can be our first example. When you hear “Their whole tribe is primitive.” You are wise to question the wisdom or meaning of the speaker. When someone says: “I have found my tribe,” that context is clear, and usually very positive.

But polarization, driven by selling outrage and decreasing attention spans, is generally destructive unless we contain it with balanced and caring, language. Social media, and indeed, media itself reflects this.

Our Earth tribe — the biosphere — cannot survive without collaboration and cooperation.

Words drive views. Trends in word usage reflect ever-changing norms. Recently, I saw a clip from a speech where Ron DeSantis spoke about the useful skills those enslaved got from the type of trades they learned.

The word “slaves” is often used by commentators on the right. It shows an insensitivity to many who have learned, for the sake of civility, to distinguish between a person, and an enslaved role.

The DeSantis war on woke, and indeed, his agenda to revise history of America and its hardest lessons, also displays something about how inclusive or exclusive his tribe wants to be.

Equality for women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, class, and faith, are primary, but not the only issues, we seem to be in a ‘cultural forever war’ over. Woke words have much to do with this. The word “woke” originating as staying alert to injustice, has taken on new meaning and is a pejorative in some circles.

The danger of so many undefined, and careless words spoken, is that they separate us into warring tribes.

Think of words you openly avoid because it is considered polite to do so.
Many people wisely shun the N word, but they openly use the B word to describe women, and or ‘weak’ ‘gay’ or ‘petty’ men. This is problematic to many. People avoid the word ‘retarded’ because it is offensive, but it still retains other meanings depending upon context; such as in this story from a science research article.

Words that are linked to identity, pronouns, gender, and so on can get us into all kinds of trouble. A quite frequent joke meant to disparage a person who designates pronouns is to say: I identify as a cat. Or penguin. Or ‘eat my shorts,’ or almost any other statement designed as a put down.

This joke is actually confusing to some of us (me) because it assumes that cats, or penguins, (or whatever) do not have roles, or gender/sex, somehow? We know that most things exist in cycles, spectrum, spirals, and predictable patterns, so this humor is bewildering as well as mean-spirited.

When we speak of non-binary it usually concerns people, but ideas themselves can be very polarized. The word speciesism is a word that successfully describes feeling dominant, or superior over non-human animals and plants. Yet, we often hear people make fun of the very concept that we favor our species.

Words, in some ways are microaggressions in and of themselves. Microaggression is another such word that may help you know whether someone is making fun of someone, or intending to show actual supremacy, by how they use it.

When you hear someone speak of “the opposite sex” or “different sex,” it was once just common usage. It assumed that the bimodal curves that contain the greater majority of people were adequate descriptors, and that outliers were deviant — another loaded term.

When much more has been learned about any topic, the language necessarily changes. But the language that we use to include or exclude others is a flashing red sign that tells you whether they reflect upon what they say, question its intention or meaning, and/or think for themselves rather than tossing buzzwords about.

If you are unsure when something may offend, just directly ask. Most people are more than happy to share what they think and why.

That’s how conversation can unfold, awkwardly at times, but given a purpose to help us reach, connect, and include the divinity of diversity.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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