Dark and Light: Practicing Balance—and Countering Racism—in Metaphors
Radical CopyeditorDec 21, 2020
The nonprofit Reframing Race initiative has recommended people stop using phrases such as "black mood," "dark times," and "whiter than white," which allegedly reinforce racist connotations by linking negativity with blackness and positivity with whiteness.
It also suggests replacing the term "the wealthy elite" with "the powerful few," as the former could allegedly trigger anti-semitism and fuel conspiracy theories. It further recommends avoiding using "ethnic" to mean minority ethnic or non-white.
Though society may not have given the topic much thought in the past, this research highlights the prevalence of anti-Black narratives in the English language. Negative associations pervade between darkness and danger or criminality, from phrases like Black Monday, black-hearted, and the Black Plague, to the societal fear of black cats. This, unsurprisingly, also affects subconscious views of Black people, a psychological phenomenon that harms people of color and must be put to an end.
This is a form of Marxist critical race theory that aims, not to prevent racism, but rather to overhaul the English language and use it as a weapon to smear and attack White people. Critical race theorists are power-hungry, which is why they associate 'Whiteness' with Western institutions such as the common English language, capitalism, and meritocracy (all systems beneficial to society), and then vilify them so that minority groups have a racial enemy. If allowed to gain momentum, this view will only promote conflict and undermine society.
There's a 50% chance that the Woke index in US elite media will top by August 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.