Let's Just Keep Going

Yea for communication. Nay for hostility.

Reading “Words Don’t Mean What They Mean” made me realize how much we actually use innuendos and a “manner of vagueness” when communicating with others, and how they are being used today as a form of slang. People love using innuendos and double entendres. As we talked about it in class, “netflix and chill” means, in Ms. Valentino’s words, “Let’s get sexual.” (I’m sorry). “Sexual come-ons” are not only popular in English, but other languages as well. In Korea, asking, “Want to eat ramen at my house?” has become a double entendre. Asking “¿Ontas?” (which pretty much means “¿Dónde estás?”, meaning “Where are you?,” in shortened form) in Mexico has become one. It’s an international thing. We all want to avoid saying what we really mean. People hate straight-up vulgarity. It’s rude, disgusting, and unattractive. Somehow, putting a thin veil over everything makes it so much better. If everything was just said the way we meant it, the world could be hostile and, it may seem weird, but bland. We wouldn’t have to come up with the clever sayings we have today, there would be no descriptions, we wouldn’t even be analyzing text in class (although I can’t tell if that’s a bad thing). Reading a book wouldn’t wow us. Descriptions of the “spinach-green and violet dress” would become merely “an ugly dress.” (I’m sorry if I offended anyone with a green and purple dress). I just think it might be better to keep it the way we have it--this kind of language is why more people don’t hate us. Am I wrong?

why are we even fighting about this.

Yea for justice. Nay for, uh, injustice.
I hate to break it, but we’re kind of living in a society that’s offended by the smallest things. I am not, by any means, belittling any of the current issues in our society; there is still much change to be needed, because for obvious reasons, society still isn’t near perfect, and it probably will never satisfy the needs of everyone. Before I bring up this topic, I want to put out a disclaimer: If you recognize the actions of the person mentioned below, I do not mean to spread any hate—I am merely pointing out a situation for example, and I do not judge people based on a single action. Okay, so on to the story.

One day I stumbled upon this tweet: “I’ve been traveling for years now and it’s been so frustrating that the hotel toiletry industry entirely alienates people of color. I can’t use this perfumed watered down white people shampoo. Neither can 50% of ur customers. Annoying.” I was confused. And curious. Did people actually expect free hotel shampoo to have the quality of the shampoo we use at home? I doubt hotel operators are taking race into factor when making cheap shampoo available to the public. People questioned her ability to talk about such issues as she was 75% white. But I guess not because she states, “I look like a white girl, but I don’t feel like one. I’m a black woman.”

Okay. Hotel shampoo is racist.

There’s this acronym. SJW. It stands for Social Justice Warrior. It used to be something to describe respectable figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. But things changed I guess, and now the term is technically an insult to describe the hostile, offended-over-the-smallest-things personalities on the net. Usually, these people do this to gain acknowledgment and credit from a community and fail to make some valid points that merits acknowledgment. They spread hate and attack those that disagree with their views. These people are really arguing that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is racist because it uses the n-word. “[N]ever mind the fact that this American classic depicts the spiritual kinship achieved between a white boy and a runaway slave…” (Kakutani). And take away some words so that we are politically correct? I am baffled that some people believe that we should be careful in “using words like ‘gorgeous...’” (Kakutani).

There is no doubt that there are large problems in equality and representation in today’s society. We must take action to fix those. However, many people are offended by and stuck on the minute issues that probably won’t change. Even if we do address and fix such “issues,” will it make a difference? Will our thoughts cease to contain biases? Are we even becoming a better society?