2008 Woodie Awards
Racism exists in our language
Professor discusses how rhetoric can change perceptions
Daliah Singer
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News
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Racism and the way rhetoric feeds it was addressed last week at a lecture in Mary Reed Building by Victor Villanueva, an English professor at Washington State University, who said Americans tend to ignore or sidestep the existence of racism in our language.
Racism still exists, and "we have to look at [it] as a large systematic force" that is still at work, said Villanueva. "It does us no good to deny its existence."
"We don't address it [racism] directly," said Villanueva. "There is a kind of acceptance, and the acceptance is allowed to take place because each individual can claim that he or she isn't racist and so it isn't their problem. But it is our problem."
"The new racism embeds racism within a set of other categories - language, religion, culture, said Villanueva, and people have seen this new racism with Hurricane Katrina, yet they dismiss it and quickly forget about it. "America resides in short-term memory," said Villanueva.
When he asks his students how they see racism, they reply that they know racism exists, but that it doesn't affect them. "When we [teachers, older people] say "racism,"... we are thinking of something now, and you, our students, are thinking of something past: slavery and lynching and genocide, said Villanueva. "Are we speaking different rhetorics?"
Villanueva explained that language can affect how we perceive issues such as racism. "We are affected, often not consciously, by the language we use and receive," he said. Instead, the language that we do not use also affects us: "If we no longer speak of racism, racism gets ignored."
In today's society, it has become increasingly hard to speak about racism, and Villanueva fears that Americans have lost the ability to truly speak about racism. "Figures of speech are also figures of ideology…and are often figures of unintentional censorship," said Villanueva.
He cited Kenneth Burke, the American literary theorist and philosopher, who postulated, "We process knowledge by way of tropes [figures of speech]." These tropes include metaphor, metonymy, irony and synecdoche, all of which are interconnected.
Racism still exists, and "we have to look at [it] as a large systematic force" that is still at work, said Villanueva. "It does us no good to deny its existence."
"We don't address it [racism] directly," said Villanueva. "There is a kind of acceptance, and the acceptance is allowed to take place because each individual can claim that he or she isn't racist and so it isn't their problem. But it is our problem."
"The new racism embeds racism within a set of other categories - language, religion, culture, said Villanueva, and people have seen this new racism with Hurricane Katrina, yet they dismiss it and quickly forget about it. "America resides in short-term memory," said Villanueva.
When he asks his students how they see racism, they reply that they know racism exists, but that it doesn't affect them. "When we [teachers, older people] say "racism,"... we are thinking of something now, and you, our students, are thinking of something past: slavery and lynching and genocide, said Villanueva. "Are we speaking different rhetorics?"
Villanueva explained that language can affect how we perceive issues such as racism. "We are affected, often not consciously, by the language we use and receive," he said. Instead, the language that we do not use also affects us: "If we no longer speak of racism, racism gets ignored."
In today's society, it has become increasingly hard to speak about racism, and Villanueva fears that Americans have lost the ability to truly speak about racism. "Figures of speech are also figures of ideology…and are often figures of unintentional censorship," said Villanueva.
He cited Kenneth Burke, the American literary theorist and philosopher, who postulated, "We process knowledge by way of tropes [figures of speech]." These tropes include metaphor, metonymy, irony and synecdoche, all of which are interconnected.
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