The Power of Words: Reading Between the Lines of Racist Literature

Folami Jones

                Literary studies have long been seen as the humanistic study and critical analysis of past and current literature.  It is here that Bracher argues can, “…provide recognition or—and in some cases even opportunities to enact—alternative, nonviolent identity contents through the texts one chooses, the topics one discusses, and the approbation and disapprobation one bestows on various contents represented in literary texts.”  I would agree with Bracher, in that literary texts, reviews, and studies allows for the reader to engage in content through recognition of formed gendered ideas.  This however, raises many critical questions; 1. Who are the major recognized contributors to literature historically?  2.  Who are the privileged to approbate/disapprobate texts that then become the valued centre fold to reference all other respected literatures?  3. What alternative theories or criticisms are there and how accessible are they and to whom? 

                Language is a prescribed tool that we use to navigate meaning throughout life.  Innocently we’re indoctrinated into a set of common word values, universally used amongst a people or community.  Consequently, those assigned values placed on terms that relate to a particular people or community, assist in forming a perceived identity of that people or race.  When we examine the meanings given to words found in dictionaries, it is clearly evident how infused racist ideology maintains the agenda of White supremacy.

 Definition of Black according to dictionary.com:

                3. Pertaining or belonging to any of the various populations characterized by dark skin   pigmentation, specifically the dark-skinned peoples of Africa, Oceania, and Australia

·         gloomy; pessimistic; dismal: a black outlook without hope or alleviation;

·         gloomy: the future looked black, angry or resentful: she gave him black looks,

·         (of a play or other work) dealing with the unpleasant realities of life, esp in a pessimistic or macabre manner: black comedy,

·         causing, resulting from, or showing great misfortune: black areas of unemployment

·          causing or deserving dishonour or censure: a black crime,

·         wicked or harmful: a black lie…

Synonyms for Black

dark, sooty, 4.  dirty, dingy. 5.  sad, depressing, somber, doleful, mournful, funereal. 7.  disastrous, calamitous. 9.  sinful, inhuman, fiendish, devilish, infernal, monstrous; atrocious, horrible; nefarious, treacherous, traitorous, villainous.

The definition for White according to dictionary.com

4. For, limited to, or predominantly made up of persons whose racial heritage is caucasian: a white club; a white neighborhood…

·         ( often initial capital letter ) a member of a royalist, conservative, or reactionary political party.

·         to cover (errors in copy) with a white correction fluid.

·         to censor, as by obliterating words or passages with white ink.

·         decent, honorable, or dependable: That's very white of you.

·         auspicious or fortunate.

·         morally pure; innocent.

·         without malice; harmless: white magic

·         in the white, in an unfinished state or condition, as furniture wood that has not been stained or varnished.

·         quality or state of being white.

The universal attributed meaning to Black in the English language, as shown above is negative, contrary to White as positive.  These notions have been internalized by people that understand and use these words, and one could argue, these meanings transcend to all languages today. We also see here, how resources like dictionaries propagate racism in its very purpose.  When in doubt, check the dictionary.

Dictionary.com gives you examples of how to use these words, and in the event you need a blatant racist example to reinforce the give definition, they make it clear here when stating;

Examples sentences for Black: (according to dictionary.com)

We could start by building the capacity of black gay leadership to address the epidemic in this community.

Example sentence for white:  

Even black men who nominally commit to one woman are five times as likely as their white counterparts to have others on the side

White youngsters who think they can leave school with few or no qualifications and walk into a job are not wholly deluded.

                What if then, these negotiated meanings of value or devalue are directly dependent on the people who define them, and what if then, the original annotation of these set values themselves were derived from a context of White supremacy? If language is one of the core components in how meaning is translated into a form of comprehension, then language will also be a critical agent where racism can be deconstructed and enforced systems of oppression dismantled.  This will be the place where new meanings and location will recentralize African people and people of color as valuable.  Bracher suggests, “By withholding recognition and enactment opportunities for such affects, and deconstructing them—exposing their antithetical, identity-dystonic dimensions …literary study can reduce or even eliminate their identity-bearing capacity.”  Here Bracher acknowledges a process that might support new constitutions of meanings, and that if grounded in an anti-racist and anti-oppressive framework, we might then begin to eradicate these Eurocentric constraints.  He does not however, address how Whiteness as a form of exercised power and privilege, saliently fortifies these very same oppressive enactments and or recognitions.  Part of deconstruction is recognition.  There have been many scholars that have dedicated their research and studies to exposing White supremacy using literary studies.  It is my opinion, that exposing literature that supports the warped ideology of White supremacy, will allow the learner to interrogate the content and meaning; while hiding it or dismissing its existence will only further divert the responsibility and ownership off White people, and attempt to bury an oppressive history that would still breed racist aftershocks.