Blogging About Communication

Are you and your friends and colleagues able to disagree without coming off as disagreeable? Do you think we should be able to express displeasure without displaying rancor or offending others? Do you?

IN THE NEWS

Recently President Trump used the “R-Word” when referring to a number of people he disagreed with. Contrastingly, both Lizzo and Beyonce purposefully removed the word “spaz” from their song lyrics to avoid offending individuals living with disabilities.

IT’S NO JOKE TO DEHUMANIZE OTHERS IN THE EFFORT NOT TO BE WOKE

Although the extreme left used wokeness as a weapon against their own party, alienating themselves from much of American society, the extreme right used it as a rationalization to increase the use of vitriolic language. I believe that those of us in the middle believe that there’s nothing wrong with infusing civility into our word choices. We ought to be able to tell others what we think of them and their ideas without diminishing their personhood or dignity. The use of insults, vulgar expressions, name-calling, and in general, any speech that degrades and encourages hostile responses from others is not a sign of strength. Using pejorative words that stigmatize and demonstrate one’s contempt for others only serves to highlight the user’s inability to conduct themselves civilly.  

THE COMPETENT COMMUNICATOR

Competent communicators display civility when conversing with or about others. Rather than come off as confrontational, they invite input from others. Rather than put others on the defensive, they do their part to diffuse potential conflicts, opting not to be confrontational or condescending. Instead of constructing and responding to messages angrily, they rely on reasonable discourse and explore common interests.

BACK TO BASICS

The original meaning of the word “woke” signified awareness of racial and social injustice. At its core, it’s about being awake to potential prejudice. Only in the last few years was that meaning co-opted as a political insult for being “overly progressive” or “overly sensitive.”

ACTION PLAN

Decide if you think being called “woke” is a complement or an insult. Whether you view being woke as a badge of honor or a sign of excessive activism, keep in mind that what it means to be woke depends on who’s using the term and in what context. However, you feel about being woke, using uncivil language diminishes the user.