I recently had to be a mediator between two of my close friends as to having a conversation about racism, which let's face it is a conversation that holds a lot of tension in today's current society, not a lot of people want to have a real adult conversation about it.
It usually ends in someone getting offended and quite frankly often times can be attributed to a whole lot of miscommunication and misunderstood context. Other times some things/people are just actually racist.
Regardless, my friends tend to come to me as I'm a very neutral party on just about all matters, and therefore often can mediate in muddy waters that a lot of people don't quite see through.
The night I heard the whole story behind the misunderstanding that was about to seriously damage the relationship of two close individuals, the whole story of which I don't care to go into for sake of time, I was going to sleep, it was probably about 4AM and I had these thoughts going through my head, just kind of analyzing it all, so I forced myself to wake up and write for a bit as its something I do to help analyze thought, and this is what came about.
Take it as you may.
"Tools And How We Use Them"
Words are tools, no? So shall we have ourselves a little thought experiment with that in mind?
Let's say someone created a tool for a specific purpose, let's say that its original purpose was to hurt or keep down a certain people.
So let's say things change, and now the people the tool was made to hurt are now accepted, and the tool that was used to hurt them is being used by them for a different purpose, and its become taboo for anyone to use that tool because of the heinous deeds the tool was used for in the past, except for those whom it was previously used on.
However time moves on and some people start using that tool for a different purpose, but people get offended you would dare to use a tool that was once a tool used to wrong them, regardless if that's it's utility its being used for currently or not.
A tool is neutral, it is not an "evil" tool because it was used for "evil" things, and therefore shouldn't be forever ostrisized, instead find a better use for the tool.
A sword can be used to kill or it can be used to defend. A hammer can be a weapon or a tool for construction. A word can be used to hurt someone, or it can be used to express.
Not allowing the intent to be a defining factor in how we respond to the tool is folly, we don't go around saying no one can ever use swords because swords were used to kill my family/people/village we evaluate every person using a sword based on intent.
Is he using his sword to save a life or take it? Is he using his sword to annoint a knight, or behead a slave? Do we say that because swords were used to oppress thousands of people that everyone who uses a sword is now automatically wrong and is using it with that utility?
No.
We look at what he's trying to do with the sword. We look at how he's using the tool to decide whether or not it's "right" or "wrong". Which are relative terms anyways.
So why don't we do the same thing with our language? Language is a tool. Words are a tool.
Many words were once used for many wrongdoings, some words were created as malicious tools, but as time moves on some people start using those tools for other things, other utilities of expression.
So why do we shun and shame those who are choosing to use a tool that,was once malicous but now being used as a utility of expression? By holding onto the definitions of the past, by focusing on how things were once used, and not allowing things to change you give it its power.
By holding on to it YOU keep it alive as an "evil" tool, where it will always be to you, rather than letting the past dissolve.
Instead of putting the debts of a past generation on the shoulders of the new one, instead of holding onto previous ways the tool was used, Why not try finding a more useful utility for this once malicious, now shunned tool, so it no longer has the ability to create the animosity that we currently so choose to perpetuate?