Right? It’s goal post moving… they claim that if you stop using big words and engage respectfully, they’ll maybe listen… It’s not the case. They don’t want to talk about this stuff, because they don’t have any interest in either addressing the past or in fixing the present to create a better future. They want to retain their privileges, and if equality that means having to acknowledge that what they’ve done, or what has been done in the past or today, they aren’t interested. Pinning it all on the choice of language assumes that the people on the other side are just as interested in progress as we are. That might be true in some cases, but not always. In many time, it’s either a case of people not wanting to deal with reality or people not wanting to move forward in a productive way. It’s really the same argument about not talking about the history of violence towards POC or women of any race. Their argument, “why bring it up, it’s in the past” ignores that it’s not “in the past” it’s right now, and that we can’t move forward with solutions (which plenty of people have suggestions for and always have), until we understand what went wrong up to now…
Plus, it’s just policing language, which of course, is what the right wing claims is happening to them with their freeze peach arguments! It’s pretty hypocritical, if you ask me, to whinge about not being able to use racial slurs or “un-PC” language, and then turn around and then demand that people no longer use “white privilege” or “cultural appropriation” because it hurts people’s feelings (which, what? Why?)
