Words Matter: "Black" & "White"

People's ability to reason is their most effective defense against tyranny and enslavement.

That's why language -which is essential to forming and communicating complex abstract concepts- is constantly under attack.

More specifically, the meaning of certain words is often intentionally distorted. This impedes people's ability to clearly verbalize ideas, exchange arguments and reason, which gradually leads to a state of permanent confusion and hopeless division. Divide and conquer.

"Black" and "white" are just two painfully obvious examples of such distortions.

Snow is white. Coal is black. It is an observable fact that no one -not one single person on Earth- has skin the color of which could accurately be described as black or white.

Human skin can be any one of countless shades of pink, yellow and brown. Some are lighter and some are darker; but not even the darkest skin is truly "black", nor the lightest skin truly "white".

The actual differences are actually quite minor when viewed within the entirety of the visible light color spectrum. Dark brown and light brown are, in fact, quite similar. But black and white are polar opposites; they're as different as can be.

When used to label people, these words have the effect of exaggerating minor differences and making them seem like major, essential differences.

This makes it easier to more deeply and effectively divide people. Its effect, perhaps its intention, is to make some people regard others as much more different than they really are. So different, in fact, that treating "them" differently becomes completely justified.

It's curious. If you described a brown, yellow or pink car as "white", people would be quick to correct you. Meanwhile, everyone happily accepts using words that are clearly incorrect, but that instantly and artificially divide and categorize millions of uniquely different people into neat little piles.

Why do we continue using words that are so evidently wrong to label people, particularly when it clearly matters so much that we get it right?

Justice begins with the words we use to describe each other.

Language matters. Reason liberates.