Hurtful Words

by Gordon, Donald K.

• ISBN13: 9781551642642
• ISBN10: 1551642646
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-03-30
• Publisher: Black Rose Books Ltd

Summary

"Gordon's knowledge is encyclopedic, his examples limitless, and his style eminently readable, even entertaining despite a subject matter that is sometimes grim."-Richard Jackson, professor emeritus, Carleton University "Through his meticulous research and his acute powers of observation, Gordon shows how language has been used with great persistence to effect the tainting of the black people and to inflict on them the burden of the presumption of culpability."-Keith Ellis, professor emeritus, University of Toronto Convinced that words shape perception and reality, and drawing on personal experience-exposure, observation, awareness-and on research (often from journalism), Donald Gordon exposes insidious racism of everyday language and its devastating effects on the image and well-being of a people. Gordon first discusses ingrained racism and general racism, backed by various examples from religion, law and a capital marketplace (including media). He then examines racism and war in Vietnam and in Grenada and the deliberate genocidal polices of many countries including the United States and South Africa, the latter punctuated through the telling of John Howard Griffin's story from his book entitled Black Like Me (Griffin deliberately darkened his skin through medication and exposure and wrote about his experiences). In his final chapters, Gordon sets out alternative routes, imploring the readers to do all they can to help make language that perpetuates derogatory images of groups and people a thing of the past, and as an example, he points to how women were successful in purging language of sexist and stereotypical imagery. Donald K. Gordon, PhD in Spanish-American literature, is professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of two books in Spanish (one on Mexico's Juan Rulfo; one on Costa Rica's Quince Duncan), is listed in Who's Who in Black Canada and is the recipient of numerous awards from the Jamaican and Afro-Caribbean communities.