Metaphorical Thinking by Daniel Kies

In "The English Language is My Enemy," Ossie Davis argues that English is inherently racist by presenting the reader with two lists of synonyms for the words white and black. The lists present clearly divergent sets of meanings associated with the two words. White is associated with purity, cleanliness, and goodness. Black is associated with evil, dirt, and death. The differences in meaning suggest to Davis that the language is inherently biased against blacks. While the differences in meaning are undeniable, I suggest that the differences are due to ability of humans to think metaphorically, not racism necessarily.

EVIDENCE: FACTS ABOUT HUMAN REACTIONS TO THE DARK.

The suicide rate in the Scandinavian countries is comparatively higher than the rate in the rest of the world and highest in winter. Horror films are typically set at night; think of Halloween and Night of the Living Dead to name just two examples. In fact, Freddie, a popular horror villain of late, most often appears to people at night, while they dream.

These two different facts share one thing in common — darkness. Being as far north as they are (right on the Arctic Circle), the countries of Sweden, Norway, and Finland can experience up to twenty hours of darkness each day in midwinter. Seasonal depression is a common illness there, and its effects on the individual's will to survive can be catastrophic. However, the Scandinavian nations are not unusual in this regard: seasonal depression is common in all latitudes that experience long winter nights, and the fear of the dark is a common human trait, as parents of toddlers all around the world will readily attest.

These two facts support a single generalization about us humans generally and Western (European-oriented) culture particularly: darkness represents the UNKNOWN while light (and vision) represents KNOWLEDGE. In other words, the psychology and thought of most Westerners portray darkness as a metaphor for the unknown (therefore the dangerous) and light as a metaphor for the known. A metaphor, remember, is the process of employing one concept to represent another concept.

SECOND SET OF EVIDENCE: THE METAPHORIC MEANINGS ASSOCIATED WITH LIGHT AND DARK.

In fact, those two metaphors of light and dark organize (and possibly control) the way we Westerners think about knowledge or the lack of it. Our language (and other European languages as well) is filled with expressions that show how our thinking about knowledge is organized by those two metaphors of light (and vision) versus darkness. Consider the following examples of the LIGHT (AND VISION) IS KNOWING metaphor:

I see what you're saying.
It looks different from my point of view.
What is your outlook on that?
I view it differently.
I've got the whole picture.
That's an insightful idea.
She is a brilliant woman.
The argument was clear.
Could you elucidate on that?
It's a transparent argument.
Similarly, consider these few examples of the DARKNESS IS IGNORANCE (literally a 'lack of knowledge') metaphor:
It was a murky discussion.
The discussion was opaque.
I didn't follow his thinking; I'm still in the dark.
Let's see if we can't throw a little light on the subject.

What those expressions teach us is that we Westerners metaphorically link thought with light, ignorance (and fear) with dark.

OBJECTION: NOTE THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF VALIDITY OF THE OPPOSITION'S PERSPECTIVE.

Granted, Davis might feel that I am evading his point by shifting the attention from the reality of racist language to some esoteric discussion of the psychology underlying some metaphors in the English language. Davis could even point out that many racist words are related to color and vision. The notorious n word has its origins in the Spanish word for black.

I will grant too that the language may indeed be inherently racist (and sexist). It does seem that the language has far more derogatory terms for minority groups and women than for the majority group and men. Modesty forbids me from writing examples here, but a simple "thought experiment" will illustrate my point: make a mental list of all the words that are deliberately insulting to blacks, or women, or any other minority group. Make a similar list of derogatory words aimed at whites or men. I find that the lists are unequally long: there are far more derogatory words against any minority group. To my mind, that is stronger evidence to suggest that the language may have an inherent bias.

REBUTTAL:

Yet the fact of the matter is that racist and sexist language has more to do with unequal power than it has to do with the meanings associated with words like white and black. For example, if you want to find out whose manner of speech is the most admired and is the prestige dialect within a country, simply find out which social group has the highest prestige in that country. There is a direct correlation between social prestige and linguistic prestige.

So when Ossie Davis looks at the enormous number of unfavorable synonyms associated with the word darkness and concludes that "The English Language is My Enemy!" I do not explain that fact on the inherent racism that Davis believes pervades our thoughts. To me, that explanation of racism is both too simple and unjustified when one looks at the language in a larger perspective. Instead, I see the enormous number of unfavorable synonyms as a result of the way our minds organize our feelings about issues like KNOWLEDGE & IGNORANCE and KNOWN & UNKNOWN (the unknown is also dangerous).

CONCLUSION

However, do not misread me. Racism is a real issue in both society and language. One need only read the newspapers to learn of the growing numbers of hate crimes. One need only listen to the media to hear racial and ethnic slurs used thoughtlessly. Although Davis and I disagree about the origins of the unfavorable meanings associated with the synonyms for words referring to darkness, we do agree on an even more important issue: we must learn to control our minds and our tongues if we ever wish to control our destiny.