76 Part 1 Basic Communication ProcessesProblematic Uses of Language
“I think we’re still in a muddle with our language, because once you get words
and a spoken language it gets harder to communicate” (Ewalt, 2005, para. 1).
The famous primatologist Jane Goodall made this point when explaining why
chimpanzees get over their disputes much faster than humans. They strike out at
each other and then offer each other reassuring pats or embraces, and voilà, argu-
ment over. Not so with people: words can be really hard to forget.
As you’ve probably experienced, words can lead to confusion, hurt feelings,
misunderstandings, and anger when we blurt things out before considering them
(and their effects) carefully (Miller & Roloff, 2007). We sometimes engage in
hurtful or hateful language, use labels in ways that others don’t appreciate, reveal
bias through our words, and use offensive or coarse language. And when we put
thoughtless or hastily chosen words in e-mails or post them on Twitter or Face-
book, they become “permanent,” and we may have great difficulty taking them
back (Riordan & Kreuz, 2010).Hateful and Hurtful Language
After twenty-five minutes of hearing ethnic slurs from the crowd whenever he
tried to score a goal, soccer star Kevin Prince Boateng kicked the ball into the
crowd and walked off the field, accompanied by his teammates (Herman, 2013).
Sadly, Boateng’s story is not an isolated event: anti-Semitic chants plagued
another soccer club, and fans have thrown food and screamed insults at black
players in others. Such language that offends, threatens, or insults a person or
group based on race, religion, gender, or other identifiable characteristics is
hatespeech (Waltman & Haas, 2011). Hatespeech employs offensive words to
deride the person or group; thus hatespeech often creates vividly negative images
of groups in the minds of listeners while downplaying the unique qualities of
individuals in those groups (Haas, 2012, p. 132).
Other language choices may not be intended to offend individuals based on
cultural factors but are nonetheless hurtful. For example, do sports fans have the
right to jeer at the opposing team? Should they be allowed to bellow at referees
throughout the game? What about the instance of an opposing team fan read-
ing loudly from the grand jury report of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse case at
a Penn State game (Pennington, 2012)? Although none of these behaviors are
technically against the law, they have communication effects and are often con-
sidered hurtful language—inappropriate, damaging, mean, sarcastic, or offen-
sive statements that affect others in negative ways.Labeling
Feminist. The literal definition of the term is “a person who advocates equal
social, political, and all other rights for women and men.” But who are these
people who label themselves feminists? In our years of teaching undergraduates,
we’ve heard plenty of students note that feminists are women who hate men and
care only about professional success. But “there is no way to tell what a feministAre you a feminist? What
does the term feminist mean
to you? If you hear someone
called a feminist, what ideas
or images does this bring to
mind?AND YOU?