Subtle Condescension Is Everywhere

Obama’s Google+ Hangout: Google Angers Potheads, President Won’t Dance a Jig, Miranda Miller, January 31, 2012➚

On the surface, you probably aren’t even aware that you’d already formed an opinion about potheads before reading this story. In fact, you probably had an opinion a long time ago.

 

This use of the term says much more about the author, Miranda Miller over at Search Engine Watch, than the group she describes. (And its acceptance says a lot about us.) Most readers will shrug at the reference if confronted by it. I’d wager most won’t even understand what the fuss is all about, even after reading this post. They will understand the substance of it; they just won’t care.

But humor me for a brief moment: The call for decriminalization or legalization of some drugs has been championed by the likes of William F Buckley, Jr. I don’t use drugs, never have, not once, but I share the same opinion.[1] With a little Googling➚, you’ll find there are many prominent people and groups with sound reasons for decriminalization; it is a thoughtful and reasonable conservative response.

Unfortunately, any group that fails to collect enough respect from enough people can be the object of tacit condescension. We read right by it because it’s endemic, just as we did racial slurs 60 years ago, or homosexual humor 30 years ago.

When you finally reach a point where you can confront condescending language even when you don’t understand why it’s offensive, then you can stop it where it’s the most painful, when it targets color and gender and sex and religion.

If you solve for the pieces, you’ll solve for the whole.

[1]
I’m also not gay but support gay rights and gay marriage. I’m not poor but support social programs that assist the poor. I’m not Jewish or Muslim but support rules that protect their freedoms, as I hope they would mine.

The saddest part at the end of an essay like this is that most folks will shake their heads and say “Criminy, now someone wants me to care about potheads’ feelings? Give me a break.”

No, there’s something even sadder: That an industry devoted to how words are processed by people and search engines know so little about words.

Started: 2012-02-02