Racism + Bigotry

Redefining Words and Terms is a Tool for Oppression

The far-right has been successful in redefining what words mean to oppress marginalized groups in the Trump era

Photo by Danielle-Claude Bélanger on Unsplash

For more than a decade, we’ve listened to rabid Trump supporters tell us that he didn’t say what we all heard him say followed by excuses to try and convince us that what he said isn’t what he meant. More recently, however, it seems as though many are falling for this type of rhetoric as words and phrases such as “woke,” diversity, equity, and inclusion, or “DEI,” and antisemitism have been redefined in social spaces to justify oppression.

This is not a new phenomenon. Previously, we’ve heard people categorize anything or anyone to the political left of far-right Christian nationalism as communist or socialist. What started with the Red Scare, or McCarthyism, in the 1940s quickly evolved into the Ku Klux Klan using those terms in the same way they are still used today. We see them used to villainize Democrats who are nowhere near being either. This is particularly successful with many Latino voters.

Now, as pundits and voters alike assess why Democrats lost in elections all across the country, many have seemingly adopted newer, redefined language from far-right…