COLUMN: Think Again – I’m offended, therefore I am

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/12/2021 (1237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If your words offend someone, then you are in the wrong, regardless of what you meant to say.

Does this sound familiar? It probably does, particularly if you’ve ever participated in workplace “sensitivity training.” In this day and age, hurt feelings must be avoided at all costs.

However, prioritizing the impact of a person’s words over the person’s intent leads to downright bizarre situations. For example, what do we do when someone irrationally takes offense at perfectly innocent statements?

Holding that impact matters more than intent means that we would have no choice but to find the person who spoke those words guilty of causing offense. Thus, if someone gets offended when the manager announces a brainstorming session (ostensibly because the word “brainstorm” is offensive to neurodiverse people), the manager must immediately apologize for causing offense.

Now you might think that’s a crazy scenario. No one could possibly take offense at an innocent word like brainstorm. But you would be wrong. Just a couple weeks ago, CBC published an article with a list of eighteen words and phrases that we should stop using because they might be offensive. On that list was the word brainstorm.

You might argue that this is just plain dumb. While I might agree with you, you’ve just used another one of the offensive words on CBC’s list. Apparently, referring to an idea as “dumb” might insult people in the disabled community.

I’d add that you need to be careful to avoid being blacklisted, but blacklist also appears on CBC’s offensive words list. So is referring to someone as a black sheep. I wonder how long it will take before scientists have to find another word for blackholes.

Incidentally, words like blackmail, blacklist, and black sheep have nothing to do with race. Blackmail dates back to 16th-century Scotland where people living on the border paid money to avoid being pillaged. Silver was considered “white rent” while goods and services were “black rent.” Since “male” was the Middle English word for rent or tribute, black rent became known as blackmail.

Blacklist and black sheep also date back centuries and have equally innocent explanations. Remember that not everything needs to be seen through the prism of race.

Now I suppose it’s possible that I have a blind spot on this issue. Oops, I did it again. Blind spot is also on CBC’s list because it could be offensive to blind people. By now, you might be feeling blindsided by all my offensiveness, but I sure you hope you didn’t express that thought out loud. That’s because blindsided is another verboten word in CBC circles.

I would say that this woke silliness is the perfect example of a first-world problem if it weren’t for the fact that I probably offended people once again with my poor word choices. According to one of the diversity experts quoted in the CBC article, calling something a first-world problem is dehumanizing to people in less developed countries.

If I’ve upset you enough, you might be tempted to write a letter to the editor complaining about my tone deaf column. However, before you do that, just remember that calling someone tone deaf might insult people with hearing impairments. At least that’s what the CBC said.

Well, two can play at this game. Perhaps I should write the CBC and tell them that I was offended by their article. They would have no choice but to accept my complaint since their intent doesn’t matter. I could then offer to withdraw my human rights complaint if they retract their article.

That, however, would be blackmail. I probably shouldn’t do that.

 

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.