We Are Brick from The Anchorman
How society has changed, morphed, and personalized words to fit our schema
Does anybody look at trending words or phrases and ask: “Where did these start?” My fifteen-year-old brother-in-law exclaimed the other day, “That’s slap!”, causing me to tilt my head and inquire what it means. I immediately felt old as this moment paralleled to my parents asking me the same question for other trending sayings I used throughout high school.
After asking my teenage brother-in-law to define slap, it dawned on me that his Gen Z friends and he could better define their expressions than most can explain the phrases and words used in the name of justice.
Scroll through your social media feeds or just drive around town. You will see people chanting, posting, or conversing about love, hate, social justice, systematic racism, Black Lives Matter, or Defund the Police. Society clarifies these slogans as well as Ron Burgundy using Afternoon Delight to explain love to his co-anchors. These words hold impact and power, yet society and people cannot agree upon a clear definition.
We have reached an age where people, programs, politicians, and movements throw around implicit meanings with as much of an understanding as Brick to the word love when he says, “I love lamp.”
Through the beauty of progressive technology and apps, communication and information spread like wildfire. Yet, only so much can be explained and defined with a caption, tweet, or post. People embrace and hold onto the one-liners, the one video or picture, hashtag, or soundbite without examining context, background, and definitions.
For example, two words evolved into the most generic and broad terms over time: Love and Hate. Through misuse in posts, retweets, and hashtags, their meanings range drastically from person to person. When I hear the word love now, I have to ask what it means to that specific person because it varies. What does love look like? Who is defining it? Today, people mix their personal opinions with words to create an entirely different meaning.
Similar to love and hate, people morph definitions to fit their vendetta. The words love and hate have been around since the beginning of time, but what about the ever-popular slogans such as Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police or social justice?
How did they start?
Who started them?
How have they changed?
What do they mean?
Do they really mean what people say they mean?
Who defines their meaning?
It takes research and critical thinking, even balls to ask the right questions and seek out answers. Don’t mention the media’s filtration system you need to navigate to find the truth. On top of all that, if you ask hard questions people can get defensive and label you as their attacker or oppressor.
Most slogans fall on a wide spectrum. The newest policy proposal, “Defund the Police,” is one statement that means different things to different people. When Oluchi Omeoga, co-founder of the Black Visions Collective, says “Defund the Police” she means just that.
“Instead of holding them accountable and reform, we actually have to get rid of this system and talk about what we can actually do as communities to keep us safe.”
Turn to those on the other side of the spectrum and the slogan holds a different definition. Senator Kamala Harris (D) claims that defunding the police means reallocating a portion of funds from policing to other social services.
One side exclaims expungement, another side says reallocate funds, and another side wants to improve police training. Looks like race isn’t the only thing that’s keeping us from agreeing.
The issue at hand is not all the ideas behind the call to action, the problem is the lack of a concrete definition. To agree on one, universal meaning behind these powerful words it takes investigation: Who determines the meaning?
We live in a country where we are given the freedom to ask controversial questions to people and discuss tough topics openly with anybody. Why not take advantage of this freedom while we have it?
Social justice propaganda and politics require you to discover what you don’t believe to figure out what you do believe. Before you post the black square on Instagram or put up a hashtag, do the background check and understand what you are saying when throwing out these loose terms and statements. With no solid definition insight, your path to reform could be the same path for destruction.
