May/June 2015
5
H
ow something is said can be just as important as what
is being said. Our tone and body language certainly
shape our communication, but not as much as word
choices. Language isn't neutral or benign. It's powerful
enough to draw us together or drive us apart.
We use language to communicate—sometimes with the
intent to share an experience, other times with the intent to
convince the listener of our views. When language is used
to convince, it's rhetoric more than dialog. Rhetoric, or the
way language is used to influence an audience, is implicit in
the messages we are flooded with every day.
It's easy to become overloaded with messages—coming
to us from television, newspapers, magazines, radio, blogs
and social media like Facebook and Twitter—to the point
of apathy. We hear, read or see so much, we can become
desensitized to tragedy or outrage. Or worse, we absorb
the messages without any reflection on how the accounts
are framed. Too often, news accounts use rhetoric that
dehumanizes victims and validates systemic injustice. As
Christians called to justice, we must examine and call out
the ways in which negatively framed rhetoric has destruc-
tive power in our culture and communities.
Separating "Them" from "Us"
Rhetoric is a powerful (though often subtle) instrument in
upholding institutional inequality that separates "them"
from "us." In many of the messages we hear, "the other"
emerges as a common theme. This division allows us to
"Suspect" or "Sister"?
Weeding Rhetorical Violence Out of Our Vocabulary
BY ALEXIS PRESSEAU MALOOF