(Three unrelated pieces. To read the full articles, follow the links embedded in the headlines.)
Beyond ‘racism,’ let’s get language right:
Sweet Briar College dean Fontaine Maury Belford taught her students that our language “is our mother.” She meant it is the generative foundation of culture. She was right.
Words matter. Especially emotionally loaded words such as “racist.” That’s why it is so frustrating to see President Trump’s awful, inexcusable tweets telling Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to other countries mischaracterized as racist.
Race and nationality are not the same thing. Race and ethnicity are not even the same thing. Race and religion are far from synonymous. Likewise, racism is not the same thing as xenophobia, or as nativism, or as bigotry. Racism is a form of bigotry, but not all bigotry is racism. All of those things are morally wrong. Badly wrong. To say that something isn’t racism is not to say it isn’t wrong or that it isn’t bigotry. It is merely to insist on the correct language….
Rep. Pressley doesn’t belong with AOC, Omar and Tlaib:
Watching the four-woman “squad” respond to President Trump’s already famous Tweets urging “progressive” Democrats to “go back” to their “original countries,” one wonders why Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts would want to be lumped in with the other three. Pressley’s remarks were standard-issue liberal, but restrained and dignified in the face of Trump’s out-of-bounds comments….
Judge nails lawyer in bogus suit vs. Chevron:
Yes, the U.S. justice system can indeed discipline corrupt lawyers.
A federal judge has lowered the boom on the attorney who for more than a decade has tried to press what the judge has called a “fraudulent” environmental lawsuit against the Chevron energy company.
Good. The lawyer has done damage not just to the ideal of justice under the law, but quite arguably has hurt the very Ecuadorean villagers on whose behalf he claims to be acting…..
