Coded Language
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Welcome to Sociology Level 1, Lesson 3: Coded Language
In this lesson, you will learn about:
Coded language and its uses
Examples of coded language
Objectives
By the end of this lesson you will understand:
What coded language is and why it is used
How to spot coded language
How coded language is used to mask racism
How coded language enables institutional racism
Additional objective for those that have studied Cognitive Dissonance
By the end of this lesson you may understand:
How coded language eases white society’s collective guilt
Most racists today do not like to admit they are racist. This intellectual dishonesty stems from white society, which has decided to pretend that racism is no longer a serious issue. As white society puts on a liberal face while covertly practicing racism, so do white individuals.
White society, and by extension white individuals, are wracked with guilt. This guilt has forced white people to invent pseudo-intellectual explanations for their racism. It is no longer deemed acceptable to declare a hatred of “niggers”, as it is now taught that this type of behaviour is evil. Therefore, society has been forced to make these kinds of declarations in terms that are not explicitly racist.
Coded language is the term used to describe this, as society can espouse it’s racism without appearing to do so. Words are used in political discourse to evoke a particular image in the mind's eye of white (and even non-white) individuals. Buzzwords that are perpetuated by the media become attached to a particular demographic, and individuals can then use these same words without having to feel guilty about their racist connotations.
Words such as “thugs” have become widely used in white American mainstream media. When a group of Black men have been convicted of a crime or been involved in something deemed unlawful, white society attaches this word to them guiltlessly. However, when white men destroy property over an NFL game or decide to open fire inside a school, this word is mysteriously absent.
“Gangs” is another word that serves the same purpose. Despite a plethora of films based on white gangsters released by Hollywood over the years, the word “gang” has become so synonymous with “Black men” that most people forget white organised crime even exists!
The term “knife crime” is consistently used to describe Black youth violence in London. Despite the fact that the “knife-crime capital” of Britain has consistently been places where almost zero Black people live, the term has been used to exclusively demonise young Black men. Racist individuals can speak of their disdain for Black youths without having to mention race once.
Coded language not only permits individual racism, but allows for institutional racism to go ahead unabated. The War on Drugs was the most significant example of the use of coded language for political gains. On the surface, it appeared an honest initiative to rid the USA of illegal substances. But in reality, it was a way to demonise and imprison Black people. In the words of President Richard Nixon himself, “the whole problem is really the Blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognises this while not appearing to.” This is the essence of coded language. When Nixon declared illegal drugs to be “public enemy number one”, society knew what he really meant.
When people are confronted with questions of racism, coded language enables plausible deniability. White people can then project the idea that racism is all in Black people’s heads, as to them, not using explicitly racist language = proof there is no racism. One must be mindful of this rhetoric and see through the buzzwords whose original meanings have been twisted to fit a racist narrative.
