From “Man” to “Resistance," Oppressors Always Fear Words
Stories, and the words that compose them, change the world.
Someone, in putting ink to paper, was the first person to indelibly record the attempt to reclassify a human being as property. In the moment, that human wasn’t given 2,000 words to make their counter argument. But that earliest instance established the ongoing dynamic whereby oppressors must constantly fear the words that will show them for what they truly are.
From the arrival of enslaved people in 1619 in what later became America, through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and continuing today, we have countless examples of oppressors’ attempts to control language to avoid shame or public scrutiny. For our first 350 years, the words “person” and “man” were restricted, determined to mean white people, white men, the modifiers implicit. In that milieu, it was an act of resistance for a Black man to refer to themselves as just that “Man.” They were “boy,” or far worse, but certainly not a man, at least not five fifths of one. The oppressive forces of slavery, our racist founding fathers and Constitution, and then Jim Crow had redefined Black people out of “man” and “person” and so it was in calling themselves men that they used the very words that limited and held them back, to highlight that oppression, centering it, forcing people to grapple with it.
It is in this way that words are dangerous. Without words there would be no change, no struggle, no resistance. Words inspire, words comfort, words unite. Words allow us to communicate, and learn, across distance, time, and struggle. When asked why I write (for Public Square Amplified), I said “Stories, and the words that compose them, change the world.” This is why words are always the enemy of the oppressor and a tool of the oppressed.
So it’s no surprise that in 2023, words were still being singled out, and used to justify oppressive acts. In 2023, in West Orange, NJ, “resistance” was redefined as hate speech. After approving a permit to hold a Palestinian flag raising, the Township revoked the permit because the phrase “Palestinian Joy is Resistance” appeared on the flyer for the event. All it took was a few loud voices to redefine a word that has over a century of history in our country, culminating in one of the largest expansions of human rights in history, to be hate speech. Unfortunately West Orange officials were all too willing to help.
“Resistance - the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.*”
* Offer not valid in West Orange, NJ
Redefining “resistance” as hate speech was an attempt to shut an oppressed group out of the public sphere. A group whose very existence is controversial in the eyes of their oppressors. So we must ask, whose joy is allowed? Is Black joy, LGBTQIA+ joy, female joy, permitted?
In an ironic, or maybe sad, twist, Palestinian Joy was, ultimately, resistance. Instead of the banned flag raising the organizers held an extremely successful and well attended celebration of Palestinian culture next to a bare flag pole. Somehow even the American Flag that flies there 364 other days a year chose to side with the oppressors. The Administration decided no flags would fly at Town Hall that day. But if the word resistance is hate speech then what are these acts of resistance against hate?
And so then we say to you now as you look around this crowd, when history is written, when it's all said and done. They will say of you and they will say of me. There stood a generation that would not bow down. There stood a generation that stood in solidarity. There stood a generation who believed in the poor. And they'll say of you, and they'll say of me, well done, well done, well done.
And the oppressors weren’t done yet. Next they asked for West Orange officials to redefine anti-Semitism, undermining its long established meaning, corrupting and cheapening it to include criticism of the oppressive Israeli State. The Resolution they presented to the Town Council relies on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism that sloppily lumps criticism of Israel in with blatantly anti-Semitic tropes and acts. This misguided definition has been denounced by Holocaust scholars and survivors, free speech advocates, and human rights organizations. Even its lead author has said it’s being misapplied when weaponized in this way. So why was it so important to pass in whole, without removing the flawed portions of the language? To chill speech. To try and control words by keeping them from being said or written. Because once words escape, nothing can recapture them, nothing can contain them.
Again, Township officials complied, and chose to participate in the oppression. Without dwelling on the massive failure of leadership and corruption of the political process both these incidents represent, they both highlight the power of words, even two single words: Resistance, Anti-Semitism. It is this power that makes words so dangerous to those who wish to appear to seek dialog, but fear the outcome if that dialog is conducted on a level playing field. When enforcing oppression, words are dangerous, far more dangerous than acts, because words have much further reach. Words are free, words can often be put into the world without consequence, words can be everywhere all at once.
While protests can be funneled, kettled, or shut down, words cannot. Words, once spoken, or written, float on the breeze. They reach all corners of a room, a town, or a country. They cannot be bombed, run over with tanks or police cruisers, or imprisoned without charge. Words are bombs. But they are bombs that are free to obtain, bombs that can be used over and over, bombs that hurt, scar, or mar, but don’t cause devastating “collateral damage” or outrage against those that drop them. Words are a super weapon.
Words can be seen by children. Children who might discover them and actually read them, not knowing that the oppressors have decided these particular words are not permitted. They could change minds. Children’s minds. Even the oppressors’ childrens’ minds. So words must be stopped at all costs. Words cannot be destroyed. They cannot be unwritten, unheard, unread. This makes words incredibly dangerous, especially when those words may be used to document your oppression of others.
“Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor.” ― Malcolm X
So what can you do? We can say words, read words, write words. We can amplify the words of the oppressed. We can contest the restriction of words, whether that be through chilling speech, or banning books or curriculum. So here are three things you can do today to protect words:
The New Jersey Legislature is considering a similar Resolution. So contact your two Assemblymembers and your State Senator and tell them to oppose SJR48, A3558/S1292, and S2937 because the IHRA definition needlessly defends the indefensible actions of the apartheid, occupying Israel Government, infringes on speech, and provides cover for actual anti-Semitic statements and behavior. You sign on to the New Jersey Statement on Antisemitism and Islamophobia and share it with your Representatives as an alternative definition for debate and discussion.
Reach out to your Council, Mayor, and School Board to express your opposition to any Resolution that relies on the IHRA definition and any government actions that will chill or forbid protected speech.
Contact your Representatives and tell them to support the “Freedom to Read Act” A3446/S2421 which establishes protections for books and librarians, and indirectly, for words.
Oppression will end, words are forever.
After writing this I came across this piece by Isabella Hammad and you should read it:
“This focus on the speech used tο support Palestinian rights does more than obscure the context in which protesters are speaking; it also obscures the reality about which they speak.”
Newsletter image by Hannes Wolf on Unsplash