[Ads-l] newly "offensive" term

[Chris Waigl]

I don't have much patience for "offensive" as an absolute category. (To the
racist, the expectation to treat people of color equally is offensive,
therefore the term is not a good marker of a moral status.) However, "chain
migration" instantly stood out to me as falling into the category of words
from a totalitarian ideology, as would also be obvious to anyone in your
typical German 10th grade (or thereabouts) unit on the language of
totalitarianism. (Such a unit is, of course, not meant to teach linguistics
but rhetoric - the ability to recognize, classify and evaluate metaphors,
figurative language, connotations and the use of language to manipulate).

A neutral description of the phenomenon in neutral terms would refer to
family reunification. An analysis would include the dimension of human
rights (the protection of family life) and/or pragmatic terms (selection of
immigrants that have already support structures in place). A statistician
or quantitative anthropologist might talk about tree structures and
migration patterns. "Chain migration", on the surface, selects categories
that activate fears ("being forced to be overrun by immigrants" and the
like).

The added layer of connotation in a country where a substantial part of the
non-white population indeed descends from people who were forcefully
"migrated" in literal chains adds another layer of meaning (you might call
it something between clumsy and detestable, depending how much you are
inclined to excuse the speaker's infelicities) that necessarily must
resonate with some more than with others. For me, it's secondary to my
immediate objection to the expression.

Chris

On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 9:52 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/01/12/sen_
> durbin_chain_migration_is_offensive_to_those_whose_
> ancestors_came_to_us_in_chains.html
>
> [Sen.] Durbin continued: "When it came to the issue of, quote, 'chain
> migration,' I said to the president, do you realize how painful that term
> is to so many people? African-Americans believe they migrated to America in
> chains and when you talk about chain migration, it hurts them personally.
> He said, 'Oh, that’s a good line.'
>
> On CNN, Sen. Menendez has just forcefully called the phrase "obscene," for
> much the same reason.
>
> Since I now realize that "chain store" must really mean "a slave-dealing
> establishment," I am dropping it from my idiolect.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org