Dehumanization without dehumanizing language: "I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life"

"I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life", said Amy Cooper to Christian Cooper in Central Park on Monday, 25 May. If "African-American" is a neutral term, then in doing the racist thing – calling the police when "an African-American man" challenged her – she repeatedly used language that isn't considered racist at all. She was able to appeal to structural racism without offensive language. One of Terrance Hayes's "American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin" imagines how "[e]ven the most kindhearted white woman" could "chant inwardly" along to the n-word in hiphop. She might then angrily use it – but Amy Cooper didn't. Dehumanization doesn't require dehumanizing language. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 30 May)