The Guardian: Avoid Using The Term ‘Wealthy Elite’ And Instead Say ‘The Powerful Few’ to Not ‘Trigger Antisemitism’

Chris Menahan

Criticizing the “wealthy elite” is anti-Semitic, according to new speech codes from the “Reframing Race initiative” covered by the Guardian on Tuesday.

From The Guardian, “Avoid phrases that link negativity with blackness, anti-racism report recommends”:

Phrases and words that link negativity with blackness and positivity with whiteness – such as “black mood”, “dark times” or “whiter than white” – reinforce racist connotations and should be avoided, an anti-racism initiative has recommended.

Reframing Race has put together a report titled Contains Strong Language to equip anti-racism and racial inequality campaigners with the words that have proven most effective in persuading people of the “harm and structural nature of racism”.

The guide says associating whiteness with purity, cleanliness and goodness, and blackness with evil and destruction serves to “reinforce harmful tropes and the constructed racial hierarchy in which ‘black and minoritised’ people are pushed to the bottom”.

It also suggests using images or visual descriptions that apply only to white people – such as “blushing red”, “ashen faces” or “lips turning blue” risks othering black or minoritised people and should be avoided.

[…] Other recommendations include avoiding the phrase “white working class” and rather using “multi-ethnic working class” or “working-class people of all ethnicities” because the use of the former wrongly excludes black and minoritised people from the class group.

It also suggests avoiding the use of the term “wealthy elite” and rather saying “the powerful few” as the former phrase can trigger antisemitism and feed the conspiracy theories of far-right white nationalists.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said a few years ago he prefers the term “people of means.”

Instead of using the word “racism”, campaigners should talk about the “ideology of racism” or the “practice of racism” as overuse of the standalone term racism without additional information or context can create an “unavoidable fog”.

Other recommendations including referring to ethnic minority people rather than ethnic minorities as the latter term is dehumanising.

The shifting goalposts is just comical. It’s even funnier that some of these sayings are being pushed from the top down on the GOP by “the powerful few.”