Get Off My Diction

I am a fan of words. Clearly.  One of the great things about them is that if done correctly, you can get your thoughts across in a concise manner so the other party knows what you were going for.  Sticks and stones? Pfft.  Words are a way more powerful thing.  Remember those “knowledge is power” commercials? Poetry has moved some to tears.  Speeches have inspired nations.  Music lyrics have affected generations. Books have been burned and banned due to content.  Races were denied the right to learn to read.  See what I mean?  Words are a great form of communication, and thusly a massive source of miscommunication.

I’ve been thinking more and more about this miscommunication thing.  Tone, implications, and sarcasm (thanks to Mr. Murell, my 11^th grade AP English III teacher, for making me learn all those literary terms.  Stafford American represent) are major factors in miscommunication. Anybody that’s ever argued with a significant other can tell you that.  But I think one of the simplest (and easiest to fix) causes is lack of definition. 

People have different definitions for words. Remember when Clinton was on trial? And he argued about the definition of “is”? Or have you come across someone who tries to use big fancy sounding words, but they use them wrong and you get that dumbfounded look on your face. And you look at them to see the same dumbfounded expression because they don’t understand why you’re looking like that?  Webster’s dictionary is not the only source of definitions.  They are different based on region, culture, race, age, experiences, upbringing, all kinds of crap. But damn at least let people know what you mean when you say something.  Let’s explore further.

Last week a friend of mine has me over to her house for a girls night in.  Woo hoo.  Drinking and dirty conversations (see: implication by the use of the phrase “girls night in”).    There’s about a dozen of us there. Ranging 21-33 years old.  And we get on the subject of the housing market.  Where we’ve looked.  Where we want to live.  Where the good schools are.  And I tell the group that I love the city and would want to look here.  Not like downtown get a loft in the heart of the city. But still, I wouldn’t mind my zip code starting with 770–.  And they are just appalled.   One of them goes “well the schools just aren’t good in the city”. Ok fine. That’s your opinion, not to be confused with fact.  And another says “well I’d stick to the suburbs.  Sugarland is a good community”.  Then another goes “well you have to be careful because some parts of Sugarland are ghetto.” And thus begins a grave miscommunication.

Now if at that point Kelly would have stopped and been like “when I say ‘ghetto’ I mean a non-gated community” then we could have proceeded with the conversation.  But did Kelly do that? No.  And I was left with the aforementioned dumbfounded look.  I mean I have been to Sugarland.  From First Colony Mall to that little airport they have over there.  The big fat mansions to the apartment buildings.  And none of it qualifies to what I consider to be ghetto.   I wasn’t even thinking in the Jewish sense either. 

I remember a couple months ago when Souljah Boy first hit YouTube (because nowadays everything is viral) and I’m like “superman that hoe?” <insert dumbfounded face>.  Because to me Superman was the best superhero ever.  Not in terms of awesomeness, but just cause he had these great powers.  And a hoe is a hoe. So I’m thinking he’s on some Captain Save-a-hoe type stuff.  Until I stumble upon the wonder that is the UrbanDictionary.  And I type “superman” in.  Up pops several definitions of disgusting feats.  If you get some time, go check out what the kids are singing about these days.

I get the whole concept of taking a word with negative connotation and turning it around to mean something good.  Women call their friends bitches.  If she’s a well to-do friend, she’s a bad bitch.  Term of endearment they say.  Michael Jackson wrote a song about how bad he was.  Some kids aspire to be pimps. How differently would you feel if someone said “you my nigGUH” and opposed to “you a nigGER”. But you have to know the way the person was intending to use the word.  Follow me?

See, there’s this term that the kids like to use, in the whole bad-meaning-good way, that I can’t quite grasp.  Goon.  Confused aren’t you?  Let’s do a little side-by-side comparison.

Webster:

Main Entry:

goon

Pronunciation:

\?gün\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

probably short for English dialect gooney simpleton

Date:

1921

1: a stupid person2 a: a man hired to terrorize or eliminate opponents b: enforcer 2b

Vs. UrbanDictionary:

goon	989 up, 315 down
	a real man or nigga originated in flordia”told her i was a goon and she went for it” -plies(shawty)

 

See. I’m frustrated all over again. 

So please make sure that you try and communicate as effectively as possible.  Know your (simulated) audience.  And most importantly make sure they know what your words mean.  Cause being seen as a goon is not what’s hot (in this case meaning cool ).