General rule for understanding #Racism in Language: If a word has been used to exert violence and cause death, do not rely on that word.

The words are too many and too well known to require any sort of specific enunciation by this writer.

However, this writer has seen such proliferation of demonstrations of ignorance of language in online posts that this simple guide is sadly necessary:

If you are using a word, a concept, or a notion that previously and continually have been used to justify violence or death:

Do not use that word.

Your concept inherently does not justify your argument.

Your very notion is wrong and invalid.

Find a different phrase.

That is a general guideline. There, you did it. IT is a general guideline.

If you are interested in understanding further examples that are not mentioned here, the solution is quite simple:

Read. Read things you might not have read previously.

Discuss. Discuss from points of views that expand beyond your own.

Join us in our shared effort to become better.

If you learn or already know a word that is derived from a word that has a history of invoking nothing but fear or death when spoken through an appropriation with a lack of communal authentication, simply drop that word from your vocabulary.

You know the word and you respect the word and its history and its historicity of speaker and audience,

And that is why you don’t use the word—

Doing so does nothing but reveal your total disregard for life.

In the opinion of this writer,

Revealing so should hold a much higher penalty than community service.

You are not using your right to freedom of speech. You are abusing it.

You are discrediting it.

You are making it harder to defend it.

You are antithetical to your very argument.

You are weaponizing speech, not with arguments of logic, but with threats of terror.

Speech should be valued. So few of this planet are guaranteed it.

It is our greatest argument for our exceptionalism.

Our speech deserves our care, dedication, and effort.

I see this as a moral issue: speech, its freedom, protection, and of its responsible use.

Not everyone does—- but even if your argument requires a profit based capital one:

Effective communication creates sales, creates best business practices, and generates more profits.

It’s just the right thing to do.