America, Semantics “The uneasy way we discuss ghettos and gentrification says something about our discomfort with the real-estate market…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 January 2017 The uneasy way we discuss ghettos and gentrification says something about our discomfort with...
Races in America, Semantics “This is the end result of redefining racism to mean malice in one’s heart” Author Drew Kaplan Date 31 August 2016 Trump…seems to understand that charges of racism are essentially toothless, because the bar of...
Races in America, Semantics “’Racism’ spent the first half of the 20th century in competition with another word, ‘racialism’, though neither featured prominently in our national conversation” Author Drew Kaplan Date 25 August 2016 The first cited use of “racism” in The Oxford English Dictionary comes from 1902,...
Semantics “The right-wing rhetoric around ‘P.C.’ has always made use of martial metaphors…with a sly wink” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 August 2016 The right-wing rhetoric around “P.C.” has always made use of martial metaphors — the...
Semantics, Technology “The word” smart “is flattering to both the objects and their users, even as it threatens to become a hazy banality” Author Drew Kaplan Date 4 July 2016 In the land rush to digitize the world, the home is the new frontier....
Semantics “The vogue for ‘smart’ traces at least as far back as the ‘smart bomb,’ precision-guided munitions made to be more accurate than the dumb bombs of wars past…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 23 June 2016 The vogue for “smart” traces at least as far back as the “smart bomb,”...
Semantics “‘A thing’…corresponds to a real need we have, to catalog and group together the items of cultural experience, while keeping them at a sufficient distance…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 21 June 2016 Clearly, cultural phenomena have long existed and been called “fads,” “trends,” “rages” or have...
Semantics, Sexual Assault/Rape “The preference for ‘survivor’ over ‘victim’ is a shift in language that is as much ideological as linguistic” Author Drew Kaplan Date 19 June 2016 The preference for “survivor” over “victim” is a shift in language that is as...
Semantics “The word ‘thing’ has, of course, long played a versatile and generic role in our language, referring both to physical objects and abstract matters” Author Drew Kaplan Date 17 June 2016 The word “thing” has, of course, long played a versatile and generic role in...
Semantics “…now ‘bro’ has been ripped from its life as a teasing term of endearment and description of camaraderie and plunked into the sociopolitical swamps of entitlement and privilege” Author Drew Kaplan Date 15 May 2016 Courtesy of “Jersey Shore,” the bro became evidence of ridiculous male friendship, like the...