Probably one of the most ridiculous pursuits of the modern American conservative movement is the attempting of the suppression of pronouns. Yes, pronouns!
First, let's define a pronoun. According to dictionary.com, a pronoun is:
"any member of a small class of words found in many languages that are used as replacements or substitutes for nouns and noun phrases, and that have very general reference, as I, you, he, this, it, who, what. Pronouns are sometimes formally distinguished from nouns, as in English by the existence of special objective forms, as him for he or me for I, and by nonoccurrence with an article or adjective."
In other words, it is word that can replace a name. For example, one can say "Don is a good driver." You can replace "Don" with "He", in which case you would say "He is a good driver." "He" being a pronoun replacing ""Don".
Another example is, "The Eagles are a good team." or "They are a good team." In this case "they" is the pronoun replacing "Eagles".
Now that we know what a pronoun is, how many are there? There are over 100 pronouns in 10 catagories in the English language. Pronouns are so common, that you use them all the time without even knowing.
So what's the problem? The LGBTQ+ community has historically been one of the most marginally groups in the county. Now they demand to be recognized and to be addressed with their own pronouns of them/they. Which begs the question: is it really a problem? Apparently, for white conservatives, it's a major problem. It is such a problem, that in order to protest pronouns, they've chosen their own pronoun: "patriot". Here's the problem, "patriot" is not a pronoun, it's a noun. A noun identifies a person, place, or thing and can be replaced by pronouns such as he, she, it, they, etc. No one has ever accused conservatives of being great thinkers.
So what is the real problem? Control of the narrative.
Let's remember where we are in the "good old U.S of A." White male supremacy has never been a secret, yet it is vociferously denied by white supremacists. One of the tools of white supremacy is control of the narrative in everything. The continued lie that Civil War was about "states rights" is an example. The false argument that the United States was founded on "Christian values" is another lie. Westward expansion based on "Manifest destiny" is yet another lie used to control the narrative of continued European imperialism and genocide. Even the denial of the genocide of Native Americans is just another way to control the historical narrative.
White male supremacists have even sought to control what others are called. This control even extended to white women. Whereas white men demanded you call them "Mister" or "Sir". White working women were expected to be single and were usually referred to as "girl". For example a woman with a job was called a "working girl". A woman who concentrated on her career wss called a "career girl." You would never think to call a man a "working boy" or "career boy".
Women were often fired if they got married. Women weren't even allowed to vote until the early 20th century. Women were barred from contraception (a concept returning to America). Women were barred from wearing pants until many brave women shrugged of that rule. Women couldn't keep their maiden names by law. This changed in 1976 as States began to change that.
Native Americans suffered greatly under white supremacist domination. They were forced to take the white man's language, culture, and religion. Their children were kidnapped and placed in schools to "Americanize" (indoctrinate) them. These measures were taken after genocide failed.
Africans suffered as badly if not worse than Native Americans. Kidnapped forced into slavery and forced to take the white man's language, religion, culture, and forced to accept generational servitude.
Although slavery ended, white supremacy continued to be the guiding philosophy of white American culture. It manifested itself as segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisment, violence, and dehumanization. Dehumanization in what way? By refusing to recognize a man as a man.
African American males were referred to as "boy". In the case of train porters, males were referred to as "George".*
In addition to equality in all aspects of life, the Civil Rights Movement also demanded that African men be recognized as men. This, inexplicably caused much anger amongst white Americans.
Women also demanded equality. Not just in society, but in the workplace as well. As part of this protest was the demand for equality as a human being. Women no longer wanted to be known as "Mrs." or "Miss", but as "Ms." White males simply scoffed at the feminist protesters and called them "feminazis", again, trying to control the narrative.
This brings us back to the LGBTQ+ community and their choice of pronouns. Again, white supremacistsare upset over this perceived outrage. Again, they are losing control of the narrative. Again, they need to demonize and dehumanize the victims and turn the tables and pretend that not only are the white supremacist the victims, but the saviours as well. Only they know what's best for us.
*"George" was a derogatory term for African male porters who worked for railways in reference to the developer of the sleeper car, George Pullman.
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