The Great Debaters

Words matter. That’s the lesson from a movie I saw this weekend, “The Great Debaters”. It’s worth seeing for historical purposes (though I’ve seen much better performances by Denzel Washington).

The movie describes the unlikely success of a small town Texas college debate team, which made history by bringing an anti-racism message all the way to Harvard University. It was a movie about the power of words to fight racism in the turbulent 1930’s. In the final scene, the character of James Farmer Jr contradicts debate opponents who claim that the rule of law is always right. Farmer begins his remarks, “You know, in Texas they hang Negroes..the government sits idly by and does nothing”.

I was thinking about the power of words and race when I checked my AOL account this morning and saw the headline, “Opposing Groups Hold Jena 6 March”. My first assumption was that two groups on the left were jostling for center stage in protesting racism on MLK day. On closer inspection (after clicking on the headline), AOL reported that white supremacists had marched through Jena, and that opponents of racism had vigorously opposed their presence.

How could AOL have given equal weight to supremacists and civil rights activists in its headline? As it turns out, AOL wasn’t alone in normalizing the role of the white supremacists. The group was described in the Louisiana State University newspaper as the “nationalist movement”, “protestors”, and “controversial”. The USA Today used similar language, using the terms “group” and “some nationalist movement protestors”. If a reader is aware of the group called “the Nationalist Movement”, the coverage may make sense. But many readers are likely to assume that protestors belonged to a movement about “nationalism”, which is defined as “devotion to the interests or culture of one’s nation”.

In contrast, the Detroit Free Press described the group as “armed supremacists” and “reputed white supremacists”. The Associated Press headline used the term “White Separatist group”, and its lead began with the term “A white separatist group…”.

Finding ways to normalize racism - however small, as in a headline - always contradicts our efforts to improve our democracy. Recently feminists and women’s groups protested words uttered by Chris Matthews that they deemed sexist. Matthews ultimately apologized for creating the impression that Hillary Clinton’s remarkable political achievements were spawned by her stoic reaction to her husband’s infidelity.

The Great Debaters also illustrated an important moment for women; the first female debater was added to that team. Civil rights legend Dorothy Height has straddled the struggles for civil rights and for women’s equality for more then seven decades. As I watch the video of Martin Luther King delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech today, I can catch a glimpse of Dorothy Height. In the sea of dark men’s suits surrounding the podium she stands just to the right of King, wearing a stylish leopard print hat.

I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Height a few years ago at a Planned Parenthood event where she spoke about her long support for reproductive freedom. That same year she granted an interview to VOA, where she spoke about gender and the 1964 civil rights march:

“I was with a group of women who objected to the fact that they did not have a woman speaker. The only female voice heard that wonderful day was that of Mahalia Jackson, the great gospel singer. And that was a disappointment because we were not able to get the program turned around so we could have a woman speaker. But, in addition, there was considerable discussion about having seven minutes per speaker and there was a limit in what they would do. And I made the case for Dr. King to be the last speaker. And of course you know he went longer than seven minutes. But everybody agreed to that at the end.”