Words create situations.
"If persons of influence have stated words that have created a dysfunctional understanding of one another (as a peril, as a virus, as a disease, as less than human), then those words will not return empty."
Do y’all agree with Dr. Rah? I do. It evokes the prophet Isaiah (“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.”) and Hans-Georg Gadamer (“The meaning of a text goes beyond its author not only occasionally but always.”). Words create situations. Functional and dysfunctional understandings. Words form and deform minds regardless of what we mean or think we mean when we write them, speak them, or cast them off on the oceans of Internet. Impact and intention will differ not just sometimes but always.
Dr. Rah’s statement is offered among other testimonies provided by Asian American leaders in response to this question: “What do you most want churches and church leaders to either know about or do in response to the increased racism and violence in the U.S. against the Asian American community during the pandemic - and the murders this week in Atlanta?”
In a nation of equals, are we responsible for the lies, slurs, and disinformation we allow others to voice in our presence unchallenged?