Amy Devitt
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Genre-colored glasses

Thoughts on genre, language, grammar, and other
rhetorical and linguistic norms

Who Is Your “We”?

4/8/2019

7 Comments

 
Wooden Letters WE on wall
Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

The Power of Pronouns

​Who is your “we”? 
 
Whenever you say or write the word “we,” who do you mean? Your family? Your colleagues? Your friends? Fellow fans of a team, sport, hobby, avocation, activity? Right-thinking allies? 
 
“We” have a family reunion every year.
“We” raised $4,000 for the public library last quarter.
“We” are working to recruit new students to our program.
“We” root for the Royals (or the Jayhawks, or the Texas Tech Raiders).
 
“We” (by which I mean human beings) define ourselves in part through our communities, our groups—and our pronouns. We show who we think we belong with through who we include in “we” “us” “our” 
 
Who are your “we”s?

​“We” (by which I mean human beings again) also define ourselves in part through who we do NOT include in our “we.”
 
“We” may live in a red state, but at least “we” defeated Kris Kobach for governor.
“We [right-thinking people (joke intended), aka Democrats, progressives, and moderates] defeated Kobach” 
 
Or
“we haven’t fully assimilated African-American citizens.”
 
The last “we” comes from Patrick Buchanan by way of a column from the observant Leonard Pitts, Jr. “Who is we?” Pitts asks. 
“When Buchanan says “we,” he does mean America. But when he says “America,” he means white people.”

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article228894299.html#storylink=cpy

Even as Buchanan states that African-Americans helped build this country, he simultaneously excludes them: “we” have not yet assimilated “them.” “We” must mean white people.
​

The definition of who is included as “Americans” matters in whether “we” Americans will continue as a united nation or fail in the ideals on which the country is founded. ​
“If America fails,” Pitts writes, “…it will be because he [Buchanan] and people like him still arrogantly arrogate unto themselves, as if handed down from the very hand of God, the right to determine who “we” is.
​
And, more important, who “we” is not.”

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article228894299.html#storylink=cpy

“We” includes and excludes simultaneously.
 
It is possible—maybe even likely—that Buchanan is not aware of how his use of “we” excludes African-Americans. He simply arrogantly assumes the whiteness of America. It’s that very lack of awareness about the effects of our words that I fight against. 
 
I’ve written before about how pronouns send subtle messages, as the use of “we” and “you” did in the Inaugural address. While Pitts’ column (or mine) is unlikely to change Pat Buchanan’s perspective, “we” who care about inclusion and fairness and becoming aware of our own biases can do better. We can start noticing who our “we” is and who “we” is not. And we can deliberately include more people as “us”
 
Try for one day noticing who you refer to with those pronouns that include you. It’s hard to notice! And it may take someone else to help us spot the assumptions behind what we say.
 
In my own “we”s I noticed some that were obvious and literal—“we [my friends and I] should try out that new microbrewery.” But I also spotted some that were more subtle and unspoken--
“We aren’t doing enough for the homeless.”
 
When I say, “We need to do more for the homeless,” I’m excluding the homeless from “us” and presuming that “we” with homes are the ones who are capable of making change, without those who are insecure in their housing included in that process except as passive recipients of our good works and largesse.
 
Sometimes we even use “we” to include ourselves in an idea while excluding ourselves from  responsibility for acting.
 “We [by which I mean you, local government officials] aren’t doing enough for the homeless.”
 
Compare that to “We, meaning the community that includes those without homes and including me, need to do more to figure out what to do.”
​
Pronouns reveal the unconscious nature of our language, words we human beings use automatically without struggling to choose just the right word. But sometimes we who care about being aware should choose those pronouns more deliberately. It may take someone else pointing out when we are using pronouns to exclude without awareness. And we definitely need those like Pitts to call out others using pronouns to exclude through prejudice.
 
Those like Connie Schultz in her column on calling Puerto Ricans “they” in contrast to Americans. But that’s a pronoun for another day, one you can start watching in your own language.
 
Part Two to come: Who is your “they”?

Poster Woman Worker caption We Can Do It!
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
7 Comments
Chip Shattuck
4/8/2019 05:54:07 pm

Nice blog - mostly spot on. And knowing about Pat Buchanan I am sure your interpretation is correct.
But it could also mean we, including minorities, are not doing enough to assimilate. There is a large Hispanic population that absolutely does not want to assimilate, no matter how hard the Dallas ISD tries.

Reply
Amy
4/9/2019 01:05:27 pm

I think I understand your point, Chip, but I want to point to the language used and what that assumes that we might not notice. When Buchanan says "we," he is not including African-Americans, whatever their own desires might be. If members of a Hispanic population in Dallas say "We do not want to assimilate," they are making a statement about themselves and others they include in that group, and perhaps they're treating all Hispanic population in Dallas as one group when there are actually multiple attitudes. It's about who the "we" includes when anyone uses that pronoun (and all the others)

Reply
Amy
4/9/2019 01:06:14 pm

Oh, and thank you for commenting, Chip! I appreciate your engagement with the ideas

Chris Grim
4/10/2019 10:29:17 am

Considering Inoue’s recent 4C’s speech, your post has wonderful timing. He used othering deliberately to serve a point, much like many of the persons you mention. Thank you, can’t wait for part 2.

Reply
Amy
4/10/2019 10:45:55 am

What a great connection, Chris! Yes, Inoue started by speaking to people of color (and more) as his primary audience, using "we" throughout that start, leaving those of us not in his "we" excluded deliberately. He wanted us to feel it. When he expanded to include others, he still kept that distinction going sometimes for "we" and at least figuratively a "you" that he was asking to do more. I'll have to go back to his talk to look more closely at Inoue's use of "we" and "you." I'm sure he also did use "we" to include all of us in the room (and teachers of writing) at some points.

Thanks for the connection, Chris! Fantastic

Reply
Lisa Ede
4/11/2019 01:51:05 pm

Loved reading this, and I look forward to part two. The question of who constitutes "we" and "they" in various rhetorical and discursive situations feels especially important in our current political climate.

Reply
Amy
4/15/2019 10:12:42 am

Glad you liked it, Lisa. And I couldn't agree more. Rhetoric and discourse analysis have long understood the power of defining your audience and of defining others as other. But that "we" sometimes seems to be getting narrower every day--and the "they" broader

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    Author
    ​Amy Devitt

    I'm a genre-lover and language nerd who likes to write about the fascinating effects of genres (like grocery lists, blogs, and greeting cards, as well as mysteries and romances) on how we read and write and even live our lives. I also notice grammar a lot, both the "proper" kind and the fun kind, like grammar jokes.  For more, read my post on "What I Notice." I write this blog weekly to point out what I see and in hopes that you will tell me what you see, too. 

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