I keep looking at page A3 of the Gazette’s Oct. 28 edition, and the headline, “Racial gaps linger in school discipline.” When I first read it, I did a bit of a double-take.
It was the word “linger” that caught me up. It’s such a nice word. Kind of relaxed and almost sweet, isn’t it? Like what we might do at the end of a lovely summer’s day, not wanting to leave our friends, not wanting it to end. So, I imagined that: Racial gaps lingering, not wanting it to end. Somehow, it didn’t fit.
I’d think of those gaps more loitering, maybe. Or lurking? Or skulking? Lingering has a tone of lounging, but racial gaps, to my mind, seem like they’d more likely be stalking.
Maybe I’m being persnickety in terms of word choice. But I don’t believe so. The words we use dictate the effect of what we say. That seems obvious. We ought to choose words that match the seriousness, even gravity, of the phenomena we’re describing and the message we’re trying to communicate.
I don’t believe that describing racial gaps as lingering does that. I believe it minimizes the issue and makes it seem more or less harmless. And it is not that, at all, in the least, by any stretch of the imagination.
Jonathan P. Levin
Northampton