#48: The Language of Fear
In The Thick
Futuro Media
4.9 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2017
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has used a particular kind of coded language. It may not be obvious at first, but take a look at phrases like “America First,” “American Carnage,” and the proposal to change the government program, “Countering Violent Extremism," to "Countering Islamic Extremism.” This language fosters fear of specific groups, including many communities of color.
Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela discuss this and more with Jelani Cobb, Staff Writer for the New Yorker and Leslie Sanchez, contributor for CBS News.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's not something a matter of protection, but it's also you need people to be fearful. |
| 0:05.2 | You need people to be fearful out of proportion to the actual threat. |
| 0:08.8 | And that's what's happening. Hey, welcome to In The Thick. This is a podcast about politics, race, and culture from a POC perspective. |
| 0:18.0 | I'm Maria Ino Hosa. And I'm Julio Ricaldo Barella. |
| 0:21.0 | And in our Harlem studio, oh yeah, the Jollani Cobb, staff writer for the New Yorker and a |
| 0:26.8 | professor at Columbia School of Journalism. |
| 0:28.8 | Welcome, Jalani. |
| 0:30.4 | And joining us from Houston is Leslie Sanchez. |
| 0:33.0 | She's an analyst and contributor for CBS News. |
| 0:35.0 | Hey Leslie. |
| 0:36.0 | Hi guys. |
| 0:38.0 | This week we want to talk about language. |
| 0:40.0 | And, well, I'm sure some of you are thinking that the Trump administration might seem, I don't know, a bit off the cuff in the way that they talk, in the way they address the media, etc. |
| 0:50.0 | In fact, they have been using words purposely designed to present a certain way of seeing the world. |
| 0:55.6 | We're going to start by looking back at Trump's inaugural speech when he used the slogan, |
| 1:00.1 | America First. |
| 1:01.6 | From this day forward, it's going to be only America First. |
| 1:10.0 | America First. |
| 1:12.0 | And this is an isolationist slogan that was popular in the 1930s as a way to |
| 1:16.5 | avoid entering World War II. It's a slogan loaded with an anti-Semitic tone and |
| 1:22.2 | it also speaks to white supremacist history. |
| 1:25.1 | So, Jollani, do you think this was on purpose by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon? |
... |
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