Just like our societies, language evolves with changing perspectives. The recent introduction in dictionaries of the pronoun “iel” aimed at more inclusive writing is a good example of this.
Over time, the use of words and expressions loaded with meaning from another era is abandoned and replaced by uses that are more logically and noticeably linked to the evolution of mentalities. This is how we hardly ever speak of “crimes of passion” anymore, due to the fact that we have finally come to recognize that it is above all not love, but that we now use a single univocal and clear word. : feminicide.
In this effort to finally name correctly what is really in question, would not this be the time to stop the use of the expression “muscular arrest” when we are (again) witnesses of an umpteenth episode of what should we actually name “police brutality or violence”? Particularly when racism intervenes in the situation described, we could well say “brutality or profiled police violence”. We already use “racial profiling” to describe an important part of a larger problem that is systemic racism.
While the CAQ government persists in refusing to recognize this systemic racism, which is ever more evident in the eyes of a growing majority, the simple fact of correctly naming what is in question would advance mentalities even within police forces and thereby change the angle of the debate surrounding this crucial issue.
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