Cops Who Support Derek Chauvin Are Chauvinists

Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd by pressing his knee on Floyd's neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds, cutting off his air supply, lived up to his surname.

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (Second Edition, 2004) defines the word "chauvinism" as "prejudice against or lack of consideration for those of a different sex, class, nationality, culture, etc."

It was stated by a black police official on a radio broadcast that there are police officers across the country who side with Chauvin and believe he did the right thing. Those officers should be called Chauvinists.

Using The Word "Unhoused" Instead Of "Homeless" Removes Stigma And Prejudice

Listening to a newscast on WNYC-AM, a public radio station in New York, the announcer used the word "unhoused" in referring to those lacking a place to call home. It's a reasonable substitute for "homeless." The last syllable of that word ("less") carries with it judgment, stigma, shame. It makes people feel that they are less than others.Whereas "unhoused" has a more sympathetic feeling and sound to it.

The word "homeless" conjures up images of people who wound up that way because of some character flaw, whether true or not.

The ways people lose their shelter are various and not always their fault such as a fire, illness, unemployment, or an unscrupulous landlord.

By referring to those unlucky to be without a home as "unhoused" allows them to be treated with civility, respect, humaneness, and dignity.

The Multi-Talented Stacey Abrams

The first time I heard of Stacey Abrams was when she was running for governor of Georgia in 2018. At the time I was working at a call center in Midtown Manhattan that specialized in political surveys. (We were polling people in Georgia regarding their choice for the governorship.)

The only thing I knew about Abrams was that she was a political candidate and a voting-rights activist.

Last Sunday (May 9, 2021), the New York Times had two articles about her: a Q &A interview in the Book Review and a lengthy profile in the Arts & Leisure section.

To my pleasant surprise there is more to Stacey Abrams than I thought. She is a novelist (writing romance novels under a pseudonym) as well as an avid, eclectic reader (among the authors she has read are David Halberstam, Canadian novelist Robertson Davies, and Charlotte Bronte).

Her latest novel, a thriller called While Justice Sleeps,was recently published by Doubleday. This book, like two previous works of nonfiction, appears under her own name.

When asked by the New York Times Book Review how she organized her books, she responded, "Fiction on one side of the shelves (poetry, classics, general fiction, romance, thrillers, comic books, etc.) and nonfiction on the other side (political biography, general biography, history, science, social science and so on)."

What especially caught my attention was her classification of poetry as "fiction." The New York Times Book Review placed The Hill We Climb by the young poet Amanda Gorman (who read it at President Biden's inauguration) in the "fiction" category; whereas Publishers Weekly classifies it as "nonfiction." The late poet Mary Oliver who wrote poems about her life and the natural world would probably scoff at her work being called "fiction."