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- They can't argue over facts... (Issue #20)
They can't argue over facts... (Issue #20)
... so they argue over words.
Chris Musei-Sequeira
July 16, 2025
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Warning: This article discusses the deaths of people and animals.
They cannot argue over the facts… so they'll argue over the words.
Some of them will say that what’s happening in Gaza is not a “genocide” because not enough people have been killed yet… even though the Genocide Convention has no threshold on numbers. They cannot argue over the thousands of videos made by people recording their own deaths… so they'll argue over the word “genocide” instead.
They cannot dispute the fact that over 2,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel before reaching the age of 2… as of August 2024. So they’ll use a phrase: “human shields.” As if to say, “we had no choice; they were just in our way.” As if to say, “We didn’t intend to do it, but the other side forced us to.”
They argue over language because they know that words have power.
Donald Trump knew the power of words in reference to the people who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Did he call them “rioters” or “protesters?” No. He called them the “J6 hostages” and “political prisoners.” Trump couldn't argue over the fact that those people damaged property and attacked police officers. He argued over the words instead, changing them so as not to offend his base.
Wait, wasn’t there a term for that kind of behavior? Let me see… ah yes, here it is: “political correctness.” Black folks, women, people with disabilities, and many more used to be slapped with that term when they argued for more inclusive and equitable language.
That reminds me of a “political correctness” story you may have never heard of. During World War II, the British military assembled a mission to destroy hydroelectric dams in Germany that were providing electricity to heavy industry. This mission was codenamed Operation “Chastise,” and the young men of the Royal Air Force 617 Squadron who flew the mission were dubbed “the Dambusters.” Well… the Dambusters had a black Labrador dog for a mascot, and this cute dog of course had a name: the N-word. Yes, with the hard “R.”
On the day of Operation “Chastise” in May of 1943, the dog was struck by a car and killed. The squadron then laid him to rest and gave him a gravestone with full name intact. In the year 2020 within the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Royal Air Force replaced the dog’s gravestone with a new gravestone where his name had been removed. In response, over 3,000 people signed a petition calling for the name to be restored. “The dog is part of history,” a woman named Dorothy was quoted as saying. History, you say? Well, Dorothy: the Genocide Convention is as rooted in history as a black Labrador named the N-word with the hard “R.”
They want to keep one historical term yet change another historical term. Hypocritical, right?
Wrong.
It’s not hypocritical at all… it’s consistent. And the consistent line between the two areas is simple: Power.
Who gets to have power? Who gets to perpetuate power, and how? And… who is supposed to shut up and politely let themselves be subjugated?
There are people in this world who will do anything to maintain their power. If keeping power means arguing to redefine or replace words they don’t like, then they'll do that. If keeping power means arguing to retain words that they do like, then they'll do that too.
Language matters… and the people in power know it. So when they argue with you about your language, they’re admitting to you that your power is rising. Otherwise, they’d just ignore you.
Keep speaking up.
(Adapted from my video channel on YouTube and TikTok. I think this post is too spicy for LinkedIn and Substack, so thank you for being an email subscriber.)
Where to find the perspectives you’ve been missing
FIRST: Subscribe to the Morning Tinto podcast, where my friend Heather Luna and I use the lenses of oppression and resistance to talk about events that happen right before recording.
SECOND: Subscribe to our professional offers-and-needs networking events announcement list. Heather and I regularly host FREE online events where professionals can offer help (free or paid) and ask other professionals to meet their needs.
THIRD: Follow these awesome folks on LinkedIn:
Heather Luna of keduzi: workshopping pro-connectedness and anti-oppression as a way of life
Lavinia Muth: deconstructing the (un)sustainable fashion industry
Dr. Vidhya Shankar, Ph.D: decentering whiteness in evaluation of non-governmental organization projects
FOURTH: Forward this issue to people you know who are doing decolonial and anti-oppression work.
Got something to say to me?
I’m Chris, the Principal of CJSC, LLC, and I’m (un)learning along with all of you — so hit the “reply” button and give me a piece of your mind!
Know someone who needs to see this issue? Hit the “Forward” button in your email app and send this to them.
My position
My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.
My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.
I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.
Introductory image: File:Forced displacement of Gaza Strip residents during the Gaza-Israel War 23-25.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. (2025, January 29). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forced_Displacement_of_Gaza_Strip_Residents_During_the_Gaza-Israel_War_23-25.jpg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
1 The Dam Busters (1955) ⭐ 7.4 | Drama, history, war. (1955, July 16). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/