By Anthony Garcia
April 2, 2014
As a society, the primary way we respond, communicate and talk to each other is through the use of language.
The beauty of the English language is that there is so much diversity and there are so many different ways we can use it.
For the most part, this leads to interesting, dynamic dialogues where we can learn from each other. But sometimes, this can lead to dangerous and precarious forms of speech that are downright terrible.
The term “rape” seems to be thrown about left and right into our everyday conversations and it seems that we have lost the actual meaning of the word.
In his heyday, Bobby Knight was know as the fiery, hard-nosed coach at Indiana University who led the program to several national championships while becoming the all-time leader in wins in college history.
Just a few days ago, the legendary college basketball coach demonstrated just how conformable we seem to have gotten with using that term.
In an interview with CBSSports.com, Knight was asked how he felt about college basketball players playing only one year in college before jumping to the NBA.
“The NBA does a tremendous, gigantic disservice to college basketball. It’s as though they’ve raped college basketball in my opinion,” Knight said.
Let’s take a moment to let that sink in.
Dictionary.reference.com says the definition of rape is, “the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse” and “any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.”
Now, I am not the smartest man around nor am I the expert on the English language, but I am pretty sure there was no mention of basketball or the NBA anywhere in that definition.
I understand the relevance of metaphors and analogies and I see the point that Knight was trying to convey.
In his opinion, what the NBA is doing to college basketball is wrong; I get that and appreciate that point of view. But the idea that “rape” should be mentioned in that same sentence is ridiculous and actually is an insult to survivors of sexual assault.
One of our professors here, David Perry, penned a fantastic piece for CNN.com about an actual rape conviction being overturned by a judge.
Perry wrote about how the woman was raped three times over the period of one night, how women with disabilities are more likely to be assaulted and how a teacher’s rape conviction was overturned to just 31 days since the victim “was as much in control of the situation.”
This is what rape is.
Or how about during everyday conversation?
I’ve heard the word used commonly in place of other words, especially in the world of video games and sports. It isn’t uncommon to hear something uttered over Xbox Live like, “Dude, I just totally raped you” or “jokingly” threaten to rape someone.
It’s important to realize that I think when some use the term in a light-hearted manner, I don’t think they advocate or support raping another human being, at least I hope they don’t.
I think as a society, we have just made it okay to use the term lightly and treat it as nothing or as a joke. In reality, it’s the furthest thing from that and should never be treated as such.
Words are a powerful thing and I think Bobby Knight was trying to express an opinion that he feels strongly about.
But as humans, our vocabulary is vast and there are many other words to choose from to describe something that you see as unfair and unjust.
Rape should not be one of those words.