“Fist Jab”
When the word “jab” first came into politics, it was used so innocently. The second syllable of a two-syllable nonsense phrase, naming the website where funny videos were (and are) shown. Now, though, our language is being corrupted by these whipper-snappers who would have you think that “jab”‘s only place in political discourse is at the end of a very nocent phrase:
(the video’s worthless after about 10 seconds)
More seriously, Arnold Zwicky has a post up at Language Log in which he decries the usage of the term “Terrorist Fist Jab“, regardless of context. The post is uncharacteristic of Zwicky and Language Log in general in that it comes off as a politically-correct piece of prescriptivism. The article is a history of recent usage, both in language and in visual media, of the fist jab since the Obamas’ infamous incident. Zwicky ends with an ominous warning against using the term “terrorist fist jab”, even in jest, lest “such uses of the expression [...] reproduce nasty (and false) claims about African-Americans.” Apparently, the linguist has never heard of irony.
When I first saw the Obama fist bump, I didn’t even realize what I was seeing. Not because I didn’t recognize the gesture, but because it was one that even my white ass uses so often myself that I didn’t realize it was out of the ordinary. The next day, a friend mentioned it to me, and when I expressed ignorance to what he was talking about, he sent me a link to a Baltimore Sun article about the gesture. The article was, as I put it to him, “one of the most naive, stupid, and uninformative articles ever.” It was so bad I almost don’t want to link to it, but here it is.
Little did I know that, at nearly the same time, a commentator on Fox News was describing the gesture as a “terrorist fist jab.” Now, no one has ever accused Fox News of being fair and balanced, but such obvious (to me) slander was a bit surprising even from that news outlet. Other outlets continued to make a big deal of the simple gesture, culminating in the New Yorker’s making fun of the whole fiasco in their satirical cover, posing the terrorist Obamas in mid-bump, which all the news outlets decided to make a big deal out of again. Le sigh.
So, this is where Zwicky comes into it. When I realized how big of a deal was being made about the simple and common gesture, I began using the phrase “terrorist fist jab” instead of “bump” when extending my fist towards someone in valediction, in irony. Why? Because it’s a tell. It’s a comment on the ridiculousness of the media, who show themselves to be so out of touch when they write exposés on the “primarily black” phenomenon and can’t make up their mind whether it’s unamerican or “racially hip” to fist bump. The whole thing is just so damn stupid, and those of us who use the phrase ironically (I don’t pretend to have pioneered that usage: it was pretty obvious) are showing that we’re in the know, that we’re hip, that we’ve been using the gesture for years, and that everyone else just doesn’t get it because they’re trying to read too much into something that really isn’t that interesting. In condemning the use of the term, even in irony, Zwicky is showing that he isn’t hip, either.
The Language Log linguist is correct to point out that in the interwebs no one can hear you be sarcastic, and one should thus be careful whilst typing rather than speaking, but he is overly worried that the usage will promote “nasty (and false) claims about African-Americans”. When 14-year-olds in 98% white towns in rural Alaska (that would be me, 8 years ago) learn the fist-bump as an alternative to a high-five, the fist bump is no longer an African-American thing. If it ever was, it hasn’t been for a long time, so anyone worried that the ironic usage obviously doesn’t get it. And really, when someone uses the term ironically, that’s the whole point.
