Making slurs of religion - Voodoo as a Case Example

[Quintessence]

Using religious affiliations as slurs or snarl words is nothing new to the history of human cultures. Sometimes, they are so pervasive in cultural dialogue that we don't realize we're doing anything wrong. Enter - voodoo. Odds are good that if your primary language is English, you've used or heard "voodoo" used as a slur more often than you've heard it referencing the actual religion from which it derives. The history of using voodoo as a slur is closely related to the history of slavery in Western culture.

"With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I asked 1,000 adults living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion.​

​

Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person.​

​

This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric."​

​

How the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur

Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.

theconversation.com

​

I suppose as a Pagan I empathize because Paganism is also a term that has routinely been used as a slur, albeit for much different reasons. What do you think about the tendency to use certain religious terms of demographics as snarl words? Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias? Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

 

[Bear Wild]

Using religious affiliations as slurs or snarl words is nothing new to the history of human cultures. Sometimes, they are so pervasive in cultural dialogue that we don't realize we're doing anything wrong. Enter - voodoo. Odds are good that if your primary language is English, you've used or heard "voodoo" used as a slur more often than you've heard it referencing the actual religion from which it derives. The history of using voodoo as a slur is closely related to the history of slavery in Western culture.

"With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I asked 1,000 adults living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion.​

​

Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person.​

​

This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric."​

​

How the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur

Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.

theconversation.com

​

I suppose as a Pagan I empathize because Paganism is also a term that has routinely been used as a slur, albeit for much different reasons. What do you think about the tendency to use certain religious terms of demographics as snarl words? Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias? Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

Voodoo or voduo is referring to a very complex fusion of Vodun from west africa and catholic religions. It is a combination of Vodun which involves the human world in relationship to the natural forces of the universe which includes spirit position (and not necessarily in a bad way) with the monotheism of Christianity. There are other similar religions well known in South America. You can imagine how a "rational" modern west views spirit possession and from that ignorance changed into the negative view of voodoo as "primitive" and something bad. Interestingly many who practice paganism have a positive view who have studied these religions with an open mind and found connections with pagan practice. Hollywood loves the "evil" image and uses it to make money. You know just how they used "pagan" and witchcraft to make lots of money though the misuse of ignorance.

Of course we can blame voodoo for the "evil" invention of rock and roll which subverts so many westerners into a spirit possession trance. Rock and roll origins' are deeply connected with voodoo. I have heard that even some performers like Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Little Richard, and others describe a spirit like possession in performance.

 

[ChristineM]

I've just recalled a conversation i heard as a child, i was perhaps 11 or 12. Walking home from shopping with mom we bumped into two neighbours going the other way. The conversation went something like this...

Mom hello Janet, hello Wendy
Janet Hello Barbra, hello Christine.
Wendy, we were just talking of the new fella at number 36.
Mom, oh yes?
Janet (scowling), he doesn't go to church.
Wendy, Mrs B at number 39 says he does voodoo (whispered)
Mom, Oh.
Wendy, you know what that means, Christine, stay away from number 36.
At that point mom said, we have to go. And we left the two gossips to their gossiping

Mom told me to ignore their gossip but I wondered what it means to do voodoo but never found out until i watched Live and let die ;-)

The fella from number 36 started working for my dad for a while, so a saw him around and talked to him quite a lot. He seemed ok to me.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias?

I stopped being as cavalier with the term "hocus pocus" when I found out its origins.

(Making fun of the Latin words in the Catholic Eucharistic sacrament, basically)

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Satanism also comes immediately to mind. Definitely a different sort of discussion because colonialism and abused or replaced Indigenous beliefs is not a big factor in Satanism's history. But it does provoke a big reaction regardless of intent on the part of Satanists.

 

[Left Coast]

Using religious affiliations as slurs or snarl words is nothing new to the history of human cultures. Sometimes, they are so pervasive in cultural dialogue that we don't realize we're doing anything wrong. Enter - voodoo. Odds are good that if your primary language is English, you've used or heard "voodoo" used as a slur more often than you've heard it referencing the actual religion from which it derives. The history of using voodoo as a slur is closely related to the history of slavery in Western culture.

"With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I asked 1,000 adults living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion.​

​

Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person.​

​

This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric."​

​

How the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur

Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.

theconversation.com

​

I suppose as a Pagan I empathize because Paganism is also a term that has routinely been used as a slur, albeit for much different reasons. What do you think about the tendency to use certain religious terms of demographics as snarl words? Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias? Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

Fascinating history that I wasn't aware of for the most part, so thank you.

I think the charge that people who use the term are "cosigning the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric" goes a bit far. I'm betting most modern people use the term in ignorance of its origins.

 

[siti]

Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias?

I have used the word "mumbo-jumbo" as a slur...does that count...I believe the word originates from a Mandinka religious ritual involving a man dressing up as a spirit, making himself look much bigger and taller than he really is and then shrieking and wailing outside the house, and in some cases physically assaulting, one of the many wives of the polygamous man invoking said spirit for the purpose of bringing said wife into proper wifely subjection. We surely wouldn't want any negative use of the term to cloud our view of the positive aspects of polygamy and the violent subjugation of women would we?

In regard to perceptions of voodoo...

...and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person.

Do you think that might at least in part be because practitioners of the voodoo religion ARE more likely to perform animal sacrifices, spirit possession ceremonies, divination, and even "zombification" rituals using "potions" containing neurotoxins and hallucinogens to induce a death-like trance...(and no that stuff was not invented by Hollywood)...things which very much resemble the western traditions of black magic...rather than any "co-signing" of "the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric"...except of course that some of these practices, just like some of the religious practices of other traditions ARE barbaric...except of course that the word "barbaric" itself is a racist slur invented by the Greeks...by using that word, is the author of this study "co-signing" the even longer racist history of that term and promoting the idea that anyone who is not a Greek-speaking Greek citizen is an unsophisticated savage?

...if my wife asks me where the hell I've been and what I've been doing and I respond "what's this, the inquisition?", I am invoking a negative image of a religious practice...but definitely not a racial slur; if a poster puts up an impenetrable paragraph of religiously worded claptrap and I say "what is this mumbo-jumbo?" I am not promoting any negative view of Mandinka religious practice even if a negative view of such practice is warranted...so

Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

Yes! We are making mountains out of ant-hills...except of course that we should be very careful not to offend the ants by inadvertently promoting a negative view of the relative smallness of their homes! (Sorry ants).

 

[Revoltingest]

I won't be changing my vocabulary.
Words evolve, eg, "voodoo" is now an economics term.
A great many others have religious origins, eg, "dickens".
My using such words pales in relative offensiveness to
other things I say.

 

[VoidCat]

I don't typically use the term voodoo unless im talking about the actual religion and only when talking about what i know of it. Just cuz using it any other way would be inaccurate. I used to as a child talk of voodoo dolls but since have learned that that's not a thing. Poppets are a thing however. I have heard the term heathen growing up be used as a slur. To be honest irl I dont really hear folk use the term voodoo often unless it's in a movie as a way to be creepy nor do I hear the term heathen be used unless it's used as a slur. Either way its rare in the real world to hear either.

 

[Father Heathen]

King Diamond had an excellent Album entitled Voodoo:

 

[Bear Wild]

Do you think that might at least in part be because practitioners of the voodoo religion ARE more likely to perform animal sacrifices, spirit possession ceremonies, divination, and even "zombification" rituals using "potions" containing neurotoxins and hallucinogens to induce a death-like trance...(and no that stuff was not invented by Hollywood)...things which very much resemble the western traditions of black magic...rather than any "co-signing" of "the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric"...except of course that some of these practices, just like some of the religious practices of other traditions ARE barbaric...except of course that the word "barbaric" itself is a racist slur invented by the Greeks...by using that word, is the author of this study "co-signing" the even longer racist history of that term and promoting the idea that anyone who is not a Greek-speaking Greek citizen is an unsophisticated savage?

The use of the neurotoxins proposed by Wade Davis has come under considerable criticism including inadequate amounts of the toxin from the samples he actually provided for analysis. As for animal sacrifices well, I do not agree with them, but our modern farming industry is sacrificing life in inhumane ways all of the time. Western society considers anything outside if its realm as primitive. It must be right. I mean why in the world would you thank the spirit of the deer you just killed. That is clearly a "primitive" view or is it. Is our lack of respect for the spirits of animals the real primitive view since we lost so much of our connection with the greater than human world. Their spirit possession is very prevalent in many indigenous societies. Is it illusion or is it real if we have not experienced it. Just something to think about.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Satanism also comes immediately to mind. Definitely a different sort of discussion because colonialism and abused or replaced Indigenous beliefs is not a big factor in Satanism's history. But it does provoke a big reaction regardless of intent on the part of Satanists.

That came to my mind as well after reading the OP, but in fairness, Satanism takes the central villainous figure of at least two major religions and worships or reveres him, whether as a symbolic or literal figure. The negative associations long predate Satanism as a religion, so I think it's unsurprising that they have continued after the foundation of Satanism as its own religion.

 

[Debater Slayer]

What do you think about the tendency to use certain religious terms of demographics as snarl words? Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias? Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

The usage of "pagan" as a slur is common in my culture, and I stopped using the term that way many years ago after realizing that Paganism was a religion and way of life ro many people who harmed no one by practicing it. I think a lot of the usage of other groups' religious terms as slurs is often rooted in a given society's favoring one or more religions over the others and denigrating the rest or being uninformed or misinformed about them.

There are also colloquial antisemitic, anti-atheist, and anti-Christian expressions I have heard that I similarly find highly misinformed and prejudiced.

 

[siti]

The use of the neurotoxins proposed by Wade Davis has come under considerable criticism including inadequate amounts of the toxin from the samples he actually provided for analysis. As for animal sacrifices well, I do not agree with them, but our modern farming industry is sacrificing life in inhumane ways all of the time. Western society considers anything outside if its realm as primitive. It must be right. I mean why in the world would you thank the spirit of the deer you just killed. That is clearly a "primitive" view or is it. Is our lack of respect for the spirits of animals the real primitive view since we lost so much of our connection with the greater than human world. Their spirit possession is very prevalent in many indigenous societies. Is it illusion or is it real if we have not experienced it. Just something to think about.

So there's scientific doubt about the use of neurotoxins...but not about spirit possession or zombification?

Anyway, I agree about our lost connection with the "spirits" of the living entities that we share the planet with (although to be clear, I don't think "spirits" are anything to do with dead things).

In any case, my objection to the study was not on those grounds but on the author's conclusion that the respondents' linking voodoo with "black magic" was based on a "long history" of racist thinking when there's a far more obvious conclusion that it was based on an actual superficial resemblance between them...especially given that one of the study's other conclusions was that respondents seemed to be somewhat ignorant about voodoo.

As for being "primitive", I don't necessarily see "primitive" as a negative attribute...but there certainly are aspects of "primitive" religious practices - whether they originate from Africa, Central America, the Middle East or Rome - that should be stamped out IMO.

 

[Vinayaka]

Using religious affiliations as slurs or snarl words is nothing new to the history of human cultures. Sometimes, they are so pervasive in cultural dialogue that we don't realize we're doing anything wrong. Enter - voodoo. Odds are good that if your primary language is English, you've used or heard "voodoo" used as a slur more often than you've heard it referencing the actual religion from which it derives. The history of using voodoo as a slur is closely related to the history of slavery in Western culture.

"With support from the Public Religion Research Institute, my fellow researchers and I asked 1,000 adults living in the U.S. whether they used the term “voodoo.” Two in 10 respondents, or about 20%, said they had used or heard others use the term at least once a month. The survey found fewer than 1 in 4 considered voodoo to be a religion.​

​

Further, approximately 3 in 10 respondents believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to be involved in criminal activity than the average person, and an astonishing 64% said they believed that followers of voodoo were more likely to practice black magic or witchcraft than the average person.​

​

This survey shows the pervasiveness of these biases that developed to support slavery and imperialism. Therefore, I argue that when someone makes a statement like, “That just sounds like some ‘voodoo’ to me!” they are co-signing the long racist history of the term and promoting the idea that religions from Africa are primitive, evil and barbaric."​

​

How the word ‘voodoo’ became a racial slur

Shows, movies and day-to-day language promote myths about voodoo that reinforce more than a century of stereotypes and discrimination, writes a scholar of Africana studies.

theconversation.com

​

I suppose as a Pagan I empathize because Paganism is also a term that has routinely been used as a slur, albeit for much different reasons. What do you think about the tendency to use certain religious terms of demographics as snarl words? Have there been instances where you've used some of these slurs yourself only later to learn that they were terms of prejudice and bias? Does how we use these words really matter or are we making proverbial mountains out of ant hills?

I think we should try to be more aware than we are, but that's a bit too much too ask. I've said things innocently without knowing the history, but then corrected said behavior after learning about it. Pejorative stuff exists in several older idioms, and over time, we've collectively forgotten it's original intent. What was once an alternative spelling for my faith is now pejorative.