‘Teen Talk’ forum offers glimpse at how and why words sometimes
hurt
Gilroy – Eugene Yoon freely admits he once used popular slang like “fag” and “that’s so gay” in everyday conversation. Actually he used the words quite “profusely,” he said.
But it wasn’t until the Castro Valley High School graduate jokingly called one of his friends a fag and just happened to notice a gay classmate sitting nearby, that Yoon realized words can and do hurt.
Yoon consequently dropped the words from his vocabulary. That was the story the 19-year-old relayed to a crowd of teens in Gilroy High School’s theater Wednesday during an on-air television forum titled “Teen Talk Live.”
Yoon’s story was his response to a question from a caller who was watching the program, which was aired by Community Media Access Partnership, a local company based at Gavilan College. The caller asked the panel of teens, district and school officials, who volunteered to participate in the forum, why everyone’s adamant about eliminating the phrase “that’s so gay,” when it’s really just harmless slang.
Also, the man wondered why invoking punishments for the use of the word isn’t an attack on free speech. No one addressed the inquiry about free speech, but Yoon did say that the caller had made a good point.
“We don’t want to become oversensitive,” he said.
Yoon agreed that the words aren’t hurtful about 95 percent of the time. Still, although it took him awhile to figure it out, he did come to the conclusion that the homosexual references are disrespectful.
But Yoon’s transformation didn’t end there. The University of California, San Diego-bound teen actually delved head-first into the issue of discrimination at his alma mater.
During his senior year, Yoon’s friend discovered a swastika etched into the exterior of his car. Someone had keyed the car during school but the culprit was never found.
The experience was a wake-up call to Yoon. He never imagined someone would do something so hateful. Yoon decided to direct a film centered around the theme of discrimination and he asked the friend who had been a victim of the anti-Semitic act, to join him.
Yoon and Alex Milan asked students on campus about their experiences with homophobia and discrimination and asked them to rate the severity of a list of slurs on a scale of one to 10. “Nigger” topped the list as the worst.
When Yoon finished the film he was initially worried that the contents might just stir up negativity but he was happy to find out he was wrong. The movie was shown in every class and students even gave him a standing ovation.
Principal James Maxwell, former principal at Castro Valley, invited Yoon to Gilroy High to use his film as the kick-off to the “Teen Talk” forum.
After the movie was shown, students posed questions to the panel, which included Superintendent Edwin Diaz, Assistant Principal Greg Camacho-Light, Sally Enriquez, a GHS teacher, and other students. One of the questions posed to a black student on the panel asked why it’s acceptable for the black community to say “nigger” but taboo for other races.
The student said she thinks blacks who use the word are uneducated and that they need to realize the history of the derogatory word. When Yoon was making his film he was surprised to discover that even though “nigger” is still considered poisonous, the rap industry has really softened the harshness of the word.
“It’s become mainstream,” he said. “There’s just a better way to say ‘what’s up brother’ than that.”
The show will be aired on
Channel 19 in Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista on the following dates:
– Sunday at 7pm
– Tuesday at 4pm
– Wednesday at 7pm
– May 11 at 4pm
– May 13 at 11pm
Will be aired again the following week, check CMAP highlights in the Dispatch for schedule.
