Verbal abuse is a tool of social oppression

I want to thank Ardelle Castellana Hirsch for her courage in speaking publicly in her commentary “Smith’s smack was wrong, but it was also oh-so-right,” April 17, about the great harm of verbal abuse. I have seen good people buckle under its weight.

To illustrate one point, Castellana Hirsch wished to conjure a person deserving of scorn. She gave this person, among other traits, broken teeth and bad breath. She did this in a society that condemns the poor to grossly inferior dental care.

I came from modest material privilege. My crumbling teeth in my early 30s came partly from having spent the previous decade or so in school, living on starvation wages while pursuing a degree that reduces earning power by opening relatively lowpaying opportunities. Some people who dropped out of the kind of studies I pursued went to work on Wall Street, making the rich richer by creating complex financial instruments that destabilized our economy.

I think the verbal torment the bookish often endure encourages some of us to become brutes. That the rich benefit seems more than a coincidence. The rich gain in general from a climate of brutality because the concentration of wealth is itself brutal. Without the chance to mock, people would rise up against them, and having mocked, people can be cast as unworthy, justifying their poverty.

The existence of verbal abuse enables some to dismiss a legitimate complaint and righteous anger as incivility, enlisting shame in service of oppression.

Why does verbal abuse persist? To answer most questions about our society, follow the money. James Walsh

Albany