Don’t Say Slave

The National Association of Realtors has decided to drop the use of the word Master in describing properties as in Master Bedroom and replace it with the word Primary. The reason being the term’s association with that period in American history when people were held in involuntary bondage.

But if the word master is a reminder of that dehumanizing period — what about the word slave itself? Slave comes from Slav or Slavic — the quarter of a billion people native to the region between Western Europe and the Western Pacific Ocean and who now live everywhere throughout the entire planet.

The term Slave originated with the Vikings. Most of us are familiar with the Vikings — Scandinavians who sailed westward conquering the British Isles and Normandy. And whereas those Scandinavians Vikings who originated in present day Norway and Denmark sailed primarily west, there were also Vikings in present day Sweden who sailed east and south into present day Russia and Ukraine. There they encountered farmers and villagers of Slavic origin whom they captured and sold off into involuntary bondage — referring to their entire population as Slaves.

So if the word master is dehumanizing — how about the word slave? And not only to those who were held in involuntary bondage but to the quarter of a billion people on our planet of Slavic descent — Slavs — and their entire culture. So what should we call those people who were held in involuntary bondage? How about the correct term for what they actually were — bonded persons. And how about the word slavery? Once again, use the correct term for what that dehumanizing institution actually is — involuntary bondage.