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The Problem With Tone Policing
The ‘conversational tactic’ is often rooted in a feeling of superiority
The problem with tone policing — specifically online — is that because it’s hard to fully grasp the tone of a statement on the internet, the concept of arguing against, placing judgment on, or dissecting a person’s tone usually comes down to who feels entitled to enact the perceived rules in the space where the discussion is occurring. Also, to lay it plain, it’s dismissive and, depending on the subject matter and people doing the policing, racist.
“Tone policing has roots in colonialism and white supremacist practices that hold individuals to a certain standard in order to be considered acceptable,” writer Naomi Day explains. “Consider Indigenous children who were forced into boarding schools run by the government or missionaries and forbidden from speaking their native languages, which also separated them from their cultures. Respectability politics is another ancestor of tone policing.”
