Constable: What to call people? Just plain folks
Last week in a column about Deerfield High School's being the first in the nation to perform the LGBTQ+ play “Making Gay History: Before Stonewall,” I had a hankering to use the preferred pronoun “they” for a student who identified as nonbinary. Happy to do it. If a person doesn't feel comfortable being referred to as “he” or “she,” it's really not a problem for me to use “they.”
But I didn't do it. People, especially those with an inner grammarian, stumble while reading sentences such as, “They says that they is going to be late.”
To avoid a focus on the pronouns instead of the reason for the column, I followed the advice of The Associated Press Stylebook and my editor and wrote around the issue by using the student's name instead of a pronoun. If I hadn't known the student's name, I'm not sure what I would have done.
I know people who identify as male who have been mistakenly called “miss” or “ma'am,” and I know people who identify as female being mistakenly referred to as “sir.” The problem gets even worse when we struggle to address a group of people.
“Ladies and gentlemen” seems outdated, and rarely appropriate given the crowd might have people who don't qualify as either. I like to use “guys” when I'm talking to our three sons, but it's not always appreciated by groups. Saying “guys” to a group of four men and their one female friend might be insulting to the female. Saying guys to a group of four people who identify as male and their one friend who identifies as nonbinary can also be insulting. And saying “gals” to a room full of people who identify as female just never seems right.
I appreciate “y'all,” as it accurately depicts a group, regardless of gender. But it just seems a bit too Southern for me, and I don't want to be accused of cultural appropriation.
Thankfully, I am a strong supporter of one word used all the time by President-elect Joe Biden. Never have a president and I been so in sync when it comes to vocabulary. I suspect neither of us knows all the best words, but we do know one — “folks.”
In the first appearance he made in Iowa as a presidential candidate, Biden used “folks” more than 30 times in a single speech. Folks was the first word out of his mouth in his first speech after the election, and he went on to use it another half-dozen times. Because it's the perfect word.
In a quick search, I discover that I've used it hundreds of times in my 32 years of writing this column. I used it growing up in a farm community, where we had plenty of country folks. I used it living in the city, where I was surrounded by city folks. I still use it in the suburbs, because folks is folks.
Former President Barack Obama used “folks” frequently in speeches. In the second presidential debate between Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama used “folks” 17 times and Romney used it three times and “binders of women” once. You know who won that debate. A 2014 BuzzFeed analysis found that Obama said “folks” 7.3 times per every 10,000 words. That far eclipsed the previous presidential record of 2.2 “folks” per every 10,000 words by George W. Bush.
Bush once took some heat for referring to al-Qaida as “the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th,” because folks seems too nice in that sentence. I'd have said “the very same folks WHO attacked us on September the 11th,” but I'm OK with his “folks” use.
President Donald Trump doesn't like “folks” as much, but he has used it to refer to the media at his rallies. Trump prefers “people,” as in “very fine people on both sides.”
In Chicago, folks did have a rough go of it a generation ago because alliances of street gangs were split between Folk Nation and People Nation, and people and folks didn't get along.
But no one thinks of gangs when they hear “folk music,” “folk tales,” or just plain old “folks.”
If Biden builds on Obama's record use of the word, he'll be my folk hero.