“You violated over one hundred Indian treaties” or “We failed
to end slavery in this country until the middle of the 19th
century.”
A second problem of the (intentional) sloppy use of pronouns is the perpetuation of tribal conflicts. The statement, “We failed to end slavery until the mid 19th century” is meaningless. If the word “we” is replaced by “I” (first person singular), it can’t be true, since I wasn’t alive then. If it is replaced by “you” (everyone left in “we” when I am removed), then it is equally meaningless, since you weren’t alive then either.
A politically-correct use of the word “we” when referring to some historical sense of guilt can easily be corrected by substituting the word “I.” If it doesn’t make sense (“I interned the Japanese Americans during WWII” or “I displaced the Native Americans when I migrated westward”), then use of the word “we” isn’t appropriate either.
The pronoun “you” is even more problematic, because it is
both singular (you as an individual) and plural (you and everyone like you).
Its indiscriminate use automatically creates “us and them” divisions and class
separation. “You discriminated against us.” “You invaded my country.” “You need
to solve your problem with fatherless families.”
The use of “you” and “we” in this way can put the listener
on the defensive, and create barriers to solutions to real problems. Consider instead
the statement, “Due to historical patterns of discrimination, an African
American child born in poverty has an especially difficult time achieving the
American dream.” There isn’t any “you” and “we” here, or an implication that I
personally discriminated against this child’s ancestors. It is more likely that
the listener, as a fellow human being, will be more sympathetic to the plight
of this child and open to solutions.
This isn’t to suggest that historic conflicts between races,
tribal groups, or classes haven’t existed, or aren’t important. But solutions
are more likely to come through appeals to common
humanity and concern for others. When a speaker puts himself or herself in the
“we” camp and the listener in the “you” camp, the divisions and conflicts are
perpetuated.
