Witch Words

Dehumanizing labels corrode our souls, and lead us toward violence

In 1949, W. E. B. Du Bois testified before the United States Congress in the middle of the Red Scare. In his testimony, he named a dangerous, sometimes lethal, practice common in America’s political discourse.

He called it “witch words.”

“We invent witch-words. If in 1850 an American disliked slavery, the word of exorcism was ‘abolitionist.’ He was a ‘[racial slur] lover,’ believed in free love and the murder of kind slave masters. He ought to be lynched and mobbed.

Today the word is ‘Communist.’ Never mind its meaning in a man’s mind. If anybody questions the power of wealth, wants to build more TVA’s, or advocates civil rights for Negroes, he is a Communist, a revolutionist, a scoundrel—and liable to lose his job or land in jail.”

Du Bois understood witch words to be verbal spells, derisive labels cast on a person to discredit them, dismiss them, and excuse us from the responsibility of listening to and loving our neighbor.

For instance, if John argues that we should place stricter limits on access to firearms, he’s dismissed as “commie.” The witch word does the work. His intelligence is questioned, his motives assumed, and his argument comfortably ignored.

If Jane says we need stronger enforcement at the border, she’s branded a Nazi. Again, the witch word functions as a shortcut. Once Jane is labeled in this way, engagement is no longer required.

Witch words flatten complexity and collapse people into malevolent caricatures, making dismissal feel both justified and safe.

The danger, Du Bois warned, is that witch words often lead to witch hunts, which lead to exclusion, violence, and sometimes death.

Shortly after Du Bois’s testimony, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was published. Set in seventeenth-century New England, the play portrays a community where a person could be labeled a witch and, with that label, stripped of belonging and protection. Their words could no longer be trusted. They were deemed a threat to the moral and spiritual order. Expulsion, and eventually execution, followed.

The tragic irony is that those labeled “witch” were often neighbors, siblings, and spouses. Fear, anxiety, and the hunger for safety turned people against their own. Witch words did the work, and often lead to death.

Dehumanization often precedes destruction.

This pattern of label-dehumanize-destroy is not new. Jesus names this same dynamic in the Sermon on the Mount, where he connects murder to dehumanizing speech:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder.’
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Anyone who says, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21–22)

Jesus traces murder back to the moment we decide another person is less than an image-bearer of God. When contempt takes root in our hearts, and a neighbor is reduced to a label.

Using witch words is easy. They soothe frustration, empower us to avoid difficult conversations, and offer a quick outlet for anger. But this practice doesn’t just corrode our public life; it eats away at our souls. It trains us to see our neighbors as threats to be neutralized and disagreement as warfare.

Biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine puts it bluntly:

“Names kill. In our call-out culture, children are cyberbullied to death. People take their lives because of the barrage of insults. Names kill. Jesus was right; if we would only listen to him.”

If we would only listen to him.

May it be so with us.