We use ‘one bad apple’ wrong.
Sometimes we get metaphors and sayings wrong. Sometimes it’s helpful that we do, because in doing so we betray what we really mean.
For example, I’ve heard that the proverb ‘blood is thicker than water’ means the opposite of what we use it to mean, now.
My favourite of them is the ‘bad apple’ metaphor, which is used to excuse questionable (let’s say generally straight rich white male) behaviour. The last time I remember it coming up significantly was during the Black Lives Matter movement, in which the issue of police brutality was described as being the action of a few ‘bad apples.’
Chris Rock did a whole thing about the metaphor (before #BLM, in Tambourine 2018). It’s a good bit, and I’d choose it over this blog, if you have to choose one.
But I’m saying something different (nerdier).
The bad apple metaphor means the opposite of what it has been used to mean — to mitigate bad behaviour, and say that the behaviour not really as bad as it seems.
The entire metaphor is, ‘One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.’
So, if there’s a bad apple in the barrel, all of them are likely rotten.
The mistake is sort of cool. In that, the metaphor is entirely apt for how cultures of violence and abuse of power actually work. If a couple of people are doing terrible, then the chances are it’s not a one-off. It’s hard to exist as an outlier in a system that doesn’t support your behaviour. Rot is spreading.
I mean, just a metaphor. But it’s often really easy to believe that a well-written metaphor is actually the truth. And in this case, the ‘bad apple’ metaphor – the way it’s intended to be used – is a lot closer to the truth than the way it’s used to mitigate the truth. The reality is that systematic racism is real, and pervasive. It’s in the whole barrel.
I don’t understand the reasons behind people using it. Other than this one, sort of cool idea. That people who are acting badly, or trying to cover up bad behaviour, find it hard to avoid ultimately drawing attention to the fact that they are acting badly, due to the same instincts that allow us to function as part of a larger group. Our biological fuctions all point us toward upholding the acceptable social actions of a group. I don’t think lying is one of them.
In this way, the reasons that cause us to act like utter dicks are the same reasons that lead us to tell on ourselves. In this case, we tell people that the system is rotten.
The example I’ve chosen is a big one to highlight a non-important point. Perhaps it’s the wrong choice for a blog about language. But I’d love to take the opportunity to highlight it anyway. (Please note that I’m not a person of colour, and I don’t experience racism.)
Police brutality, of course in the United States, but also in Australia, is a huge and serious effing issue. In particular the human rights violations we see continually as the Gap gets wider, and in Indigenous deaths in custody. This blog is about language. But you can read about the Gap here.
I see the metaphor ‘one bad apple’ everywhere, and it’s hardly ever used correctly. If anything, it’s a sort of a Freudian slip that is amusing when it’s used so badly, and so aptly.
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash