Context, in and out

Reader question:

Please explain this quote: “My comments are taken out of context”.

My comments:

He or she who made that remark felt that they’ve been misunderstood.

Context is the situation, events, or information that are related to something you’re talking about, which helps other people to understand it better.

Women for instance weren’t able to vote in the United States before 1920. “Before 1920” is a crucial piece of context here. Likewise, black children weren’t able to go to the same school with white children before the early 1950s. Again, “before the early 1950s” is indispensible context. In other words, we’re examining the situation in historical context, which gives us an idea of social progress being made in the United States over the years.

However, if you were a journalist and were to quote me as saying that there is no vote for women in the States and that racial segregation is prevalent without giving the dates, you would risk giving the impression that this is the situation today, that America is pretty backward.

That, of course, is incorrect.

In short, to take people’s words out of context is to quote their words without describing the situation in which they were said. Result? They may mean something very different.

Before Barack Obama was elected President, for example, in a speech to fellow Democrats he said (at the end of this page, you’ll be able to read this story in full):

“It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

The Washington Post, however, left out the first part of the sentence and quoted him as saying: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

Taken out of context, it reads as though a presumptuous Obama were talking about himself, acting as President of the United States even before he was elected.

And that’s the exact opposite of what Obama meant to say.

Ah, well. That’s how it feels like to be quoted out of context. Here’s that story in full:

Obama: Presumptuous or Taken Out of Context?

A quote in today’s Washington Post has Barack Obama’s opponents salivating at the prospect of using it against him while Democrats are insisting it’s taken completely out of context.

While speaking to a closed door meeting with House Democrats yesterday, the Post quoted him as saying, “This is the moment ... that the world is waiting for... I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

The Republican National Committee sent around the quote first thing this morning as part of its “Audacity Watch,” where they’ve been hitting Obama for acting presidential before he’s even elected.

A House Democratic staffer, however, tells CBS News that this quote is taken way out of context.

“The Post left out the important first half of the sentence,” the staffer said, adding that the quote was more like, “It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol...”

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who was in the room, pointed out to Fox News that the line was taken completely out of context.

“It was not about him,” Clyburn said.