English Language Racist
"The entire English language was created by slaveowners as a means of oppression. You can't just say that one word is a racist code word or another. The whole language, every single word, letter and apostrophe in it is racist. It's a fact..." said Congressman Jim Clyburn back in 2013. Could it be true, That the English we all learned to speak, the language that lets us communicate amongst ourselves, is racist? What if the English language is racist? How could a language possibly be racist? With color symbolism, loaded words and passive tense. The English language might just be racist after all.
If believed the dominant white culture is racist, their language must be too. There’s the most obvious side of racism in language which contains racial …show more content…
These definitions serve the purpose of distorting history to justify Euro-Americans conquest of the native Americans lands. In history books, the Euro-Americans are painted as the victims of “Indian attacks”which led to them defending their homes, but the real honest interpretation would be that the native Americans were the ones who were guarding and defending their homelands. Another loaded word is “massacre”, the euro-Americans used it to describe native American victories and then would describe their own as a “victory”. Our history books have been distorted by the words chosen to the describe historical events, native Americans were given such adjectives as “beasts”,”primitive” and “savages” even though they also had like the eurocentric complex societies, cultures, and …show more content…
Europeans immigrated to the United States looking for a better life and then “slaves were brought to America”. This hides the fact that those “slaves” were part of a family, community and that they were taken from their homes, held captive and then sold for profit. Passive tense is used to make it everything sound sweet and not as horrific as it truly was. For example, people will say that “the continental railroad was built” instead of mentioning the Chinese laborers who built much of it or adding information about the oppression they had suffered. From a white perspective the usage of ownership of the slave by the master. These slaves were African individuals with all human worth but the word “slave” strips that all away, denounces that human quality. Which then made the mass rape of African woman by white captors more acceptable for
If believed the dominant white culture is racist, their language must be too. There’s the most obvious side of racism in language which contains racial …show more content…
These definitions serve the purpose of distorting history to justify Euro-Americans conquest of the native Americans lands. In history books, the Euro-Americans are painted as the victims of “Indian attacks”which led to them defending their homes, but the real honest interpretation would be that the native Americans were the ones who were guarding and defending their homelands. Another loaded word is “massacre”, the euro-Americans used it to describe native American victories and then would describe their own as a “victory”. Our history books have been distorted by the words chosen to the describe historical events, native Americans were given such adjectives as “beasts”,”primitive” and “savages” even though they also had like the eurocentric complex societies, cultures, and …show more content…
Europeans immigrated to the United States looking for a better life and then “slaves were brought to America”. This hides the fact that those “slaves” were part of a family, community and that they were taken from their homes, held captive and then sold for profit. Passive tense is used to make it everything sound sweet and not as horrific as it truly was. For example, people will say that “the continental railroad was built” instead of mentioning the Chinese laborers who built much of it or adding information about the oppression they had suffered. From a white perspective the usage of ownership of the slave by the master. These slaves were African individuals with all human worth but the word “slave” strips that all away, denounces that human quality. Which then made the mass rape of African woman by white captors more acceptable for