Language and Racism
Candidates Name: Marie Therese Madjou Kuaste
Session number: (unknown)
Name of School: St Mary’s School
Session: November 2014
Subject AL: Language and Literature
Level: HL
Work Submitted: Written task 1
Title: Language and Racism
Subtitle: How is language used to describe racism?
Supervisor: Mrs. Muilegi
Word Count: 765
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the IB Diploma
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What is Language? Language is uniquely human it is used for commununication by humans. Language is form of knowledge it is used to communicate ideas and thoughts. Language also uses symbols. Though language is good it is also bad. Language becomes a problem when people misuse and misunderstand it, this can cause dispute between people and this is the language of racism and may others were started and then misused by humans.
Language has influenced human thoughts since the moment we learnt it. The question is words and phrases in English created to enlighten the thought blacks are “bad” and whites are “good”? The answer is no it is up to the human mind to distinguish what is good or bad.
It is true that negative language affects the mind of humans. This is scary because subconsciously one would sit back and look at the ways language has affected our believes and ideas from the first time we knew how to listen and speak it. If this is really true then we have no way of escaping the prejudice and racial bias in our society for the thoughts have run too deep.
Color Symbolism: They symbolism of white as positive and black as negative is pervasive in our culture. “Good guys” wear white hats and ride white horses, “bad guys” wear black hats and ride black horses. Angels are white and devils are black. The definition of black includes “without any moral light or goodness; evil, wicked, indicating disgrace, sinful,” while that of white includes “morally pure, spotless, innocent, free from evil.
Session number: (unknown)
Name of School: St Mary’s School
Session: November 2014
Subject AL: Language and Literature
Level: HL
Work Submitted: Written task 1
Title: Language and Racism
Subtitle: How is language used to describe racism?
Supervisor: Mrs. Muilegi
Word Count: 765
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the IB Diploma
[pic]
[pic]
What is Language? Language is uniquely human it is used for commununication by humans. Language is form of knowledge it is used to communicate ideas and thoughts. Language also uses symbols. Though language is good it is also bad. Language becomes a problem when people misuse and misunderstand it, this can cause dispute between people and this is the language of racism and may others were started and then misused by humans.
Language has influenced human thoughts since the moment we learnt it. The question is words and phrases in English created to enlighten the thought blacks are “bad” and whites are “good”? The answer is no it is up to the human mind to distinguish what is good or bad.
It is true that negative language affects the mind of humans. This is scary because subconsciously one would sit back and look at the ways language has affected our believes and ideas from the first time we knew how to listen and speak it. If this is really true then we have no way of escaping the prejudice and racial bias in our society for the thoughts have run too deep.
Color Symbolism: They symbolism of white as positive and black as negative is pervasive in our culture. “Good guys” wear white hats and ride white horses, “bad guys” wear black hats and ride black horses. Angels are white and devils are black. The definition of black includes “without any moral light or goodness; evil, wicked, indicating disgrace, sinful,” while that of white includes “morally pure, spotless, innocent, free from evil.
References: 1. www.asante.net2013/06/08,05;55PM 2. www.worldsocial.org2013/06/08,04;57PM 3. www.librarythinkguest,org2013/06/09,08:00PM 4. www.ald.org/donate, 2013/06/07,08:15PM 5. www.edchange.org, 2013/06/09,9:48PM