LANGUAGE MATTERS!! As a result of language, and its impact, [we] are just barely learning that Black Lives Matter.” Resulting from circumstance, [Black] people tend not to realize that language is the furniture of our mind, thoughts, even our subconscious, and, thus, our behavioral impulses and actions or in-actions. Words can limit our thought and self-concept, or enhance. However, enhancement with language can only occur if people are deliberately using it as a tool, as opposed to the norm, which has words using people. Especially colonizer’s words, If people are encouraged NOT to critically think about language (which is true, overall, for Black people), using a colonial language, which English is, can be psycho-socially debilitating and limiting. Especially in terms of Black independent or liberatory thinking. (This is why during blatant Apartheid in Azania - now, because of language, known as South Africa - the Apartheid government insisted, with death as possible response to defiance, that Afrikaans, a Dutch derivative, be the official language for everybody. Including indigenous Azanians, many who speak or spoke multiple non-European languages. English, generally, has been and is oppressive for Black people, which is why we uniquely insult each other, specifically using Black deprecating words toward each other, i.e. “nigga, ghetto, etc.” No other group in the Western World does this self-deprecating. A contributing factor is, most other groups have another language or culturally based, self-conceptual, direct frame of reference. Overall, African Americans do not, resulting from the legacy of African enslavement in the U.S. Even the common names many Black people have are an insult to their indigenous spirit, causing soul-level injury most are not aware of. Yet, also within Black people is a natural resistance to language oppression, which is where names like Aiesha, Tameka, Dante, Tye and (old school) June-bug come from. Names we are now discouraged to use, to be employable, that we call ghetto. Ghetto, used in this fashion, is the post-modern word for nigga. So, now we have two word concepts in wide use that have a Black degrading intent. (White Supremacy myth is relentless. Black people often succumb to it, having no encouraged critical analysis of language and its power over, or, if aware, to defy). As a result of language, and its impact, we are just barely learning that Black Lives Matter.” Because the language we use, English, a language which first (and strategically) called us Black, implies that, comparatively, Black lives do not matter, Whites lives do. (You likely remember Natalee Holloway, but not Stephany Ramírez, Joran van der Sloot’s second known victim, not White). And, generally, Black folks [too], have followed suit regarding the [White] colonial intent of language, perpetually leading people called Black in America in to interpersonal and inner-group chaos, non-cooperation, dysfunction and/or dismissal. Yes, language is of GREAT significance. c.manago P.S. Yes, being Black and calling yourself gay [for example] is racism induced, self-involved defilement, and limiting of your thoughts (and knowledge) of who and what ALL THAT you are.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 18:29:17 +0000
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