In her article, The Language of Power, bell hooks reflects on the idea of standard English dominating language in the United States. She looks at the way African-Americans lost their unique languages and were forced to speak English. She goes on to talk about a very interesting idea where African-Americans went around creating a unique form of the language that was forced on them. This gave them a sense of identity and allowed to show resistance. Instead of completely disregarding their unique languages, they were able to include them into English. This empowered them as a group where it set them off as unique. Despite that they all had different languages, they were able to create a unique twist on the English language that set them apart. This is an interesting form of resisting oppression and speaking up. It shows that they did not lose their identity and give in to the oppressor's way of speaking. It empowered them as a group and allowed them to create a stronger sense of community. Her quote "This is the oppressors language, yet i need it to talk to you" communicates a very strong message. It shows that they were forced to speak English even though it wasn't their language. This is because they had come from different areas with different languages and then separated. Therefore they had to use English in order to communicate with a common language. This is what empowered them to create their own form of English, to avoid complete surrender to the oppressor's language however still communicate. This is a great form of empowerment which was very interesting to me and one of the most important take aways from the text.
Tuesday 3 February 2015
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