a product of the institutions that I have written about in this book, I have
been exposed to stereotypes for my whole life. I hope that I have learned
to look beyond them to see and to hear the person behind the cultural
expectations, but even then, I have preferences. I can, and I do, choose
among storytellers. I can decide that Jane tells a joke better than Joan.
That political candidate Park is better than candidate Goldstein in off-the-
cuff debate. One song lyric may delight me while another falls flat.
As a speaker of a variety of U.S. English which is not stigmatized, on
occasion I feel inferior about my own language. I can recall times when I
failed to make a point because I could not articulate my thoughts clearly. I
have used too many words when a few would have sufficed. Most of all, I
have felt inferior on those occasions when I have been moved by spoken
language which is clear, precise, vivid, and following from this, effective
for me personally. But because I belong to the social (and hence, to the
language) mainstream which isolates me from the process of
subordination, any feelings of inferiority are of my own making. Other
value systems are not forced on me; I am allowed the consolation of my
mother tongue. I am free of the shadow of language, and subject only to
the standards that I accept for myself.
Language subordination is not about relative standards and preferences
in the way language is used. Language subordination does not say: Joan
can’t tell a joke, but rather that Joan is not worth listening to, because her
English makes it clear that she was born on the Bayou, or in Harlem,
Puerto Rico, Hong Kong or on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Whether Joan
is the best or the worst teller of jokes ever born, some people will never
know because they will not listen to what she has to say: how she says it is
enough to know that it is unworthy of their consideration.
Language subordination is about taking away a basic human right: to
speak freely in the mother tongue without intimidation, without standing
in the shadow of other languages and peoples. To resist the process,
passively or actively, is to ask for recognition, and acknowledgement. It is
a demand for the simple right to be heard.