The Power and Politics of Language

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The Power and Politics of Language
The negative and positive, although opposites, are mutually dependent. It is for this reason that darkness is the absence of light. As such, the definition of one alludes to the existence, although absent when one defines either. Coherently, the two articles under evaluation in the present study inform that the presence of oppressors results in existence of the oppressed and the topic oppression. On the one hand, the article dubbed “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” by James Baldwin submits that a differentiation of languages infers that there are at least two lingual forms, which are different from each other. According to Baldwin, the lingual diversification is a necessity of the oppressed to form a communication system that improve their survival and sustenance amidst powerful oppressors. On the other hand, the publication entitled “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire brings the fact that humanization efforts reflect the existence of dehumanization. Freire opines that there would be no need for humanizing the oppressed if oppressors did not act in fashion to dehumanize the former. Withal, the articles by Baldwin and Freire argue that adaptation against oppression is the cause of communities to separate in terms of language and socialization but oppressors discredit such initiatives to sustain their oppressive nature.
The role of language is to protect the oppressed from the oppressors. Baldwin supposes that the bone of contention in deciding whether the Black English is a language is more about the role of the language than its nature. Baldwin stats, “people evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, in order not to be submerge by a reality that they cannot articulate.” Accordingly, Black English is a language because it effectively helps people of color to communicate about dangers associated with existing White supremacy tendencies. The posed logic, therefore, is that any family/community code, either verbal or non-verbal, that helps a group of persons to evade harm is proper language. However, an understanding of the concept requires readers to become aware that definition of language is not subject to the foundations of the language. As such, the fact that English is from England, does not imply that another pattern of communication that borrows from its vocabulary cannot be an independent language. Thus, the Black English is not a slang or a lingual subset but rather a language in its entirety. Similarly, Freire (43) informs that humanization initiatives aim at protecting the potential victims from dehumanization history. Therefore, progress in humanization does negate the existence of dehumanization. The observations inform that there is bilateral nature of civilization. The division renders people to associate or identify with either the oppressors or the oppressed.
In both articles, generational survival is the antecedent of diversification. Notably, it is impossible to outwit or survive the mechanism of an oppressor who is aware of the ways and language of the oppressed. For instance, Baldwin recalls that his relatives spoke to him in a spe...