Language, Oppression, and Empowerment

Language is a site of struggle. What we say, how we say it, and to whom matters. How we hear matters. It can make the difference between life and death. When you hear the news or a teacher talking, do you feel directly addressed? Do you feel like you are a “they” in your classes and in popular discourse? We feel when we are being talked to, talked with, or talked about, and that makes a difference in how we relate to ourselves and each other. In this class, we talk together. We make language and we make space. This class is an experiment in empowerment that comes from using reading in linguistic anthropology to analyze linguistic oppression, appropriation, and exploitation.