Language and Power

My Relantionship to Language:

Hi all! My name is Jenna Dietl and welcome to my blog. I am a senior at Webster University and I major in International Human rights with a minor in Cultural Anthropology and a certificate in Japanese language. I have been passionate about seeing the world and culture since high school. In my free time I like to read, nap, and play with my cat Hazel! 

How do Language and Power Intersect?:

While attending Webster I had the opportunity to go on a faculty led study abroad trip to Costa Rica during fall break of 2019. I struggled in the first few days as I am not fluent in Spanish and felt powerless. However, I had to overcome my anxiety and realize that people experience that same feeling not knowing English every day in the United States. Language can bring people together but also has been a way of othering people. In the United States the government has a long history of eliminating Native American languages and forcing children to only speak English. Currently, conservative American society has outcasted Spanish speakers so much that some individuals have stopped teaching their children Spanish. 

What Would Foucault Say?:

Overall, Foucault would say the erasure of languages in the United States is the cause of normalizing power. In schools there are no history, science, literature, etc classes taught in school. On television ads there are little to none in Spanish or other languages. The power behind language reveals power and the power regarding the United States is rooted in white supremacy and using the English language is one of their strongest tools. 

https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.21-22/indigenous-affairs-the-u-s-has-spent-more-money-erasing-native-languages-than-saving-them

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/how-u-s-taught-me-spanish-was-shameful-ncna986746

https://natalia-cardona.medium.com/the-fabrication-of-the-latino-identity-and-the-erasure-of-race-a18e2d485329