Reflecting on Linguistic Imperialism

Listening to Ben Boswell on Pentecost Sunday

I’ve been doing a lot of learning as an older adult. One thing that stands out: I was not taught much about colonization and empire. Of course, I learned those terms in history classes, but I don’t think I reflected much on their human impact and ongoing legacy.

No one taught me about white supremacy or white privilege in middle or high school, or even college. Those things were essentially invisible parts of the dominant culture I grew up in – transparent precisely because they were so thoroughly baked in.

That’s a problem. Because colonization was, and still is, a brutal and violent process. It has not only shaped so much of our world, it continues to shape it today.

I also knew very little about indigenous boarding schools until we moved to Oklahoma in 2006. Through my work with the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history project and Storychasers, I learned more about the brutality of linguistic imperialism as it was exercised through those schools. Can you imagine your children being taken from you, forced to attend school in a distant place, and prohibited from ever speaking the native language you sang to them as infants?

Reverend Ben Boswell of Collective Liberation Church shared a passionate and powerful sermon this past Pentecost Sunday. It was my morning meditation, and I encourage you to watch it. If you can’t right now, add it to your watchlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKSz4OsUI6k

If we know better, we can do better. Let us commit to acting as cultural healers, rejecting linguistic imperialism and the violence of colonizers. Let us embrace a vision of our world that is multiethnic and multilingual. Whether or not you know Jesus and call him your Savior, we should all embrace mutual respect for the universal human rights with which we are each endowed by our Creator.