oh racism...

I read a thing yesterday, aimed at African writers about how they should try to break free from “antiseptic English.” It was aimed to help African writers write in their own languages or at least use them in their texts.
But it was very odd/painful for me to read. Because I love English. I think it is a beautiful, tricky, difficult and sneaky language. I love it.
But it is also a language of oppression and of cruelty, not just in South Africa but in America too. Look at how the Blackfeet language is expected to die within our lifetime. Plus the fact that English is attempting to become the world’s language just goes to show that that chauvinism isn’t dead, much as we would like to think so. But then, we’re all monolingists in America. And the native English speakers here are monolingists as well, while people whos native tongue is Zulu will often also speak Xhosa and Sotho and Afrikaans plus a street language known as Tsotsitaal. It’s the language of Shakespeare. But its also the language of Andrew Jackson.
While I can look South African, the second I open my mouth the cat is out of the bag. My accent, which is so apparent (and to many people ugly), marks me off as a foreigner, a rich person, and/or a potential target for mugging. And while in Europe I was proud of my voice, I would drop it here if I could. But there is NO way I could fake a south African accent.
I like to walk down streets that no white person walks down. Its possibly not a good idea but I do it anyway. When we say so one walks in Jo’burg, everyone drives, we are, of course, referring to whites. The blacks got the Parliament but the whites still have the economy. 90% is in still in white hands.
And now there is a growing sentiment that Zimbabwe had the right idea. It’s small, but it’s there. And white people who were part of the struggle are feeling betrayed by the ANC.
The fact that I feel that I am an oppressor here more than when I am in America just goes to show how incredibly marginalized anyone not-white is in our society. Because we are the oppressors there as well. We just like to pretend, even to this day, that the land was empty when we “found” it.