It is always delightful when you rock up to call me clueless, ignorant, arrogant, lacking curiosity, humility and understanding — then conclude I’m the one lacking grace.
And no, as I said… I think all language should be shared. English is very much structured that way — we’re half French, half German, with smatterings of Greek, Scandinavian and Arabic thrown in. English is very adaptable and is relatively simple in its construction. It is very difficult to speak English with absolute fluency if it is not your native language, but it is very easy to be understood in English compared with say… .Chinese, the most spoken language on the planet. At least according to Babbel. https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world
My biggest issue with AAVE is absolutely nothing — and that’s probably true of most Brits. However, if it is in the process of being blended with American English then I would imagine, over time, there will be more cultural understanding between the speakers. The blending of languages often means the blending of cultural understanding… so whilst i can see you might be angry about the historical views white Americans have of AAVE, I can’t understand why you’d want to insist it remains tied to one group of people and then secondarily insist other people have no desire to understand Black culture. You can’t have it both ways. You cannot call for understanding between cultures and subsequently prevent it with linguistic protectionism — to do so is ambivalent.
As you’ll see from my response to the OP, her languages were likely wiped out by the heavily Catholic Spanish or Portuguese, nothing to do with my culture at all. The issues need to be raised in Lisbon and Madrid, the fact those Spanish speakers (2nd most spoken language in the world according to Babel) decided to learn English is likely about diplomacy in the late 1880s and again, nothing to do with colonialism. In short, we are not the bad guys you are looking for.
And also, my pronouns are they — see my pinned story for why.
And no, this isn’t about forcing people to pay attention to me, if I wanted people to pay attention to me then I’d be writing under my own name. It’s about paying attention to the arguments being put forward and having a dissenting voice. If you take a tour around Medium and the people you follow, you’ll notice there are echo chambers of absolute agreement. The same readers rock up time and time again to confirm what they already believe to be true and give each other an encouraging pat on the bum…. I would suggest the reason you find me ‘lacking grace’ is you frequently stumble across me as you’re off doing your standard ‘Marnita Confirmation Bias tour’ and I stick out like a Penguin on Safari. :o)
