754

LANGUAGE AND POWER

Imagine that you walk into the principal’s office and say, “Dude, the food here is totally gross.” Now imagine that you walk in and say, “I’m concerned about the freshness and nutritional value of the cafeteria food.” Which line is more likely to command respectful attention?

From politics to public relations, publicity to protest, language has the power to influence people and shape the world.

Or, in the words of author James Baldwin, language is “a political instrument, means, and proof of power.” He goes on to say of language:

It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity. There have been, and are, times, and places, when to speak a certain language could be dangerous, even fatal. Or, one may speak the same language, but in such a way that one’s antecedents are revealed, or (one hopes) hidden. [. . .] To open your mouth in England is (if I may use black English) to “put your business in the street”: You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem, and, alas, your future.

Think of the associations we make when we hear the British royals, the Boston accent of John F. Kennedy, rural dialects from Appalachia, or the so-called broken English of new immigrants. Is there a hierarchy of forms of spoken or written English? If so, who decides which forms are most elevated, and on what basis? Are those hierarchies shifting?

While formal English might rule the halls of power, what about in pop culture and youth culture? Is there ever a time where breaking the rules of formal English might be a deliberate form of protest? Is breaking the rules what moves language forward?

In this Conversation, you will hear from writers who struggle to learn the language, those who wield it to bring about change, those who try to preserve language, and those who celebrate the way it evolves. And the authors in this Conversation also investigate the links that language forges between identity, culture, and power.