16 April 2024: The Language Police
Sunn m’Cheaux, the first (and only) Gullah language instructor at Harvard, isn't one to mince words. He's got a knack for pinpointing the colonialist and white supremacist undertones lurking within language policing. Recently, he took to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to address the incredulity some folks express when they hear a Black person using a word like "delve". Having a robust vocabulary in 2024 is enough to raise suspicion. It's almost comical.
This whole language scrutiny thing hits close to home for me. Just the other day, someone criticized one of my books, claiming I overuse the word "diversity". A quick search within the 96-page tome revealed a mere four instances of the word. I mentioned the diversity of environments in one section, diversity of creatures in another, and dedicated a couple of paragraphs in a different chapter to cultural diversity. It's like, really?
But seriously, what's the deal with these people? Are they genuinely irked by the mere existence of diverse vocabulary (deal with it), or are they just grasping at straws for something to be mad about? Maybe they've appointed themselves as the language police with some hidden agenda. Who knows?
Throughout my writing career, I've often been pressured to dumb down my work. Not simplify; dumb down. There’s a marked difference. Some blame it on the average age of RPG enthusiasts, citing that the typical American reads at a 6th-grade level. It's disheartening to think about how many folks give up on reading altogether after school. Recent articles even suggest that younger generations struggle with spelling and punctuation due to their reliance on texting and social media. And don't even get me started on schools ditching phonetics in favor of sight reading. It's a mess.
A friend of mine shared a troubling story about his daughter's struggles with spelling. When he asked if there was a list of words they could review at home, the teacher shrugged it off. Apparently, they prefer to ambush the kids with random words and expect them to navigate the bizarre nuances of English spelling on their own. Madness, I tell you.
Back in my day, if I stumbled upon an unfamiliar word while reading, I'd whip out the dictionary. No internet shortcuts back then; just good old-fashioned perseverance. Now, with smartphones and spellcheck at our fingertips, there's no excuse for linguistic ignorance. Roleplaying played a significant role in expanding my vocabulary and improving my spelling. Words like "oubliette", "polymorph", and "polyhedral" were foreign to me until I delved into the world of RPGs. I didn't even know what a "cleric" was until then. My curiosity drove me to seek answers in novels, mythologies, and history books.
I refuse to be the language police, nitpicking over linguistic evolution, accents, or pronunciation. What I will fight for is basic literacy, intellectual curiosity, and the battle against genuine laziness. Dumbing things down isn't an option.
I hope you’re doing well today.
Berin
