That reply was in direct response to me, so I’ll give some more context.
They said “No, I really don't see the problem with gibberish in games. When I see English-like gibberish or scribbles in a game or other media set in my country (a real place, with real culture!), it doesn't bother me. I don't feel that my language is being devalued or disrespected.”
And. Huh??
So I replied “You don’t see the difference between butchering the language of people of color and butchering the language of white people?” And they went off on me with… this.
I might have not articulated it perfectly, but I don’t know how they read anything about multilingualism into it, there’s a difference between learning a language, and not bothering to learn a language and instead writing it as nonsense. And I feel the connection between English and whiteness is obvious? Like it’s not the only language originating from a white ethnic group and there are people of color who speak English, but did they just forget England’s long history of colonialism?
I’m bad at explaining things and afraid of confrontation so I didn’t say anything yesterday, but I just wanted to air out my frustrations with how weird this reply was.
is you'll come across some people who look like they're going to speak to you, and then they open their mouths, and they say "ching-chong, ching-chong, ching-chong", like it's a made up version of what they think your language sounds like.
This has happened to me. Just random strangers will approach me on the street to do this shit, and they think it's funny, but you know, it's really not.
So when you're presenting a language that's not your own, and you just decide to make up gibberish, to some extent that's the kind of attitude you may end up feeding.
Like, at this point we're back to Toni Morrison (yet again) talking about how the function of racism is distraction.
The function, the very serious function, of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language, so you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly, so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing. (Toni Morrison 1975)
Somebody says you have no language, so you spend twenty years proving that you do. And then some random white person comes up to you on the street, and it's "ching-chong, ching-chong, ching-chong" again.
We're talking about POWER RELATIONS here, people. Try to understand that. Some people feel that they have the power to walk up you in the street and mock your language as if it can't possibly be a real language. As if you can't possibly be speaking anything understandable or valuable. As if you might as well be making barking noises like a dog, for the sheer amount of intelligence or comprehensibility they associate with your speech.
If you don't feel your language is disrespected or devalued when someone does that kind of thing with you (if they even do! I can't think of a time when I've seen white people randomly subjected to that kind of behaviour), I would suggest that that's because there isn't a power differential in operation. You probably aren't in a position where you're minoritised, or where there's a serious social demand on you and your people to continually prove that you're also equally human, that you also have culture, that your culture also has value, and so on.
Like, to some extent we're at the point here now where some people (and yes, primarily the white people here) need to shut the fuck up when Asians are talking about Orientalism. Because clearly you don't understand anything about whiteness, about white supremacy, about colonialism, about racism. You don't understand the relationship betwen whiteness and Orientalism. So just shut the fuck up. It's free to shut the fuck up. And then you won't embarrass yourself by trotting out these really rancid, ignorant takes - the kind of thing that shows everyone your complete ass on the internet, because it's apparent to anyone who has done even a little bit of thinking or reading about this, or anyone who has lived experience of dealing with these issues in daily life - it's going to be apparent that you have no fucking idea what you're talking about. And yet your lips continue to flap.
