Such an important topic and so well-articulated! Just a minor note that the term “underdeveloped” was actually coined by Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney in his 1972 book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ which attempted to raise many of the same issues you point to in this essay. Like modern use of ‘enslaved’ rather than ‘slave’, he was trying to shift the attention and indeed the culpability for poverty and oppression back onto the oppressor. But I appreciate you taking this analysis that many steps further as well as your commitment to continually learning and unlearning. Always enjoy reading these.
Thanks so much for this thoughtful essay. The link to my piece under "What Inspired Us..." is broken - Seed magazine is no longer online - but you can access the full text from the Internet Archive:
English is populated with linguistic cul du sacs and blinders. Three authors that get around this well are Jack Weatherford author of Indian Givers among his many books. He noted how pioneers could only grasp nouns from the native speakers in the US. Tyson Yunkaporta author of Sand Talk does a brilliant job of spelunking English so that this fish who swims in colonialism could finally see that water of deception. He uses first peoples and second peoples with great effect. . . and humor. Jodi Archambault is elegant in her discussion with Nat Hagens on the Great Simplification podcast.
As a white guy with sensitivity to the living things, fish, water and environment I was 75 before I could grasp colonialism, thank you Tyson. Much good work needs to be done with language, not just making up new terms, but flagging, genteelly the feints and deceptive terms with which we fool ourselves.
Can't we just use 'Minority' to refer to the increasingly smaller percentage of people who hold/use disproportional amounts of global resources when considering the equitable needs of the 'Majority'?
Such an important topic and so well-articulated! Just a minor note that the term “underdeveloped” was actually coined by Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney in his 1972 book ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ which attempted to raise many of the same issues you point to in this essay. Like modern use of ‘enslaved’ rather than ‘slave’, he was trying to shift the attention and indeed the culpability for poverty and oppression back onto the oppressor. But I appreciate you taking this analysis that many steps further as well as your commitment to continually learning and unlearning. Always enjoy reading these.
Thanks so much for this thoughtful essay. The link to my piece under "What Inspired Us..." is broken - Seed magazine is no longer online - but you can access the full text from the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120128093857/http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/in_defense_of_difference/
English is populated with linguistic cul du sacs and blinders. Three authors that get around this well are Jack Weatherford author of Indian Givers among his many books. He noted how pioneers could only grasp nouns from the native speakers in the US. Tyson Yunkaporta author of Sand Talk does a brilliant job of spelunking English so that this fish who swims in colonialism could finally see that water of deception. He uses first peoples and second peoples with great effect. . . and humor. Jodi Archambault is elegant in her discussion with Nat Hagens on the Great Simplification podcast.
As a white guy with sensitivity to the living things, fish, water and environment I was 75 before I could grasp colonialism, thank you Tyson. Much good work needs to be done with language, not just making up new terms, but flagging, genteelly the feints and deceptive terms with which we fool ourselves.
Can't we just use 'Minority' to refer to the increasingly smaller percentage of people who hold/use disproportional amounts of global resources when considering the equitable needs of the 'Majority'?