Through the trees

« Words have users, but as well, users have words. »

The article Expressive Language (1963) by Amiri Baraka, addresses the importance of speech in society and culture. While I found that some aspects the author talked about were confusing and weirdly worded, it all became clear when talking about others. It is fascinating how one and the same word or sentence can mean something completely different to two people belonging to different social classes. It never occurred to me that the differences in language could be so different when being the same. The article got me thinking that we often don’t have the slightest understanding of the simplest elements of our lives, such as speech which is taught to (hopefully) everyone of us at a young age as a process of fundamental education. Language can be misleading in any case because the speaker can mean something completely else from what the hearer understands, which is how misunderstandings are created. Amiri Baraka mentioned one example that convinced me of his argument, saying how the phrase ‘God don’t never change’ can have opposed meanings when spoken by a rich man or a poor man. The rich man would be saying that God shouldn’t change because he’s got all the money he needs and is economically secured. A poor man would rather be making a general statement about life, such as: ‘Life is as it is’. Who would have thought of that? It baffles me how people, such as me, neglect all the fascinations and complexities that life as a whole entails. Another point that Amiri Baraka addressed were the slaves. Baraka writes that slavery would have been difficult if the foreign people spoke their language, which seems to make sense, even though the skin color was probably the most important factor that made the white people believe that they were superior. 

I understand that in order to get a better understanding of life, one needs to question the simplest things that surround us, such as speech, language and culture, but what If this uncovered knowledge and insecurity clouds our view on life? Sometimes it’s easier to look away when we know that doing the opposite and digging deep would just confuse us, which is why I didn’t enjoy reading Amiri Barak’s article Expressive Language.