That's the Power of Language (and Love)

L'Chaim! To life!

Even if you've never been to a Jewish wedding, or seen Fiddler on the Roof, I think that we should all shout this celebratory Hebrew exclamation a few times in our lives. That's because violently repressed cultures and oppressed people need everyone's support in order to be revived.

While I was reading Chapter 5 of Linda Christensen's book Teaching for Joy and Justice, I was struck by several of her ideas, including this one: “If you kill the Indian culture, you might as well kill the Indian because nothing about him is really him” (Christensen 212). My interpretation of this statement is that when people eliminate the language, art, or traditions of any group, they are basically cutting off the head of the group and waiting for the rest to drop dead.

To better illustrate the true meaning of that quote, I will share how it reminds me of another cultural group that was massacred not too long ago: Jews. I am obviously referring to the Holocaust, the horrific time when six million European Jewish men, women, and children were systemically murdered by the Nazis and their corroborators. This unthinkable atrocity is fresh on my mind for a few reasons. First, I am currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005). It's a fictional novel set in Germany during the Holocaust. Also, I had the pleasure of reading Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl with my eighth grade students last year. Finally, during my undergraduate years in college, I dated an Orthodox Jew-- to the point where I looked into converting to Judaism, a la Charlotte from Sex and the City. I learned a lot about Jewish traditions and religion from my ex-boyfriend and several Jewish friends. I was so fascinated by Jewish heritage that I took a Jewish religion and culture course at my alma mater. My professor was a practicing rabbi, and I learned a lot. This time in my life opened my eyes to the permanent damage that some hateful actions can have.

Something else that those experiences taught me about Hebrew is that it is a written language-- not spoken--, and the only time you might hear it spoken is when people are reading from the Torah (or maybe at a Jewish wedding). As far at the Holocaust is concerned, it was precede by a barrage of antisemitic propaganda, which was coupled with a series of laws against Jews. These laws eliminated many Jews' freedoms and thus, their humanity. For instance, Jews were forbidden to run businesses, which is why Anne's father Otto had to put his establishment under the name of one of his employees. Unfortunately, as we all know, things got much worse from there. Otto was the only one of his family to survive, and if he hadn't, then he wouldn't have published his daughter's diary entires, and we wouldn't have been able to glean such insight into the terrible times that the Franks and many others faced at that time. It would basically invalidate it. In The Book Thief, Nazis round up all the Jew-written literature that they can find, and they burn it. That book is a strong piece of historical fiction, so it's no coincidence that its plot mirrors the anti-Jewish laws I've mentioned.

I am not Jewish, so I can't claim to understand the continuing pain that Jewish culture and people have faced since the Holocaust ended, but getting to know my ex and his family, I learned just how traumatized some European-descending American Jews still are because of it. For my ex's mother and grandmother, that pain translated into a palpable, open distrust of all non-Jews, especially those with European lineage.

Why does this matter to English teachers? To bring it back to Christensen, she says that “I need to teach students how and why some languages have power and others don’t.” Clearly, she writes this in her book to suggest that readers and teachers follow her suit. She's absolutely correct in her assertions, because all students should know that there's a reason why English is our primary language, just like there's a reason why white people make most of our laws and rise in political rankings. It's not because of merit. Whether it's Native American, Mexican, Indian, Jewish, or another oft-repressed culture, the story's the same. Throughout history, people have played dirty to gain power. Powerful people get to make the rules, and thus, a vicious cycle plays out repeatedly. It's our job as educators to draw attention to it and shine light on repressed cultures as a means of breaking it.