Language gatekeeping can be such a tool of oppression!

The built-in bias toward the dialect or accent of the powerful suppresses and oppresses people in subtly powerful ways we rarely think about.

Speak “proper” English, somebody will say, not even realizing that the only thing proper about their usage is that it comes down from the elite.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with common language like broadcast RP, American standard, or Metropolitan French. Having a common reference point improves communication across large groups of people.

But the judgement!

I have a friend from Cameroon who sometimes records his storytelling in three accents: Metropolitan French, the standard French that is the lingua franca of his nation, and the village patois French he grew up with.

His words are beautiful and inspirational in all three versions, with the patois feeling perhaps the most soulful.

Yet as educated and accomplished as he is, he can be judged for recording in patois. And that’s a shame.