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The Excludes

In every society there are people who are to be excluded. Whether it is race or caste or religion or sex, a society distinguishes members of the population it doesn’t want to achieve.

The easiest way is to get them to exclude themselves.

England hit upon the ‘tongue branding’. This is not a physical mark. This is the way one speaks. If one listens to the BBC, for example, one hears a specific manner of pronunciation and word usage among those who read the news and another among those who do the football broadcasts.

In Jamaica, the general public embraces patwa, save those who have ambition. Those who have ambition will learn how to speak properly, even if they have to hide it from their neighbours. They will be able to get the better jobs, be able to communicate with those who speak English.

This trick, of having people exclude themselves, was tried in America more than once, in the encouragement of ‘Ebonics’ or ‘Black English’ but enough people realised it was merely a form of segregation and pushed it away.

In India and parts of Africa where English was spoken, there has been a push to have a creole adopted in various sections so that more people can exclude themselves from power and prestige.

Simply put, there are ten jobs, there are one hundred applicants. Those from the upper classes, those who did not embrace their ‘natif langwij’ but speak English clearly get the jobs.

Everyone who needs to know, is aware that only where one can speak and write proper English will get the job. The rest of the population, encouraged to not speak proper English, will not gain top positions. As only those of a particular class will be trained in proper English, the status quo persists because those who are excluded embrace their exclusion.

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Written by jaylar