Teaching Acceptance

It would be nice if, rather than discussing the problems associated with a language of power, we could “just teach everyone acceptance” as one student suggested, but I’m no so sure that is possible. First of all, as Delpit stressed, people come from many different backgrounds, each a culture with its own nuances of meaning and traditions of expression that might only be known to members of that culture. If everyone attempted to communicate using their own favored language, things are bound to be misunderstood, misinterpreted, etc. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing that there is a ‘common’ language by which most communication takes place, but that the problem lies with the fact that being born into the culture that language comes from results in an instant advantage. I think Delpit does a good job of making readers aware of this problem, and that is certainly a good step toward a solution.