Liberal Discourse Assimilatory
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Posted by Tyson Yunkaporta May 14, 2006 |
I've often heard the liberal phrase "We're all the same". This is true, biologically speaking. But often it is used as part of an assimilationist ideology to destroy non-mainstream ethnicities.
It is also often used by supposedly liberal people as a disclaimer just before they say something really racist. A good example of this is in the BBC series, The Office. David Brent says, "I say come one, come all, we're all the same. Asians make good workers, for example..."
Azelene, a Kaingang Indian woman from Brazil, tells this story.
'I remember my first meeting at the UN.
We were defending our collective rights. A UK diplomat surprised me with the coldness with which he referred to indigenous peoples.
He looked at me and said, 'I can't recognise the collective rights of you people. I don't see any difference in you - we are all the same.'
So I spoke to him in Kaingang, the language of my people.
There was no translation, and I asked him if he'd understood what I'd said and he replied, 'No'.
Then I looked at him again and said, 'That's why I'm different; because only my people speak this language.'
I love that story. So, anyway, if you ever catch yourself saying "we're all the same", make sure you're talking about biology, rather than ethnicity. The former is reasonable, but the latter reveals prejudice.
For more on assimilationist discourses, read my article English Speaks Us