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When we persist with these linguistic antics, we make utter idiots of each other

Jun 14, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,
In view of the continual crowding of the English Language, soon I would not be able to recognise it. Worse still, what came almost unconsciously would now have to be accompanied by stealthy pause, looking over shoulder, and then proceeding on tiptoe. I don’t like it, sir (or madam, pardon me); not one bit. Today, the mother tongue is so constricted, so tangled, that the best of us can’t help biting it, sometimes swallowing it. We are choking on our tongue, in our gyrations to be good soldiers in the politically correct era of nonderogatory, nontolerant use of the Queen’s (or American) English. Some examples should help to relay the predicament of a fellow like myself, who pays scant attention to, and still less regard for, what amount to mostly hypocrisies and, on occasion, stupidities.
The world has proceeded from ‘coloured’ to ‘negro’ to ‘Black.’ I was with this all the way, until I got lost somewhere, and missed out on the settled correctness of Afro or African. Not a bad progression, if you ask me; but, by that standard, BLM is misnamed. My position is simple: if it isn’t a slur, malicious, or degrading, then let there be a stop somewhere. The problem is that perception (and interpretation, as convenient) resides with the beholder. Like beauty, it can be on the subjective side, with outliers up the wazoo. I trust that that word (wazoo) doesn’t offend anyone. Sticking with ethnic pride, and tribal parades, I have always wondered about hyphenated people, not to be confused with ‘dougla’ or mulatto, or such. By hyphenated, I mean Indo- and Afro-Guyanese. What the hell, since when have we been partitioned; definitely, in the mind and politically and racially, but not physically or demographically. Hmm, this bears further investigation. I am still unsure, in the world of hyphenated citizens, what to do about Indian Guyanese residing in America. How about East Indian of West Indian heritage now converted Indo-Guyanese-Caribbean American; and not to be mistaken for Indian Americans from the subcontinent, or Native Americans. It should be noticed that I left out ‘Indian’ after American, as I am unsure as to what holds water or what could merit censure from the pc police. Being me, my response would be something like: get a life, a real meaningful one.
Now, to shift gears, and in a bow to my sisters, I am trying to figure what to do about ‘manholes.’ The obscene stares in the face, and even someone as adventurous as yours truly will not go near there. Also, I know and like the practice of nicknames and identifiers. Like ‘Squeaky’ Hinds (football), ‘mantequilla’ (Carlos Hernandez of Venezuelan boxing lore). And ‘savage’ sisters and “Dixie Chicks.” Try risking that chick business with a dame (ah shucks -the Bogart in me) today, and it is curtains. The bottom-line is that when we persist with these linguistic antics, we make utter idiots of each other. This is where I part company.
Yours truly,
GHK Lall

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