I AM TEMPTED TO WRITE THIS WHOLE POST IN CAPITAL LETTERS. But I will not because I am a normal and sane human being.
Well, many would object to that last statement.
The lowercase movement is a thing, apparently. Honestly, I cannot get too mad at this Canadian professor because she has the most awesome last name I have ever seen.
Dr. Linda Manyguns (such an awesome last name), who serves as Associate Vice President of Indigenization and Decolonization at Mount Royal University in Calgary, will only use lowercase unless speaking or writing about Indigenous struggles:
we support and expand the goal of equality and inclusion to all forms of life and all people. we join leaders like e. e. cummings, bell hooks, and peter kulchyski, who reject the symbols of hierarchy wherever they are found and do not use capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.we resist acknowledging the power structures that oppress and join the movement that does not capitalize.the office of indigenization and decolonization supports acts that focus on inclusion and support the right of all people to positive inclusion and change.
Lady, give me a freaking break.
Um, can someone tell Manygunsthat E.E. Cummings had many ethnic slurs in his poems? He didn’t have a problem with capital letters. The tradition of using lowercase for his name came after his death because publishing houses published his name in lowercase. Even his wife got mad when someone said he legally changed his name to the lowercase spelling.
Bell Hooks chose to use lowercase for her name “to place focus on her work rather than her name, on her ideas rather than her personality.”
I don’t know why Canadian professor Peter Kulchyski uses lowercase, but whatever.
Manyguns complained:
Indigenous people have been actively engaged in a multidimensional struggle for equality, since time immemorial. we strive for historical-cultural recognition and acknowledgment of colonial oppression that persistently devalues the diversity of our unique cultural heritages.these sites of struggle are generally found at blockades, where demonstrations against racism occur, where racialization and cultural domination, and discrimination leave the mark of imbalance and abuses of power. sometimes these sites generate media interest but interest is generally fickle.the explicit demonstration and practice of aboriginal culture in everyday life or at places of resistance is called by academics ‘eventing.’
How about we educate people instead of tearing apart language and linguistics? She is the associate vice-president of Indigenization and decolonization. I don’t think she’ll face problems going forward with her plans.
I like her idea of planting a garden with Indigenous plants and implementing traditional languages into classes. That’s how you do it. You don’t do it with some stupid lowercase movement.
Stop trying to make people feel guilty for the sins of those in the past. I know Manyguns is in Canada, but plenty of people do the same in America. I refuse to feel guilt because of what white people did in the past.
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