LA Times columnist Jean Guerrero complains about ‘English-language supremacy’

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Often-ridiculed Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero tackled what she referred to as “English-language supremacy” when appearing on an NPR podcast Saturday.

NPR’s “Consider This” explored the topic “Finding Power In Reclaiming One’s Name” which focused on the act of a minority having their name mispronounced and how it “can signal criticism and exclusion.”

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Washington DC, USA – June 4, 2012: The NPR (National Public Radio) building in Washington DC. Founded in 1970, NPR is a non-profit network of 900 radio stations across the United States. (iStock)

Guerrero offered her perspective, saying that she faced a level of “English-language supremacy” from her mother’s experiences in Puerto Rico.

“The thing is that she came from Puerto Rico, where they also have, you know, this English-language supremacy, like decades of U.S. colonial policies that cast English as a superior language. So she would speak to me in Spanish because she still, you know, struggled with English. But I would respond in English, and she was okay with that,” Guerrero said.

She also added “For example, my Mexican abuelita, my grandmother on my dad’s side, she didn’t speak any English at all. And so it became very difficult for us to communicate. And just – this internalized English-language supremacy. Like, what it did was, like, it created, like, a real – I don’t know – like, this, like – almost like self-hatred.”

While Guerrero described her family’s suffering from this English-based prejudice, she also suggested that it led to her own self-destructive behavior in her youth.

In this July 29, 2015 file photo, the Puerto Rican flag flies in front of Puerto Rico’s Capitol as in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

“This practice of forcing children to stop speaking their native language and to see it as something bad also causes children to internalize this disdain – you know, the dominant white culture’s disdain for their own culture and their own selves. And for me, what that did is it created a lot of self-destructive behavior where I was, you know, cutting my wrists as a teenager,” Guerrero said.

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After the release of her book “Hatemonger,” Guerrero explained that she has since insisted on pronouncing her name with rolling R’s in defiance of white supremacy.

“I just feel like the more that we talk about this – the more we talk about how common it is to internalize that white supremacist outlook on our own families, on our own cultures – like, the more it opens up a pathway to healing,” she said.

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Guerrero often faces criticism when she shares her opinions and thoughts. In August, she was called out on Twitter for continuing to use the term “Latinx” despite only 3% of self-identifying Hispanics using the term. In September, she faced blowback after referring to California Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder as a “very real threat to communities of color.”