If it’s not in English, then
your knowledge doesn’t count: English language dominance by default, defines what is
“not real” and what does not constitute knowledge and it does so not by debate,
or by argumentation. Instead the
process occurs through exclusion, marginalization, and even by
invisiblizing the “Other.” Worse
than being voiceless, non-English perspectives tend to be imageless and
presence-less, particularly when, even if they exist, most search engines
do not find them or prioritize them, and access to the sites is made
problematic by slow or overwhelmed servers, a lack of bandwidth, and an
inability to view the site if it is not in a font that the most prevalent browsers
– Netscape’s Communicator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – do not
support. Return to English Language
Hegemony on the Internet home.
© susan smith nash, 2002