Why English Dominates the World — it has nothing to do with ‘white privilege’.

“People speak English everywhere because of white privilege…”

A friend of mine said this recently while in Indonesia.

I quietly pointed out that there are well over 40 predominantly white countries where English is not the official language (Europe excluding the UK for starters) — clearly, there’s more to it than just race.

The reason why English is widely spoken, right now, is largely because of economic, political, and cultural dominance of the United States, and previously, the UK.

In the distant and more recent past, Akkadian, Latin, Greek, French, and to a lesser extent, Dutch (incidentally, in the aforementioned Indonesia), all played the role of the global lingua franca for these reasons.

In the future, the way things are going, it might be Mandarin.

22 countries across the Middle-East and North Africa speak Arabic. Is this because of white privilege?

Nine countries across Africa speak Swahili? Is this because of white privilege?

Spanish is the official language in 21 countries. Is this because of white privilege?

My white parents moved to Australia in 1970 from Macedonia. They didn’t speak English, had no education, had no money, and proceeded to work physically-demanding jobs in factories for several decades to provide for my sister and I. Is this white privilege?

The answer to all of these questions, of course, is no.

What language becomes the global lingua franca has nothing to do with so-called ‘white privilege’ or race, and everything to do with the above-mentioned dominance stemming from natural resources, work ethic, economic systems (capitalism), systems of governance, military might and the outcome of warfare, momentum stemming from head-starts (e.g. technological such as the industrial revolution), economies of scale, population size, location, and so on.

Putting lazy labels on things is just that…lazy.

Without getting to the root cause of why things are the way they are, you’ll never be able to address alleged injustices and wealth disparities, and will forever be stuck in a powerless victim mindset.

You might make yourself feel good by saying all the ‘right things’… while doing absolutely nothing to further the causes or the prosperity of the people you purport to care about.

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