Capitalism is Racist
or culturally supremacist anyway
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
There are a lot of harsh things said on JU about people with little money or no job. People often say it’s because they’re lazy or stupid or other such ideas. The poor are poor because they’re stupid and lazy, is the conservatives’ cry. There are probably some cases where this is the case, but as far as I can see it’s far more complicated than this. There are plenty of fat, rich bastards and lazy members of the middle class. And that is why I believe that Bourdieu’s theory about ‘cultural capital’ is a very valid and important theory. I’ve tried to explain this theory before but with little success, but I don’t give up easily. Here is a story that I think demonstrates the theory.
When I was in Noumea, I hung around a lot in the Salty River suburb, which is a very low socio-economic area. My mates were from the island of Wallis and their parents worked at the nickel mine, which is certainly not the work of lazy people. These mates of mine spoke far better French than I do of course. They live in a French-speaking country and speak French at school. Nothing surprising there. But because of their parents they also all spoke Wallisian. When speaking to each other, they swapped between the two languages easily and often. As Wallisian was the language spoken at home, it was effectively their mother tongue. What’s more, some of these people I hung out with were actually from another nearby island, I think called Foutunia. My Wallisian mates couldn’t really speak Foutunien, but the Foutuniens had worked out how to speak Wallisian just from hanging out with their mates. On top of this, they learned the words to a lot of English language songs off the radio.
Now there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about what I’ve told you, but consider this. In Australia, the fact that I am bilingual, that I speak French fairly well is considered very remarkable. There are not many Australians who achieve bilingualism. Here, a lot of people give me a lot of respect for it. What’s more, I’m often asked if I’m going to do anything with my French. What they mean is, am I going to do any work with French, am I going to use it to get any money? It’s a fair enough question. French gives me a lot of opportunities. It’s spoken in a lot of countries and you can do business with it, become a diplomat, French teacher, or even an English teacher in a French-speaking country.
There are many many opportunities for people who speak two languages. Really? No, not entirely true. You must speak the Languages of Power, the Languages of Money. If I spoke Wallisian, what opportunities would it bring me? None. Absolutely nothing, because Wallisian is not a Language with any Power. But it would have been equally difficult for me to learn Wallisian as it was for me to learn French, right?
It’s not that I am any more intelligent or talented for languages than my mates at the Salty River. But I learned a language that our monetary system has decided is important. With the languages of Indonesian tribes, with Wallisian, with Kanak languages, you can get nothing for speaking them. And that’s what cultural capital is. I have it. I have the capital that our culture gives value to. I know what you have to know to have success in our culture, whereas my mates down at the Salty River know more than I do (they speak their second language, French, far better than I do), but their mother tongue has no value in a capitalist system. So even though they know more things than I do, they don’t know the things you have to know to have success in a capitalist culture.
I’m not saying this to show that capitalism is evil, but just to show you how the system works, and even discriminates. All systems discriminate in some way, dependant on what cultural capital they value. Cultures give value to certain things, but they don’t give value to other things that are equally difficult to learn. And that’s why I argue it is far more complicated than to say that poor people are lazy and stupid.
In effect, you could even argue that the reason French has more value is because there are so many peoples who have put in the effort to learn French, whereas the French have been too lazy to learn Kanaky languages for example. Really, it’s us, English-speakers who are the laziest, because we put in virtually no effort to become bilingual, even when we arrive in a country to colonise it where there are always tribes that speak the land’s native tongues, like Australia. It’s us who are still too lazy to learn Aboriginal languages, which are the native tongues of Australia. Meanwhile, the majority of Aborigines have to become bilingual with English just to survive, forget about getting rich.
When I was in Noumea, I hung around a lot in the Salty River suburb, which is a very low socio-economic area. My mates were from the island of Wallis and their parents worked at the nickel mine, which is certainly not the work of lazy people. These mates of mine spoke far better French than I do of course. They live in a French-speaking country and speak French at school. Nothing surprising there. But because of their parents they also all spoke Wallisian. When speaking to each other, they swapped between the two languages easily and often. As Wallisian was the language spoken at home, it was effectively their mother tongue. What’s more, some of these people I hung out with were actually from another nearby island, I think called Foutunia. My Wallisian mates couldn’t really speak Foutunien, but the Foutuniens had worked out how to speak Wallisian just from hanging out with their mates. On top of this, they learned the words to a lot of English language songs off the radio.
Now there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about what I’ve told you, but consider this. In Australia, the fact that I am bilingual, that I speak French fairly well is considered very remarkable. There are not many Australians who achieve bilingualism. Here, a lot of people give me a lot of respect for it. What’s more, I’m often asked if I’m going to do anything with my French. What they mean is, am I going to do any work with French, am I going to use it to get any money? It’s a fair enough question. French gives me a lot of opportunities. It’s spoken in a lot of countries and you can do business with it, become a diplomat, French teacher, or even an English teacher in a French-speaking country.
There are many many opportunities for people who speak two languages. Really? No, not entirely true. You must speak the Languages of Power, the Languages of Money. If I spoke Wallisian, what opportunities would it bring me? None. Absolutely nothing, because Wallisian is not a Language with any Power. But it would have been equally difficult for me to learn Wallisian as it was for me to learn French, right?
It’s not that I am any more intelligent or talented for languages than my mates at the Salty River. But I learned a language that our monetary system has decided is important. With the languages of Indonesian tribes, with Wallisian, with Kanak languages, you can get nothing for speaking them. And that’s what cultural capital is. I have it. I have the capital that our culture gives value to. I know what you have to know to have success in our culture, whereas my mates down at the Salty River know more than I do (they speak their second language, French, far better than I do), but their mother tongue has no value in a capitalist system. So even though they know more things than I do, they don’t know the things you have to know to have success in a capitalist culture.
I’m not saying this to show that capitalism is evil, but just to show you how the system works, and even discriminates. All systems discriminate in some way, dependant on what cultural capital they value. Cultures give value to certain things, but they don’t give value to other things that are equally difficult to learn. And that’s why I argue it is far more complicated than to say that poor people are lazy and stupid.
In effect, you could even argue that the reason French has more value is because there are so many peoples who have put in the effort to learn French, whereas the French have been too lazy to learn Kanaky languages for example. Really, it’s us, English-speakers who are the laziest, because we put in virtually no effort to become bilingual, even when we arrive in a country to colonise it where there are always tribes that speak the land’s native tongues, like Australia. It’s us who are still too lazy to learn Aboriginal languages, which are the native tongues of Australia. Meanwhile, the majority of Aborigines have to become bilingual with English just to survive, forget about getting rich.
. Because I have added to my initial 'cultural capital' by studying hard, working to support myself through college and then having the nerve to just jump on a plane and try a new life.