Language Is Never Neutral

I Have Never Said, As Is Sometimes Believed, Or Even Suggested That Lower-class Children Should Not Learn The So-called Educated Norm Of The Portuguese Language Of Brazil. What I Have Said Is That The Problems Of Language Always Involve Ideological Questions And, Along With Them, Questions Of Power.

[t]he More Radical The Person Is, The More Fully He Or She Enters Into Reality So That, Knowing It Better, He Or She Can Transform It. This Individual Is Not Afraid To Confront, To Listen, To See The World Unveiled. This Person Is Not Afraid To Meet The People Or To Enter Into A Dialogue With Them. This Person Does Not Consider Himself Or Herself The Proprietor Of History Or Of All People, Or The Liberator Of The Oppressed; But He Or She Does Commit Himself Or Herself, Within History, To Fight At Their Side.

The Oppressors Develop A Series Of Methods Precluding Any Presentation Of The World As A Problem And Showing It Rather As A Fixed Entity, As Something Given--something To Which People, As Mere Spectators, Must Adapt.

One Cannot Conceive Of Objectivity Without Subjectivity.

Indeed, The Interests Of The Oppressors Lie In 'changing The Consciousness Of The Oppressed, Not The Situation Which Oppresses Them.