Phrases that racialize, exclude and minimize subject in the everyday language of a group of young people from Bogotá

Abstract

This study identified the phrases used by a group of university students who reproduce and naturalize the coloniality of power, knowledge and being. To this end, a group of students from a private university in Bogotá helped gathering phrases they express or hear in everyday life which reproduce stereotypes that classify, exclude or inferiorize other people. Subsequently, other students from the same institution participated in discussion groups where we identified the meanings of these phrases and their intentions according to the contexts in which they are uttered. The results show a set of everyday phrases that stigmatize by age, knowledge and race, among other categories. These phrases express the way other subjects are verbally excluded and minimized by naturalizing cultural parameters that establish a common sense of which speakers and listeners are rarely aware, ignoring the implications of these expressions. The article concludes that there are discursive constructions that incorporate meanings inherited from modernity that end up excluding segments of humanity and minimizing the potential of subjects. It is an invitation to decolonize language and to encourage the construction of other interpersonal relationships to allow recognizing differences as a potential way to build a world that celebrates diversity.