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?