In the course I have completed multiple assignments that have aided in my writing skills. I was a very simple writer. only doing the bare minimum because I didn’t fully understand the criteria or couldn’t see the other side. My writing has become a way of communicating my thoughts, the same way the authors i wrote about used their power to write as a tool to bring awareness to a topic that was bothering them. I used “[rhetorical situations, my annotations from previous prompt, past homeworks, and videos]” I analyzed in and out of class.
The first valuable thing I learned was charting quotes. I had to write a meaningful quote, something that stood out to me, and explain what it means and why i felt like this particular quote was important.[ I remember doing Amy Tan. On page 8 she explain feeling embarrassed because her mother did not speak english to her standards, thus making her not wanting her mothers attached to her. ] The rhetorical situation that stood out to me the most was with Anzaldua. She seemed to be the most relatable author. That was because i could get the needed academic help.. Develop strategies for reading, drafting, revising, and editing. That was the 3rd course learning outcome. I believe i reached this outcome because I made several drafts for each essay and each got better with peer review and with other students and conferences with my teachers.
conclusion: in the past 5 months, my reading,writing, and analysis skills have been improved to new heights. I can fully grasp the prints and revise and all of my work. [With the help of my peers and professors I can accomplish better work with each draft.}
The first phase was about creativity. I was told to write about a linguistic moment in life that impacted me greatly. I chose to write about a moment in elementary school when i was chosen to go to Vassar College. The assignment alone reminded me about my love for english. With that assignment i was reaching the first course outcome. I was made aware of the power of languages and the people who use it. In that case the people who judged me thought u was a perfect example of linguistic strategies.
One assignment I used to analyze for a rhetorical situation was an assignment that we bread in class. it was an Amy Tan prompt called mother tongue. Everyone in the class including me had the same idea, the idea being that Amy projected her feelings accurately with her style of writing. She used a certain tone to display how she really felt. This left the entire class feeling sentimental because we can all relate to feeling embarrassed by our parents, but hers was a deeper level because it was something as simple as her mother is dialect. I used her in my essays, my best example being my phase 3 essay and how I spoke about the effects children feel when their dialect is studied. I believe I explored my and others Variety in genres in writing style, because I listen to my peers and their Outlooks, I improved mine, and channeled it into several essays to make the best possible research essay I could.
Phase 2 was about making an argumentative essay using multiple resources. One of these resources had to be a peer-reviewed paper. We went to the library several times I’m looking for credible resources, spending time on developing our skills in finding the liable sources, and editing and revising our drafts. I believe I achieved the second course outcome. I successfully develop strategies in Reading drafting, editing and revising. After every class my professors taught me how to correctly cite a paper in MLA format to give authors credit for their work. I also learned how to practice systematic applications of citation conventions.
In phase 3 was my Critical Analysis Essay about language discrimination in school and its effect on children. The course outcome I believe I achieved the most was understanding and using print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences. I spent a lot of time researching sources to help with my argument. The best examples came from examples like social media instead of news articles. I was also able to achieve the last course outcome. That was to locate research sources like academic articles, research databases and evaluate them for credibility. Many were not great and a lot were too short. I emailed my Miller many times trying to find the best source and she has helped.
I believe i fully reached the course outcome of developing and engaging in the social collaborative process in writing. Every day in FIQWS i was tasked with peer review of review articles with teachers with hopes of bettering my own work. We watch videos a passed out writings form past studies to view as examples. This helped me improve this certain course I come because I constantly getting feedback and improving in the things I lacked him. Of course I never mastered it but this class has taught me how to take feedback and incorporated into my essay
A few course outcomes i feel like i did not achieve and some i feel like i did not fully get the chance to grasp it. Even though I have achieved them all i still feel like i struggle with finding good sourced for my essays. I did print my sources, highlighted, and annotated my sources to get the most information for my essays .As i said before i was emailing my professor back and forth. I still cant find great ones. I would write about the article and then the article doesn’t work well with my others. Another outcome i believe i struggled with was recognizing rhetoric terms and strategies. There were many rhetorical ideas that confused me and I couldn’t fully grasp them.
“Recognize the role of language attitudes and standards in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users .” This course I’ll come was very prevalent in my learning because I continuously so how language attitude and standards of pressed or Empower its users. It was very easy to write about because I was always into social and justices and one social injustice related to linguistic skills and the way that people are viewed based on their skills. Like previously mentioned my essay on Rachel jeantel was about the way she was you because of her complications with english. in class I was able to improve my scale recognizing the role of language attitudes because I constantly research discrimination against African American men, women and children and Formulated an essay appropriate to my findings.
I believe I have completed the course outcomes to the best of my abilities.Throughout each phase I was able to groom my skills and abilities and my Outlook on life and other linguistic aspects in life. Thank You!
Ayanna Kindell
Watson/Heerah/Miller
11/21/19
FIQWS
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/rachel-jeantel-on-trial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrYAF9rrHJU
Rachel Jenatell faced incredible discrimination when testifying against George
Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder case. One thing that stood out to me was when the
Attorney defending Zimmerman asked her if she can speak proper English. despite her
completely understanding and forming comprehensible sentences he asked her that to throw her
off and to disrespect her. All this because she spoke in African American vernacular. JEantell Is
a Miami native with southern city Vernacular. This gave the attorney a multitude of weapons to
use against her. In the days following her testimony social media lit up with mean-spirited jokes
and comments about the way she spoke. All of this coming from the institutional racism that
surrounds language. Language is fluid and it is known that every city has different dialects and
ways of speaking. Despite this media tore her down and eventually the judge decided that her
testimony was not credible, that she could not understand what truly happened, and that it was
dismissible. Kirk Cecil testimony was dismissed and not you and Zimmerman it’s free. She is not
solely to blame, in fact she is not to blame at all, the judge and social media is to blame. The
judge allowed this to happen. For crucial testimony is not used, and since the judge clearly has a
prejudice against binoculars that are not standard American vernacular, George Zimmerman was
acquitted.
She provided 16 + hours of testimony and 6 non-stop hours, the longest any single witness has
produced in this entire case. she would be the perfect asset to have in to Prosecuting George
Zimmerman in this murder yet the only thing that people could discuss was the way she spoke.
People called her disgusting things. “‘This inarticulate, fat drughead is unemployable and
another welfare parasite sucking on the government teat.’—Tom Robinson, LSU24 (16)
‘Everyone, regardless of race, should learn to speak correct English, or at least understandable
English … . I couldn’t understand 75% of what she was saying … that is just ridiculous
[sic]
!’—Emma, comment on MEDIAite25”.
But I have noticed is predominantly, the people that are harassing Jeantel and parading
her are people of color. When viewing the articles, I’ve seen that most of the people are black or
in a community that is predominantly black. One social media Network that I looked up was on
Twitter. People were retweeting portions of her testimony and buried in her. Saying that she
cannot talk, that she is illiterate, and wondering why she is on the stand. I believe that perfect
English is a matter of opinion and people should be accepting of other people’s opinions but also
should not judge people based on the standards of their opinions. With the attorney speaking in
the dialect that dominates North American culture, Jeantel sadly was at a disadvantage . All of
this stemming from institutional racism. Obviously Trayvon Martin feast racial discrimination in
racial profiling, and we hope to end up. But Jeantel stood in the courtroom what shows no signs
of improvement.
One thing i have noticed was that all of this all is from society points of view. I have
never seen another race criticized and abused as much as african americans, especially the
women. It all stems from racism. With the enslaved being forced to believe lighter skin tones are
classier, prettier and all around better and we can’t shake that idea. Black mothers straightening
childrens hair for special event, instilling the thought that inky hair isn’t appropriate for events ad
isn’t elegant. Women bleaching their skin and being delusional enough to believe the pasty tone
they receive is better than the melanin they were given. Relaxing childrens hair for years,
knowing the damage but believing the weakened state is better rather than it being a lifestyle or
personal choice. All this fuels the thoughts that the un-altered blac women ( wide nose, dark
skin, big lips, muscular tones) is ugly and far from desirable. This directly affects Jeantal.
Another Stance I felt what’s noticeable was the fact that Jeantel was a stereotypical black
woman. She is a dark skinned women who two others seems to be uneducated and illiterate, she
is ghetto, overweight, and her hair is a funky mess.
. I
could already hear the fat girl voice along with a nasty attitude. but that is what I was raised to
believe and what so many kids are we used to see when they think of a black woman. the
dismissal of her testimony is deeper than just her veernacular, it’s about the way she talks, the
color of her skin, the way she dresses, where she’s from, in a multitude of other factors that all
began with discrimination, self-hatred, and blatant racism. It didn’t really help that the defense
attorney and pretty much the whole jurist and was full of white people who could never
understand the full extent a black woman could be berated. Of course that was not the only
reason why she was berated, she also could not understand everything that she wrote. In this
article “ Rachel Jeantel on trial” , Jelani Cobb writes “She wandered verbally sometimes,
struggled to articulate what she was thinking. When the defense attorney Don West handed her a
transcript of her own testimony and asked her to read part of it back, there was a lacerating
silence. She pored over the page, but never actually recited the words. Thursday morning, she
confessed to literacy difficulties, and to having needed assistance in writing a letter to Martin’s
mother that’s been entered into evidence.” He later writes “Her time on the stand began to seem
like a scene wisely cut out of the movie “Precious.”
Another thing I felt was important was this meme that I found when researching this
woman. . The movie “Precious” Is a classic
African-American ghetto hood story of a black girl who was wronged all her life and is the
perfect stereotype of a black woman. the movie depicts a young girl who was raped at a young
age by her father giving birth to his child who is mentally disabled. Precious has little to no
education, cannot properly write or speak at the age of 16 while she is still in Middle School.
she is hiv-positive and her abusive mother berates her to no end. Rachel is being depicted as the
early 2010 version of Precious because of her weight, the way she speaks, and the nature of her
relationship to the victim. It was unclear what the relationship was but it seemed to me, that this
man was more interested in her sex life than the true relationship of thisgirl and the victim. With
all these questions relating to her unknown relationship to Trayvon Martin the trial seemed
biased and skewed the View of Jeantel by making her look like a liar and hurt by her f*ch
buddies death if I’m being blunt.
Billy Hill5 years ago
Absolutely hilarious how CNN went out of its way to side with this nit wit. She single handedly lost the case because of her courtroom antics
which was apparent throughout the trial.
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Judy Hopps5 years ago
CNN is so bias in this. It’s hysterically funny.
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Frank Johanson5 years ago
Body language? If her body could “talk,” it would say “Ah needs mo’ chicken wings.”
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blondsdoitbetta5 years ago
my 9 month old nephew could give more coherent answers than her.
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Ted Johnson2 years ago
And it is video clips like this which demonstrate why the American public no longer trusts the opinion of CNN.
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Carson Weiss5 years ago
That’s not body language that is the effects of diabetes
These are some of the few examples of language conflicts in our multilingual Society.
These conflicts lead to nothing. People will still have the same dialect grow up in the same
homes and believe the same things no matter what happened because of this ideology that
standard American English is the best and also because 1 unified dialect is hard to achieve. I
personally believe the intentions were good. People wanted 1 dialect for easy communication.
But people ruined it with their own prejudices.
For much of this article we focused on Rachel Jeantel and the injustice done to her (and
Trayvon Martin) in court. Her AAVE, though systematic, was misheard and maligned. Her
testimony, which provided crucial evidence, was disregarded because of its unfamiliarity to most
jurors and social biases against AAVE speakers. Looking beyond this particular case and the
criminal justice system, speaking AAVE in the United States often exacerbates biases rooted in
race and class in cross-dialect domains like schools, job/housing searches, doctors’ visits, and so
on. Looking even further afield, and recalling cases summarized in the beginning of this article,
we observe that the mishearings experienced by AAVE speakers are shared by vernacular
speakers from other ethnic groups, languages, and regions across the United States and around
the world. They are much more vulnerable than speakers of standard or mainstream varieties to
being misheard and misjudged by police, judges, juries, teachers, landlords, doctors, and
employers in everyday life. So what can and should we do? If language is what most distinctly
makes us human, shouldn’t linguists(the experts on language) be more centrally involved in vital
human issues involving language? If we look around, such issues are everywhere: in law, in
education, in housing, employment, medical care, politics, poverty, and discrimination, but
linguists are not, at least not in the numbers and with the vigor that we should be. This is not to
gainsay the valuable contributions made to language and the law by linguists of every
specialization,from Ellen Prince to Janet Fuller,Roger Shuy,William Labov, Mark Liberman,
Peter Patrick, Walt Wolfram, and others too numerous to mention. And we must recognize the
contributions to the study of reading, writing, and second language instruction made by applied
linguists, who often do not get the recognition and respect
Works Cited YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrYAF9rrHJU. Abad-Santos, Alexander. “My Star Witness Is Black: Rachel Jeantel’s Testimony Makes Trayvon a Show Trial.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 29 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/rachel-jeantel-testimony-trayvon-martin-tri al/313792/. Cobb, Jelani. “Rachel Jeantel on Trial.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/rachel-jeantel-on-trial. Jacobs, Tom. “Research Suggests Black Women Are More Likely to Be Objectified and Dehumanized.” Pacific Standard, 11 Sept. 2018, psmag.com/social-justice/black-women-are-more-likely-to-be-objectified-and-dehumanize d. “Rachel Jeantel’s Language Is English – It’s Just Not Your English.” Mic, www.mic.com/articles/52697/rachel-jeantel-s-language-is-english-it-s-just-not-your-englis h.
Throughout this course I have recognized the role that language has on people. Language has been used to uplift oppressed people, Express creative ideas, uplift the world, and allowed the world to prosper. I can recognize in my previous patterns some forms of discrimination that I put out into the world. Would starting this class I do not approve of the past behaviors and I know how to correct offensive behaviors relating to language and dialect. I used news articles, and in class reading to create this essay about the effects of discrimination relating to language. I have more knowledge that I have had before. I can comprehend, understand, characterize, describe and locate ignorance in myself and others in regards to language. I understand that Race, ethnicity, language, beliefs, and other social differences play a part in discrimination, and I hope to relieve those feeling the pressure of discrimination by writing about ways to accept and understand differences and know that they are not harmful.
Society is messed up in the world we live in today. Despite all of the reform and progress we have made in the last 50 + years, we still have major problems to face. At one point even certain languages were banned! These problems never seem to end. They just evolve into different problems. Their negative energy One being linguistic discrimination. Linguistic Discrimination is a problem that is faced by everyone. Yet language is the way people communicate with each other. Language is verbal communications but effects all other methods of communication, like non-verbal communication. Language differences are mocked and discriminated against. Many instances of racism are banned and looked down upon, but language discrimination seems to be allowed. With teachers taking point off test, employers not hiring someone based off of the way they talk, receiving low marks on your communication aspect of you evaluation because you have an Arabic accent that apparently no one can decipher or little kids teasing a boy because he cannot pronounce the number the way everyone else does. This shouldn’t matter. Something as simple as dialect shouldn’t matter but it does. The people in charge care. The popular kid who bullies the kids on the playground makes fun of you, the dream job with the perfect salary isn’t yours because of your Latin accent, the A on a test turns into a B- because of all the deducted points on the quiz. Linguistic discrimination is related to origin discrimination. It is the unfair treatment of anyone based on their accent, vocabulary, and arrangement of words.
The four sources that I have found will be used to prove the point that linguistic racism and discrimination is real and it effects minorities in a harsh way. These Sources connect to each other because they all show how bad Linguistic racism really is. Especially the one with the Japanese and American citizen picking on the treatment they received when they spoke their native tongue. There are many forms of racism one being institutional racism. That is racism that is built into work social life and school. Kids are more likely to be disciplined in school if they are a minority. adults may find it harder to get a job if they have a black sounding name compared to a white or Asian sounding name. According to the US Department of Education, black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled compared to their white peers(Page 1). These sources accommodate each other because they all focus on one thing. They all focus on the harsh effects someone can go through starting at a young age when they face racism specifically linguistic racism. Without any law being signed, The United States of America has an “official” language. Despite the entire nation prospering from the despair of indigenous people and slaves, the white race seems to be had established a standard that everyone must follow to be accepted in society. In our society, English is the ruling language. People in different countries are learning English in order to fight for jobs in this country. in society’s standpoint it is a necessity in order to become successful. However, since North America is a superpower, English dominating language around the world. Standard English is the most powerful language in this world.
Yanni Kindell
Missy Watson/Emily Miller
FIQWS
10/15/2019
Linguistic Discrimination
The first thing people notice when someone talks is their accent. I make deductions about where they are from. Where they went to school, their parents, their wealth, everything. This class has taught me that making those assumptions affect them and be negatively. Without any law being signed, The United States of America has an “official” language. Despite the entire nation prospering from the despair of indigenous people and slaves, the white race seems to be had established a standard that everyone must follow to be accepted in society. In our society, English is the ruling language. People in different countries are learning English in order to fight for jobs in this country. in society’s standpoint it is a necessity in order to become successful. However, since North AMerica is a superpower, English dominating language around the world. Standard English is the most powerful language in this world. This linguistic discrimination is exhibited by words, expressions, pronunciations, and even non-verbal signs. Despite language being the way, we communicate, there’s still discrimination. This is known as ethnocentrism, the believe that one culture is superior compared to others and one believes that all others are inferior. This leads to racial slurs, blatant disrespect, kids with superiority complex and many more negative outputs. This essay will explore what is linguistic discrimination and the effects it has on people and society as a whole. People who have accents or do not speak English are judged on everything based on their first few words. Their wealth, education, morals and values, social status, is all judged. Talk about targeting k-12
MY sources are the reading in class, a peer reviewd about the effects this certain type of racism and discrimation effects adults, and news reports. They all seem to show the pain children on non Amrican origin face. They are usually people who are immigrants from another country or children of kids from a different country. Even in English is the language they were raised on, they will have an accent and ae still put in the category of “non English speakers”. They usually have more difficulties finding employment. Even with employers being well aware of the repercussions of discrimination, they still have loopholes and find a way to discriminate. They do this by saying their accent is interfering with the way the communicate with customers or their coworkers. Employers cannot say they have an English only workplace but will strictly enforce an English is required ruling, and make sure everyone follows it. To the point where it becomes unclear whether or not its blatant racisms or people taking their role as a manager too far.
This type of discrimination effects kids tremendously. They are impressionable and feel like they are supposed to accept this. They don’t fully understand why they are being discriminated against, but they will not accept questions because its usually the people in authority who condemn their dialect. Teachers, peers, principles, influencers on mass media. This in turn, blocks many opportunities and destroys the innocence that kids have. Much like Anzaldua, kids are berated and disciplined for accepting and embracing their native language and their culture. Anzaldua was sent to the corner for correcting her teacher and in my class one of my peers explained how she wrote “colour” with a “u” but was always penalized in her writing. Anzaldua also asserts physical punishment. “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess, that was good for 3 licks with a sharp ruler” (34).The verbal language is very fluid. The same words are pronounced in different ways based on one’s upbringing. I read a blog, and a post was made talking about the ugliness in the Spanish language. Words are pronounced differently based on someone’s origin. With pronunciation of words should not be discriminated against because it is all based on their upbringing and is something the person cannot control unless they force themselves to control it. In today’s society people should be comfortable in the way that they are and being the person that they are and feeling like Society is judging them (because society is) puts unnecessary pressure on an individual. This viewpoint is falsely Dogmatic. The viewpoint being that there is no linguistic racism or that its acceptable.
Rosina Lippie-Green is an author who famously wrote the 5 linguistic facts fo life. Rosina Lippie Greene. She attended Princeton University and received her PhD from there. She has written many articles. Those being in newspapers or fictional articles. One article, the one is this research exploratory essay, is Linguistics Facts of life. It was originally posted in 1992. She addresses the topic of linguistic discrimination and how variances in English is normal and she explain black English. She supports this claim by giving us examples of instances where people or discriminated against and then gives us 5 linguistic facts of life. Lippi-Green’s purpose is to show us the all languages have rules to them, and this was written to change society’s view, she has a positive tone in this article for her audience. In “The Linguistic Facts of Life”, She asserts that using the five linguistic Facts of Life they will be less purist unless discrimination. She backs up this claim by Giving examples of instances where people are made fun of because of their dialect. Lippi-Green hopes that by following these five rules the world be better and have less racism because linguistic racism is one of the last racism’s we need to fight but it is so widely accepted. In Lippie Green’s article, she speaks on five linguistic Facts of Life, with one of the linguistic Facts of Life stood out the most to me . it was that all languages are equally theoretically. It’s still out for two reasons. One being that she said theoretically they should be equal, but she is aware that they are not equal. But to that since they are “equal”, They should be treated the same without any Variances. Language does change over time. This is true because as humans we adapt to our changing environment.
Amy Tan, another author, wrote an inspiring prompt called ” Mother Tongue (1990).She suggest that immigrants tend to be treated differently usually worse because of their “ inability” to speak standard American English. She speaks on her difficulty speaking English and how she was steered into other fields such as math. she brings together this essay by speaking about her mother’s experiences. Her purpose is to inform the audience the struggles a people who do not speak standard American English. As a class we all know what we consider synonym Eric in English and what we consider broken English.
She uses a strong us of emotions to really understand her experiences. Those experiences strengthen her argument of discrimination that she and her mother faced solely because of her mother’s dialect.
Amy Tan was also affected by this idea that in North America you must speak standard English. She writes “I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is,…she expressed…her thoughts..imperfect”(Par 8). She took her mother’s inability to fully speak English as thing to be ashamed about. As if learning a language in a new country wasn’t hard. She spoke her native language and she is aware that was not respected due to her accent. Tan linked this to her negative relationship with her mother. All this due to the perception that she was less than. Tan asserts that her mother has gone through racism and discrimination based on her Chinese background. One example is when she was speaking to the banker and the mother said her check was late and she wants to know why this man was holding it but she could not express yourself in a way that the banker would take a serious so she had her daughter speak for her. that should never happen because people should be taken serious no matter how they sound. This woman knew that speaking on the phone with this man would get her nowhere because she has a strong Chinese accent. The mother felt inferior. This hits close to home because we all as humans know the feeling a feeling like we are not being taken serious. No matter what the situation was large or small we were not take it serious as kids and Tan’s mother was not taking serious because of her dialect (Tan paragraph 15).
Walt Wolfram is another author whose prompts inspires this. Walt Wolfram is a sociologist from North Carolina State University. He specialized in dialects in American English. He studied black English and other dialects heavily. Since the 1960’s he has cowritten over 20 novels and over 300 articles. He has studied African American literature heavily. introduce his experiment bc idk who steve is . He supports his claim of kids being taught to discriminate by giving powerful examples. One being that kids say they like Steve better because he spoke standard American English while Kenneth spoke African American English. His purpose for writing this was to expose the fact that kids are taught to discriminate against other dialects and accents at a young age and in the worse cases, the kids have race issues with any one with non-standard English dialect.
He writes about prejudice in the classroom. He begins with explaining how he had 2 speakers teach young students and had both speak in different dialects. With Steve speaking the way they have been incorrectly taught was the only correct way, they gravitated towards him. Their reasoning being that he sounds nicer, compare to Kenneth who was seen as someone who would “bite” them. At a young age they associate someone with African American dialect with violence by watching tv, and other forms of mass media.
The first thing people notice when someone talks is their accent. I make deductions about where they are from. Where they went to school, their parents, their wealth, everything. This class has taught me that making those assumptions affect them and be negatively.
Surprisingly enough, in my research I found a case of linguistic discrimination in a woman who does not speak. Kassie Roth, a deaf student from Michigan School for the Deaf, claims she faced discrimination. She speaks about how she was not accommodated and says she faced language barriers. She asserts “”If I asked for a meeting with my interpreter, they would tell me to stay home. I was always treated differently,” Ross said. “I was a last thought. When they had a movie, they turned off the lights so I couldn’t see my interpreter. I got watered down assignments and versions of homework. Teachers never thought I was capable of the work “ (Chambers). Like other young student, she just wanted to be with friends. Students with dialects just want to be accepted for who they are. She wanted to be on sports teams and be challenged like others but like the studies have shown, students who are seen as less than compared to their counterparts are given “ dumbed down” work and their educational growth is stunted.
In my peer reviewed article, Influences of social and style variables on adult usage of African American English features, written by Holly K. Craig, a doctor with a PhD in Ann Habor Michigan, and Jeffery T. Grogger, an applied microeconomist explain to readers that influences of “selected social (gender, employment status, educational achievement level) and style variables (race of examiner, interview topic) on the production of African American English (AAE) by adults,” affect people negatively. With using 50 African American men and woman, they formed a response group using Rapid and Anonymous Survey (RAS). These results showed strong systemic effects regarding academic achievement. With this, they confirm that the discrimination and trauma they experience as a child, directly effects the highest level of education.
This relates strongly to Walt wolfram, A person they cite in their research, with his survey he had young children take. They showed negative reactions toward African American English.
It’s very clear that any form of discrimination effects the oppressed people. But school related discrimination affects us the most due to the young minds of children being easily influenced. This screws the children from the start thus crippling them for life. With racism effecting all genders, ages, culture, sexual orientation, religion and other things, people are targeted in many ways at many ages and walks of life. Bur targeting children affects them more because they are impressionable and no matter their orientation, religion, culture, or anything else, they feel the pain because everyone speaks differently. Their language is their only form of communication and bashing them makes them even more insecure than they are at this sensitave age.
One meaningful insight I gained was that there are a lot of Spanish speakers in my class, and they feel like they were taught to suppress their Spanish. And they all regret it. They want to now celebrate spanish and appreciate it. We’ve all had had their struggles with spanish or english and with overcoming the challenges, they are better people. Everyone has a literary moment that has defined them. Practices like telling them not to speak spanish at home or trying to put the child in special education. One concept is feeling like spanish is subpar and less than english. The audience was the perfect audience because we are in this class together and we have all struggled with literacy. Everyone has had an experience with feeling like they aren’t good enough. That is why this audience what’s the best audience. With everyone feeling like they have gone through this experience, we all can relate instead of being ignorant to the fact that racism and discrimination exist. Sadly, many people are stuck in old ways and are conservative and accept and like the Discrimination. Certain people feel like since they won’t be getting it, feel Like they should be treated like that, or know that they will be treated better, so they spread their feelings with friends and children. They post stuff online and share their toxic ideas to everyone to continue the stigma and hate. Some people are discriminated against and don’t mind it or sometimes agree with it. One example being a woman saying they cannot do a man’s job or them saying they are a wife so they must do all the cooking, cleaning, and caretaking of their children. They cannot deny sex to their
husband and must submit to him. It doesn’t matter if they realize it’s sexist or not because they agree and do everything I just said. I realized that language and cultural differences are the reason these people are experiencing literacy issues at a young age. The United States of America is eurocentric and anything that is not English is deemed wrong and a threat. So teachers would try to get rid of every trace of Spanish or anything of a different want to feel comfortable. I spoke to many people and heard many presentations and gathered my information to make this arguement.
A meaningful literacy moment in my life is getting a scholarship to Vassar. I would always score high on all my grades and my teachers noticed. They would give me higher reading levels compared to my classmates and would rarely make mistakes on my homework or quizzes. My elementary school PS 171 was part of a program called the Talented and Gifted program and NYC schools funded it. This program was meant to show schools which students had special gifts in all subjects. This was good for me because I always knew I was especially good in my classes. It was cut when I was in the 3
rd Grade but some of the benefits remained. One of them gave me this experience. There was a test that 5th Graders took to assess their knowledge and of certain subjects and test their abilities to think outside the box. This test wasn’t a test that anyone would score well on. Many students had low scores or would have high scores but couldn’t “think outside the box”. I was told I had one of the highest scores! Me and my friend both scored well, and we got to spend 3 weeks in Vassar College at the Summer institute for the Gifted. While I was there, we did English and math programs every day to improve our skills, we had physical activities. But this experience was beneficial to me because it showed me that my literacy was amazing. I had “perfect” linguistic skills. This helped me then because schools wanted me to attend their schools, I was offered to meet up with recruits, and my skills became better while studying there. While I was there, I spent time with friends, and it was what school should be. I had the most amount of fun while staying active and learning.
The sports were hard. I had to run up hills, play team bonding games and other things. Some activities were making up scenarios and then re-enacting how it would play out. We would tie our legs together and do a three-legged race. And we would run across campus doing a hunt. This was when the Obama family was in office in the white house, so we had to do a lot of physical activities and eat a lot healthier! I liked going out every day though. Better than staying inside all the time.
Another thing I liked was the work. They made it very easy to love learning. We did activities like math, essay writing, literacy and many more things to improve our skills. I was so fit when I left!
I didn’t know if the test was legit. I had thought a test that would take kids to a college
would be taken to a secure facility. We took the test in a classroom and didn’t get the results immediately. But while taking the test I had doubts about my possible results. I always knew I had good grades but felt pressured to have higher grades and be great. I had anxiety about the test because I always felt like I wasn’t good enough. I was underestimating myself on my abilities. And I thought since I was in a school that needed this program but i needed the program more. I felt like I was doing okay.
It felt like the way school should be. I enjoyed every single moment there and everything I did. The test is administered to children 4-7 k-3 now. They have nonverbal and verbal sections. It’s called the NYC G&T test. The program is free.
The program was done when I was in the 5th grade right before middle school and for middle school I put that on my “resume” and all my friends wanted to know what I did during the summer.
Vassar college had recruits and they would help us with our math and see if we were interested in going to their college. I remember someone named Robert Clark. I think he was a concelour there. He was very sweet. I knew he was older, but I don’t know how much older. He seemed to love the program a lot an wanted everyone to enjoy it as much as he does.
Another person I remember was Daniel. He went to the same school as me and scored well. We were in the program together. He has always been smarter than everyone in the class. We were usually apart an only saw each other during lunch and passing. He was enjoying his time too. He knew about the program before I did and prepared for it. I think he got one of the best scores in the school district!
I was crying it was the most memorable experience. I loved that I was able to be a part of this. I have so many enjoyable memories because I was lucky enough to live in NYC and be in that program. NYC has given me so many memories to cherish and this one is of one of my favorites.
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