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.
Walt wolfram
Amy tan
MacNeil
