Socialization

Into Language Discrimination

Linguistic Discrimination of African American English in School

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=WWIbIA9BltQ

January 23, 1997

Ebonics in Education

Committee members heard testimony concerning the role of Ebonics, or African-
American Vernacular English, in educating African-American students.

The Oakland school board originally passed a resolution which seemed to call for
education of students in Ebonics as a rst language and later revised it to call for the
recognition of Ebonics as a bridge to learning standard English.

The witnesses included several representatives of the Oakland school district as well
as the originator of the term, Ebonics, and several other language experts.

The testimony focused on whether Ebonics is a language, vernacular, dialect or
grammatically incorrect English, whether it is the best way for African-Americans to
learn standard English and whether the program should receive federal funds.


Complete hearing
http://www.c-span.org/video/?78237-1/ebonics-education

 Be it resolved,

Ebonics is systematic and rule-governed, just as

all natural speech varieties

The Oakland Resolution, linguistically and

pedagogically sound

 Describe language and how language works

Prescribe how people should or should not use

language

 All languages have dialects,

regional or social varieties of language which develop

when people are separated by geographical or social
barriers and their languages change along dierent
lines
Everyone speaks at least one dialect

 All languages and dialects are systematic and

rule-governed

CHART


Habitual(usually) + verb
Non-habitual: ongoing or progressive action
Tonal: BIN

She BIN married.

Obama Is A street thug. As a community organizer, that's what you are

-Rush Limbaugh

Geraldo Rivera: 'Leave The Hoodie At Home'

 UCLAs Alexander Wallace Racist Rant (2012)

Portrayal of Black Women in Media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FMFnw9fgC0

Villians speak with certain accents and look a

certain way
Jaar speaks with British accent to distinguish

him as dierent or snobbish

Jaar is matched by his bird working class accent
The thief has a middle eastern accent (or some
hyper-performance of ethnic)
Simba the Lion speaks with standard middle
class American English accent
The hyenas from Lion King speak African
American Vernacular English and sport a Mexican
accent

 Foreign accents demonize characters

in characters place them in contemptible,

demeaning and conned roles

brands certain foreign and out group accents as

bad

stereotypes groups of people as ignorant,

dangerous, less than

From citizenship to education to campaigns and

voting, the people of we, the people arent all the
people.

Q: How does it come out in talk?

A: Sometimes below ones threshold of awareness:

Ex. Senator Biden regarding the new Senator Barack Obama:
I mean, you got the rst mainstream African-American who is
articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, he said. I
mean, thats a storybook, man.

A: Sometimesnot

From citizenship to education to campaigns and voting, the people of

we, the people arent all the people.

Ex. Racial hate messages against President Barack Obama

 OBarr and Atkins suggest gender meanings draw on

social meanings; why not other social categories?
They question the classification of womens language.
Might powerless language stand in best, even in
other social categories?
Why?
to speak like the powerless is not just typical of women
and others but reflective of the institutional history of
inequality in the U.S.

Racial and/ or ethnic identity do not exist as things to dene us

outside of a social process motivated through language and
embodied practices that shape and reect ideologies of that
identity

Race/Ethnic
They are eects we produce by way of the particular things we do,
which begin with early socialization and are reinforced in everyday
social interactions

Once categories are thrown discursively into existence, people become

disciplined accordingly to this knowledge.
These categories are reproduced through disciplined practice and
institutionalized to the point of seeming natural, always already there.

Standard Language Ideologies are a part of a

greater power construct, a set of social
practices on which people depend without
close analysis of underlying assumptions.