Linguistic racism
In the terminology of
Different forms of linguistic racism include covert and overt linguistic racism, linguistic appropriation,
Andrea Moro in his essay "La Razza e la lingua" ("Race and Language") shows that there are two ideas which look innocuous if considered as separated but which are extremely dangerous if combined: first, that there are languages which are better than others; second, that reality is perceived and elaborated differently, according to the language one speaks. He highlights that this linguistic racism was at the origin of the myth of Aryan race and the devastating results it had on civilization.[5]
Scholars known for their work on linguistic racism and related concepts such as
Origins and Development of Linguistic Racism
How race is defined and described is implicated within dynamics of power and the violence of colonialism.[6]: 312 Difference has been recorded and actualized prior to the emergence as race as a category. Christopher Columbus' mistaken belief that the inhabitants of the island Canibales engaged in the consumption of human flesh popularized the term "cannibal."[6]: 311 This term not only supplanted "anthropophagy" in reference to consuming human flesh, but embodied the construct of the other and become the ultimate personification of an antithetical to a "civilized," normative existence.[6]: 311[7]: 19 Race as a social category that defines physical characteristics in connection to ancestry was formed in the late eighteenth century.[6]: 312 The emergence of race included the social creation of hierarchies that positioned white Europeans at its top, with other racialized groups such as Black Africans and Australian Aborigenés at the bottom.[6]: 312 Within these linguistic traditions of conceptualizing race, color terms such as black or white became a topology associated with racialization regardless of its visual reality.[6]: 312 Within the Western imagination, color typologies reinforced the binarisms of race, especially between white and black, which became codified signifiers of social, racialized hierarchies.[6]:313
Forms of Linguistic Racism
Overt and Covert Linguistic Racism
Overt linguistic racism may be expressed in the form of mocking, teasing, laughing, joking, ridiculing, and interrupting.[8][9][10] Covert linguistic racism, on the other hand, is expressed through indirect and passive-aggressive acts of social exclusion.[8] In the U.S., covert linguistic racism plays a role in a lack of diverse participation in large studies or political participation as sufficient access to translations is often excluded. [11] Counties with higher than average minority population percentages and counties with lower percentages in English-speaking residents have lower participation rates in survey participation due to lack of accommodation or outreach.[12]
Personally Mediated Racism and Microaggressions
Personally mediated racism is defined as the interpersonal interactions between individuals or groups that may marginalize or discriminate against one party. Personally mediated racism may take the form of microaggressions, which often manifest negative connotations regarding an individuals' or group's speech patterns or linguistic expressions in a demeaning manner.[13]: 383 The everyday biases that define microaggressions are exemplified in statements that claim someone talks like or sounds like a specific cultural or racial group (Indian, Black, White, Mexican, etc.)[13]: 383 Examples of microaggressions also include derogatory remarks about someone's intelligence based on their manner of speaking, suggesting unwarranted assumptions about someone's cultural identity and linguistic homogeneity within racial or ethnic groups.[13]: 383 These statements imply members of a certain group are expected to talk and linguistically express themselves in the same manner, may insinuate that deviations from presumed cultural norms as abnormal, and can falsely imply a one's linguistic characteristics as dissociated from their culture.[13]: 383
Naming
Names are tied to social meanings that may index and convey one's gender, ethnicity, class, religion and other positionalities.[14]: 274 Another form of linguistic racism is the process of ethnoracialized groups being misnamed or denamed, which can be a process of public shaming that others and linguistically marginalizes people.[14]: 274 Many marginalized groups such as immigrants, indigenous people, and African Americans endure the experience of their names being mispronounced, anglicized, or even replaced, which represents how certain names undergo a process of becoming deracialized and normative.[14]: 285 An example of this includes the social phenomenon, most common in educational institutions and classrooms, where students have their names mispronounced or their given name displaced due to the assumption their names are foreign or hard to pronounce.[14]: 276 Many marginalized groups, however, do claim the right to name themselves such as choosing a new name, maintaining multiple pronunciations, and having different naming practices.[14]: 285
Linguistic Appropriation and Mock Language
Linguistic appropriation is the act of adopting linguistic patterns and elements of a language or dialect other than one’s own, typically without a cultural understanding or acknowledgment of said language and its social nuances. Linguistic appropriation typically affects languages or linguistic backgrounds that are historically marginalized. It can occur in everyday conversation but also in the media and advertisements, in which certain dialects and their associated stereotypes are utilized to represent socially desirable qualities attributed to that language. Therefore, this appropriation contributes to the erasure, marginalization, and trivialization of the targeted language or dialect. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been the target of linguistic appropriation for white audiences to make them appear knowledgeable about pop culture and have a “cool” persona that is adopted through the use of AAVE.[15]: 169 However, these appropriations index dangerous and negative stereotypes attributed to African Americans, including hyper-masculinity, higher rates of violence, and promiscuity.[15]: 169 Donor groups, who are the communities that the language is appropriated from, express linguistic appropriation as a form of theft in which those who utilize it reap the benefits of its associations while not acknowledging its origins.[15]: 169 [16]: 218-222
Another example of linguistic appropriation began as early as the seventeenth century in the incorporation of loanwords from indigenous languages into the English language, including place names.[15]: 162 As an example, White Americans have historically appropriated indigenous place names to construct the idea of an "American" landscape, which includes locations such as "Massachusetts," "Chattahoochee," and "Tucson."[15]:162-3 William O. Bright's research on indigenous place names defines the concept of "transfers," which refers to place names from indigenous languages that are used in locations disconnected from those languages, reflecting an assimilation of these names into White narratives and an alienation and alteration from its indigenous origins.[17]: 370
Mock language is defined as the action of imitating and mimicking another language, incorporating grammatical structures, expressions, and terminology that is not native to the speaker. Speakers of mock Spanish reasoned their usage of it as a signifier of being exposed to Spanish, to incite amusement, or to claim regional authenticity to primarily the Southwest, California, or Floria.[18]: 683 To understand the logics and semiotics of mock Spanish as humorous or even intelligible, it requires access and understanding of negative stereotypes of Latinos and Chicanos.[18]: 683 The works of Jane H. Hill on "mock Spanish",[19] of Barbara A. Meek on "Hollywood Injun English",[20] of Ronkin and Kan on parodies of Ebonics,[21] of Elaine Chun "Ideologies of Legitimate Mockery" on "mock Asian", etc., demonstrate how parodying or re-appropriating non-English languages contributes to presenting certain cultures as inferior to European Americans by disparaging their languages.[1]
See also
- Mock language
- Linguistic imperialism
- Linguistic discrimination
- Linguistic Profiling
- Linguistic Purism
- Standard Language Ideology
References
- ^ a b Paul V. Kroskrity, "Theorizing Linguistic Racisms from a Language Ideological Perspective", In: The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race
- ^ a b Dick, Hilary Parsons; Wirtz, Kristina (2011). "Racializing Discourses". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 21 (s1).
- ^ Langer, Nils; Nesse, Agnete (2012). "Linguistic Purism". In Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Conde-Silvestre, Juan Camilo (eds.). The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
- ^ a b Hudley, Anne H. Charity (2016). "Language and Racialization". In García, Ofelia; Flores, Nelson; Spotti, Massimiliano (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Oxford University Press. pp. 381–402.
- ISBN 978-8834600238.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ashcroft, Bill (2001). "Language and Race". Social Identities. 7 (3): 311–28.
- ^ Hulme, Peter (1986). Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean 1492-1797. New York and London: Routledge.
- ^ S2CID 233600585.
- ^ "Ask the expert: Linguistic Racism". MSUToday | Michigan State University. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
- ^ Ro, Christine. "The pervasive problem of 'linguistic racism'". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
- PMID 16356362.
- PMID 16356362.
- ^ a b c d Hudley, Anne H. Charity (2016). "Language and Racialization". In García, Ofelia; Flores, Nelson; Spotti, Massimiliano (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Oxford University Press. pp. 381–402.
- ^ a b c d e Bucholtz, Mary (2016). "On Being Called Out of One's Name: Indexical Bleaching as a Technique of Deracialization". In Alim, H. Samy; Rickford, John R.; Ball, Arnetha F. (eds.). Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b c d e Hill, Jane H. (2008). The Everyday Language of White Racism. Routledge.
- ^ Smitherman, Geneva (1998). "Word from the hood: The lexicon of African-American Vernacular English". In Bailey, Guy; Baugh, John; Mufwene, Salikoko S.; Rickford, John R. (eds.). African-American English: Structure, History, and Use. Routledge.
- ^ Bright, William O. (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press.
- ^ a b Hill, Jane H. (1998). "Language, race, and white public space". American Anthropologist. 100 (3): 680–689.
- ^ "Review of Jane H. Hill's "Mock Spanish: A Site for the Indexical Reproduction of Racism in American English"".
- JSTOR 4169479
- Abstract: This article describes linguistic features used to depict fictional American Indian speech, a style referred to as “Hollywood Injun English,” found in movies, on television, and in some literature (the focus is on the film and television varieties). Grammatically, it draws on a range of nonstandard features similar to those found in “foreigner talk” and “baby talk,” as well a formalized, ornate variety of English; all these features are used to project or evoke certain characteristics historically associated with "the American culture.
- Abstract: This article describes linguistic features used to depict fictional American Indian speech, a style referred to as “Hollywood Injun English,” found in movies, on television, and in some literature (the focus is on the film and television varieties). Grammatically, it draws on a range of nonstandard features similar to those found in “foreigner talk” and “baby talk,” as well a formalized, ornate variety of English; all these features are used to project or evoke certain characteristics historically associated with "the
Further reading
- International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Volume 23, 2020 – Issue 7: "Linguistic racism",