I found the article about linguistic profiling very interesting. Unfortunately, I feel as if it does exist. If I were a businesswoman, and I was attempting to sell a piece of property or give a job interview over the phone, I would expect to hear clear and concise sentences. Many African Americans or Mexican Americans may speak with a different accent and use fragments and informal language. There is nothing wrong with that because just like we discussed in class: grammatically speaking, what they are saying is correct.
Those African Americans or Mexican Americans speak the way they do because of how and where they were born and raised. Many do not know any different. It is usually not that they are ignorant or uneducated, but that they were taught that their way of speaking was the right way. Is there really a "right" way to speak? Or has the white upper class really decided what the "right" way to speak is because usually they hold the most power?
In a previous blog, I referred to the Africana Studies class I am taking. We are actually studying something quite similar to this phenomenon. In the 1920s, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was formed by W.E.B. Du Bois, who was a black man. A few years later it was taken over by whites. The white men had forced themselves into positions of higher power in this organization. Consequently, the NAACP was more successful and was well run. Was it because the white men were smarter? Were they persuasive? Well, what my professor suggested is that people who were considering becoming supporters of the NAACP took it more serious when they saw a group of white men and only a few black men as the leaders. Even my own African American teacher said that he himself would take the NAACP more seriously if he saw more white men than black men running the show. Unfortunately, the stereotype that whites are greater and will always be greater than blacks is enforced in this case.
In that same way, when a white person calls to purchase property or interview for a job, they may be considered more seriously for what they are applying for than a black person may be solely due to the way they speak.
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5 comments:
I do agree that language profiling is real. I am also guilty of judging people by the way they talk. This is outrageous because I have a southern accent, so I don't really speak "correct english." I belive that everything about language is relative. Language is shaped completely by hoow it is used and how it sounds.
I would also like to acknowledge how right you are. I would not like to be known as racist, simply because I am not. Basically, most employers hire based not on race, but how well the person conducts themselves, which creates the importance of first impressions.
I think it's interesting to talk about this issue of racism in the south. I am from Northern Virginia which I guess is still kind of Southern but we have a lot of influence from the government and tend to be more diverse and a little more liberal. As you were talking about the NAACP I found it interesting and kind of annoying that a white person had to take the power because how does he even know what it feels like to be discriminated against?? It's good to see both whites and blacks come together to fight for a common cause but I wish the NAACP could get more support without having to have a white person in control.
Language profiling exists in every day life. Most often times, it is performed unintentionally. It is certainly unfair, but when a foreigner's voice is heard, unjust assumptions are made. How can we prevent ourselves from being discriminatory? Is it possible and can we change our bad habbits today?
There is almost no doubt in my mind that linguistic profiling is just another tool for racism. Every one from a different background whether it is southern of african american has a different type of accent, and this is something that is very hard to get rid of. These accents, though, are still being used against us. I just do not know where the line is being crossed to lose our culture, and will this prevent racism?
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