I guess standard English is racist? The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) wants to abolish this linguistic racism!
From Campus Reform:
The announcement, titled “This Ain’t Another Statement! This is a DEMAND for Black Linguistic Justice!” cited Michigan State University English professor April Baker-Bell’s assertion that “the way Black language is devalued in schools reflects how Black lives are devalued in the world . . . [and] the anti-Black linguistic racism that is used to diminish Black Language and Black students in classrooms is not separate from the rampant and deliberate anti-Black racism and violence inflicted upon Black people in society.”Baker-Bell is a self-proclaimed “teacher-scholar-activist” who touts that she coined the term “Anti-Black Linguistic Racism.”The professors use the term, “White Linguistic Supremacy,” and suggested that English is a language stemming from racism and solely belonging to White people. The organization demanded that higher education, therefore, reject “Standard English as the Accepted Communicative Norm” and push for the education of “Black Language.”The group claimed that opposition to this point shows a disregard for “Black Lives.”In the same statement, the professors upheld CCCC’s statementon Ebonics. Ebonics is defined by Merriam-Webster as “African American Vernacular English” which it defines as “a nonstandard variety of English spoken by some African Americans.”“Ebonics reflects the Black experience and conveys Black traditions and socially real truths. Black Languages are crucial to Black identity. Black Language sayings, such as ‘What goes around comes around,’ are crucial to Black ways of being in the world. Black Languages, like Black lives, matter,” states CCCC.However, instead of labeling Ebonics as a variety of the English language, this organization repeatedly identifies it as its own “Black Language.”
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