U. Michigan Prof Thinks Asking Black Students to Write in Standard English is ‘Anti-Black Linguistic Racism’
“traditional approaches to language education do not account for the emotional harm or consequences these approaches have on Black students’ sense of self and identity”
This is the soft bigotry of low expectations in action. How does this way of thinking benefit the students?
IJR reports:
Professor: Asking Black Students to Write Using Standard English is ‘Anti-Black Linguistic Racism’
Expecting black students to write standard English that their teachers understand is racist, according to a University of Michigan professor.
April Baker-Bell believes that “traditional approaches to language education do not account for the emotional harm or consequences these approaches have on Black students’ sense of self and identity,” according to an article in Equity in Teaching Academic Language.
Baker-Bell expounded on that during a November online workshop for faculty and graduate students hosted by Northern Illinois University, according to the The College Fix.
Baker-Bell said that because black language is “devalued in classrooms,” it “reflects how black lives are devalued in the world.”
“Similarly, the way we think about this notion of standard mainstream English is directly connected to the invisible way that White culture is often deemed normal, neutral, and superior in the world,” she said.
Baker-Bell is an associate professor of language, culture, and justice in education who authored a 2020 book titled “Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy.” She contributed to a 2020 paper calling for an end to “White Mainstream English.”
Requiring black students to use standard English is “anti-black linguistic racism,” she says.
April Baker-Bell lectures (with straightened hair) that we should all speak ebonics. No thank you, Ms. Appropriation. I am white, I speak English. Carry on while you admit you don't deserve cred.
— SunnyOkie (@SunnyOkie) December 8, 2023
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Comments
Blacks speak the same English as reds, yellows, browns, and whites. That they speak it poorly and in an accent exclusive to blacks is their problem. That they are involuntarily represents by an associate professor, with many nouns following her title, is a terrible shame. This professor claims only whites speak good English, what about the other races?
Eedjit.
They are still pissed about the abject failure of Ebonics.
Black English is not “poor” English; it’s a legitimate dialect, just like Appalachian English, English English, Scots (if you don’t consider that a separate language), Indian English, Australian English, Yiddish English (as spoken, e.g., in Williamsburg and Borough Park), etc. Standard English isn’t “better” than any of these, it’s just standard. When among people who share your dialect there’s nothing wrong with speaking it; but if you want to get along in an English-speaking society you need to master standard English as well. Otherwise you’re going to be stuck where you are, which is only fine if you like it there and have no wish to go any farther.
“Black English” is more pidgin than it is a real dialect.
And it’s very much a cultural issue, not a racial/ethnic one. I know a lot of blacks who sound just like everyone else. It relates initially back to the “black redneck” issue that Thomas Sowell identifies, but made worse by the condescension of the Progressives.
So, the mystery down-voter want to reveal WHY they didn’t like what I said?
April Baker-Bell is a documented racist who blames all her problems in life on white people. CRT is such a fraud. There will be no affirmative action admissions.
Reminder: You do not have to attend Michigan.
When these people show you how ridiculous they are, it’s just the tip of a much larger iceberg.
They’re actually doing you a favor: Between ages 18 and 23 you have a million better options.
(In every country with mandatory military service, n o b o d y goes to uni right out of high school)
A stereotypical space-taking quota-hire teaching courses with the word “justice” in the name. And, she has the hyphenated name to go with it.
I’m shocked.
A stereotypical space-taking quota-hire
________________________________
precisely
I guess asking blacks to perform as well as other groups is also racism. This attitude tells us why American colleges and universities have simply stopped functioning as centers of education, and instead have become centers of hate.
I’ve been teaching college writing since the mid-80s. Retired now, I still teach as an adjunct at the local community college.
News flash: the white students don’t have a good handle on grammar, usage, style, or the elements of composition either. It’s because everyone has stopped reading so they haven’t “caught” writing intuitively. The best writers are always avid readers.
But the effort to validate “Black Urban Vernacular” as a legitimate language, not a dialect, comes around every few years and it’s always the same, stale arguments. It’s been a thing since at least the 70s, and it’s always the same sort of rationale that’s put forward. It wins accolades at composition conferences and now, it appears, its own journal (how convenient for peer review). But it always falls flat because Standard American English is coin of the realm — the economic realm. You can’t get a job as a rental-car clerk or hotel receptionist or store manager without it. The Ebonics enthusiasts, like this woman, are raging at the dying of the light.
My best students remain immigrants — they are eager, even desperate to learn Standard American English. They know the score. I note also in my travels that black Englishfolk, not to mention the Indians and Pakistanis, speak immaculate BBC English. So this really isn’t so hard from a racial basis.
By the way, do you know the difference between a language and a dialect? A language has an army and a police force …
“Standard American English is coin of the realm — the economic realm. You can’t get a job as a rental-car clerk or hotel receptionist or store manager without it.”
“Three-two Heavy, pull up, your approach angle is bad!”
“Word up! You know I be bad!”
And, flap settings be raysis!
“A language is a dialect with an army and navy”
Actually, the difference between a language and a dialect is that dialects are considered generally comprehensible between each other. Not 100%, but generally.
Being a member of a certain group with its own accent within a language doesn’t excuse refusing to learn the mother tongue, standard English in this case, for writing or speaking. The Bride and I were born, raised, and educated in the Old South (the Heart of Dixie to be precise) and have little to no problems with composition, grammar, or spelling. If you knew the English teacher we had in high school and his enthusiasm for diagramming sentences, you’d understand.
The “soft bigotry of low expectations” is precisely what it is. Examples like this, as well as the fast food person who can’t make change from a $10 bill, make me wonder about the future of the nation. Lord help us – please!
.
I’m a U of M alumnus, BS and MD. I do not recommend anyone attend this institution until real, meaningful changes and firings take place.
Education is not indoctrination. Socialization is not socialism.
Intimidation is not protest.
Bigotry and racism are wrong.
Those who suppress freedom of speech and thought must be disciplined or expelled.
Until the colleges PROVE their sincerity, take your children and money elsewhere.
I clicked on “Equity in Teaching Academic Language”. The first paragraph was all I could take. There was more outright gibberish in it than I could possibly imagine. Dear me! Who aside from an academic could write this stuff and expect to be taken seriously?
Are they merely protecting their own convoluted linguistics? They can’t really write well, so they just want to ensure the oppressed don’t surpass them?
blacks are inferior…..this is obvious and reality.
There was GOOD reason for White Supremacy….we just didn’t dream it u out of thin air,….it was self evident.
The scene in Airplane where they were speaking “jive” was funny because it was true. Casting June Cleaver was a stroke of genius.