This article is also accessible as a Word Document: Linguistic Prejudice.

 

“What’s Wrong with Black English” by Rachel L. Jones---A Result of Linguistic Prejudice

 

Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is an excellent illustration of how intrinsically connected identity and language is. She poignantly states, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity—I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself,” (2951). Because Standard English “is the reigning tongue,” many, like Anzaldua, have felt alienation or prejudice towards their language (2948). Since language and identity are so intertwined, prejudice towards language can negatively affect a person’s identity.

 

In Rachel L. Jones’ “What’s Wrong with Black English,” she also acknowledges language prejudice, specifically towards African American English (AAE); however, Jones’ solution toward prejudice is for African Americans to fully acquire Standard English and stop using AAE. Being that Jones is not an expert in the field of linguistics, literacy, composition or rhetoric, her opinions are based on life experiences and observations. Blackness and AAE clearly are tied up into her identity; yet, she has negative feelings towards AAE. While Anzaldua has resisted and fought against linguistic prejudice, others, like Jones, turn away from their language in order to avoid prejudice. By analyzing Jones, I will explore how identity is tied not only to language, but linguistic prejudice as well.

 

Rachel Jones’ opinions of language didn’t develop overnight. She was teased in grade school for “talking white” and got turned down many times while apartment hunting, which she attributed to “sounding white” on the phone and being black in person (305-306). These two situations, while both demonstrate prejudice and involve language, do not share the same prejudicial features. For example, Jones wasn’t turned down during her apartment search due to the way she spoke. She was turned down because she is African American. Of course that is prejudicial too, but more of a general sort of racism than linguistic prejudice.

 

When you compare Jones’ apartment hunting story to that of the grade school bullies, the thing that they do have in common is her feelings of alienation. In other words, she feels like an outsider with her peers at school who use AAE, and still is received as an outsider to non-AAE speakers, despite her use of Standard English. Her feelings of alienation also stem from her belief that for many African Americans speaking Standard English is “socially unacceptable,” a language that she uses on a regular basis. The alienation that she experiences results in feelings of insecurity as well. She describes how leaders, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., use Standard English, “They all have full command of standard English, and I don’t think that knowledge takes away from their blackness or commitment to black people,” (306). It’s as if she has been told she “talks white” so many times that she feels the need to defend her own blackness, which she directly addresses towards the end of the article, “And what hurts me the most is to be stripped of my blackness simply because I know my way around the English language,” (307). Although Jones is expressing frustration towards her blackness being called into question, aspects of her article could easily be misinterpreted as linguistic prejudice.

 

Jones’ concluding sentence, “I don’t think I talk white, I talk right,” could depict her as being linguistically prejudicial (307); however, I find it to be more connected to her perceived loss of blackness. For example, throughout the article she mostly discusses her own language experiences. Jones doesn’t even discuss AAE users until the second to last paragraph, “ . . . it hurts me to hear black children use black English, knowing that they will be at yet another disadvantage in an educational system already full of stumbling blocks,” (307). When she does examine how language affects other African Americans, she is specifically concerned with how their use of AAE will be a detriment to their futures, academically and economically. She believes that AAE holds African Americans back and states, “Studies have proven that the use of ethnic dialects decreases power in the marketplace. ‘I be’ is acceptable on the corner, but not with the boss,” (307). Not only does she believe that the use of Standard English is beneficial for employment purposes, but also allows African Americans “full participation in the world we live” (307). These examples demonstrate that her intent is not necessarily to bash AAE users, but to offer guidance so that they may “better themselves.” Because her intent is not to condemn the users of AAE, “I don’t talk white” should instead be viewed as Jones defending her blackness.

 

Rachel Jones is not alone. Even academics likes Lisa Delpit have felt anxiety towards her language, which she relates in chapter three of The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom, “No Kinda Sense.” Delpit describes a situation where her daughter was transferred from her predominantly white private school to a mostly African American public charter school, because her daughter was not emotionally doing well due to feelings of alienation (34). When Delpit’s daughter made new friends at the charter school, she acquired a new language: AAE. Delpit describes her reaction to her daughter’s new language as fear (34). As Delpit examines her fear in more depth, she shares many of the same concerns as Jones,

We worried how, after years and years of trying to prove ourselves good enough, we might again be dismissed as ignorant and unworthy by those in power, by “the white folks.” We worried that our children would be viewed, and subsequently treated, as “less than”—in schools now, and in the workplace later. Consequently, those of us who reach for or attempt to maintain middle-class acceptability work hard to stamp out the public expression of the language with which we enjoy such a love/hate relationship. (37)

Although Delpit’s knee-jerk reaction towards her daughter’s language was fear, she quickly reminded herself of what she already knew. Because Delpit is an academic dedicated to language difference, she understands the importance of students’ right to their own language while helping students gain the ability to code-switch. Because of her background in language difference, she attributes her initial fear and anxieties towards her daughter’s use of AAE as more of a “mother’s protective instinct” (38). She states that her intention was not to reject her language, but more so to protect her daughter from “others” that may judge her intelligence, competence, potential, or even morality unfairly (38).

 

When comparing Delpit’s experiences to Jones’, they both express concern for how users of AAE will be perceived by non-AAE users. In other words, they both fear that users of AAE will be victims of prejudice which could affect their academic future or potential career. Despite their anxieties, Delpit is able to examine and think through her feelings about language in a way that Jones is not, because Jones lacks the background in language difference that Delpit has. Where Delpit can evaluate her fears and stay firm to her belief of students’ rights to their own language, Jones’ fear causes her to internalize the prejudice that she encounters. By internalizing the prejudice she encounters, not only does she view AAE negatively, but she also has developed a conflicted relationship with her blackness. To conclude, linguistic prejudice can affect language identity. However, if society is more educated and aware of language difference, linguistic prejudice may take less hold on a person’s identity.

 

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands: La Frontera, The New Mestiza. 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012. 2947-2955. Print.

 

Delpit, Lisa. “No Kinda Sense.” The Skin that We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. Ed. Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. New York: New Press, 2002. 33-48. Print.

 

Jones, Rachel. “What’s Wrong with Black English.” Exploring Language. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. New York: Longman, 1998. 305-307. Print.