Transcript Moskowits article

Lippi-Green part 2
Five Educational/Language
Court Cases
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Sparks vs. Griffin (1972)
 Griffin has bad grammar
 I disagree with Lippi-Green’s argument in chapters 9 and 10 regarding
what she calls “subordination tactics” on the part of northern whites to
force blacks and southern whites to assimilate culturally and linguistically.
I think her diction is biased and dated. She quotes court cases from the
1970’s when “negro” was common terminology (Jama)
Edwards vs. Gladewater School Dist. (1978)
Mandhare (1985)
 Court skirted issue of language…focused on other technicality
Hou (1993)
 Higher education
 issue of intelligibility
Michigan Case (1979)
 Video of principal participants
More Lippi-Green Bias? (133-152)
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Media perpetuates ideas of need for homogenous
society
 mega-malls
Media uses propaganda
Language is part of the propaganda campaign
 NBC report p. 135 (again in 2007)
 media coverage of English Only
 keepers of the language appeal to their own
authority
BBC – good English (tape of film industry)
Stand. Lang. Ideology seeks to not eliminate all
dialects languages, but socially unacceptable ones
 hypercorrection (Whom, I, intrusive r)
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—“Before the trial, one might gather that the majority of American citizens had never come in
contact with evolutionary theory. After the trial, many of those people were thinking about
their own beliefs, about science, and about the nature of authority and its relationship to
knowledge” (169). (Naomi)
Language vs. Dialect Issue
Ebonics decision in 1998 in Oakland
 Original resolution
 Tie to bilingual education
 Bilingual education debate
 Latinos and English Only
 Newt Gingrich Comment
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Court issues and business
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Can’t fire due to aesthetic judgments
Appalachia traceable to England and therefore
protected (national origin discrimination)? p. 154
Burden falls on complainant (disenfranchised and
the unassimilated p. 157)
Court accepts argument that accent hurts
business
 opposite case in India
Court won’t accept opinion of linguists because
this challenges deep held convictions about
language (p. 170)
Black English
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Briefly because we’ll come back
Whites note phonology and grammar
Blacks not just grammar
Strong quotes p. 183, 186
Christopher Darden
I disagree that "the day-to-day pressure to give up the home language is something that most nonAAVE speakers cannot imagine." Lippi-Green contradicts her own point by noting that there are
numerous marginalized groups that are confronted with the same pressure. (Anna)
If the destiny of the two language populations is indeed intertwined but even people within the
African-American community are conflicted (like Oprah) about the use of AAVE, how are all of us to
approach the use of AAVE outside of the African-American community? (Laura)
We all discussed the Clinton incident in AL and how they reacted and took offense to it, but how is this
different from Oprah switching back and forth? Do we say that Oprah is ok with doing it because she is just
going back to her “roots”, or should the “Standard English” speakers take offense because she is trying to
relate to them by using their dialect or language? (Kevin)
Southern Dialect
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earthy, family values, spiritual
hick, phony, superstitious
diagram on page 207 – can’t say who speaks this dialect, but
the perception of those who do
popular culture – Andy Griffith, Charles Kuralt
Kennesaw is mentioned!!
 accent reduction classes
South and their feelings of guilt
North says any wisdom in sound is homegrown and not due to
education
“In real-life terms we see what instinctually and objectively we know to be true: there
is a great deal of diversity in the south (Angela)
Conclusions
Can’t change system (though we
should try) so at least draw attention
to this form of discrimination
 threats of not using MUSE are real
 promises of using MUSE are illusory
 New issue: Internet and hypens
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Agreements
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Unless someone can actually evaluate the employee in their setting, how are
they to judge if in fact they are not fulfilling the requirements? (Ashley)
A realistic goal must be a much smaller one: to make people aware of the
pocess of language subordination. To draw their attention to the
misinformation, to expose false reasoning and empty promises to hard
questions (Joel)
On the 16th June 1976, South African police opened fire on school children,
killing a few and sending South Africa into a cycle of violence and conflict.
The school children were resisting being forced to speak and learn in
Afrikaans--the language of Apartheid. The language policy by the Apartheid
government had been the final straw for the subordination of Africans.
(Tania)
The reasoning seems to be that the logical conclusion to a successful civil rights
movement is the end of racism, not because we have come to accept difference, but
because we have eliminated difference (Sherie)
Your disagreements
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Our goal in teaching Standard English to all of our students, other than
being one of our occupational responsibilities, is to provide our students
with the tools necessary for success in today’s society. (Ashley)
I think she has been 'argueing' that every variety of English should be
accepted on an equal footing, with no standards applied to any variety
because the 'rules' and 'forms' are innate and do not interfere with one's
ability to clearly communicate. I think Secondly, most of the examples she
discusses at length deal primarily with the issue of accent, which, to my way
of thinking, is a totally different issue than grammatical standards. While
grammatical rules and forms can be learned and applied in every situation, I
do not think an individual can totally change their native accent or brogue
she's flipped out in promoting this premise
Lippi-Green seems to flip her entire premise and state that she is not
opposed to English standards and preferences (Dixie)
The constant public debate on good English, on one right English, is as
fruitless an exercise as the hypothetical congressional debate on the ideal
height and weight for all adults (Joel)
Not a Lippi-Green quote, but . . . “I told them there was one word that will
mark them as uneducated” (179). (Naomi)
More disagreements
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The entire book had me conflicted. She had me struggling
against my own "elitist" view of language and intelligence
which was perhaps her main goal--to make us think and
rethink our own positions on language and who we are as
speakers of our own language. However, I still find
myself leaning towards my perceptions of intelligent
sounding language. I think to Winston Churchill, Marguerite
Poland (a South African author whose eloquence in speaking
was captivating), and the presidential candidates now--their
ability to manipulate and deliver language had and has the
power to move audiences. Can they do it in AAVE or in a
strong Southern accent? (Tania)