Shades of Beige? One White Scholar’s Imperfect(ive) Quest for Racial and Linguistic Justice

• In Event: Understanding Lived Raciolinguistic Realities Through Autoethnographies of Education Scholars

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an autoethnography of a white American educator who has worked with multilingual students in and out of the United States since 1997. The paper draws on theories of raciolinguistic perspectives (Flores & Rosa, 2017, 2019), linguistic racism (Dovchin, 2019) and whiteness (Mena, 2022) in writing and interpreting vignettes of childhood and early career work with students alongside journal entries of more recent work with students. The author, through the process of reading and writing about whiteness, language and race, came to understand that although she thought of herself as “different” from other whites because of her Jewish religious and cultural background, she nevertheless is constructed in society as a competent speaker of standard English. As a result, she developed a passion for racial justice but never saw the linkage between racial and linguistic justice of racialized speakers. As she faced questions about the overlap of race and language, she not only didn’t see it but felt she was being called a “racist” rather than being seen as an advocate for linguistic justice. Upon further reflection of her treatment of current students’ languaging practices through a raciolinguistic lens, the author realizes she has to continue to recognize the comingling of race and language, and continually excavate her views of students’ language practices that are subconscious interpretations of language through a racialized lens. The author hopes other well-meaning white teachers who think they are not “racist” or “racializing” will be encouraged to confront their own practices and change how they read students’ bodies and languaging practices.

Authors

• Anna Becker, Polish Academy of Sciences

• Bridget Goodman, Nazarbayev University