Unpacking Anti-Black Linguistic Racism in Visual Representations and Dialogue of Preadolescent Children in Educational Context

• In Event: Language, Literacy, and Identity: Examining Pedagogical Spaces of Social and Linguistic Justice for Diverse Learners

Abstract

Through a sociocultural approach to linguistics, it can be corroborated that language has many different meanings dependent on context: specifically, social, cultural, historical and relational context (Gee, 1999). This dialogue and the term standard English deserves to be transcended and challenged from more inclusive and revolutionary framework(s) that posit that all forms of English are standard or valuable; or who’s occupation is surely to make refutable the belief that the standardized, and most valuable English is that of the language of whiteness. Baker-Bell labels this form of dominant English as White Mainstream English (pg.11, 2020). Following Alim and Smitherman (2012), she uses “the term White Mainstream English in place of standard English to emphasize how white ways of speaking become the invisible —or better, inaudible—norm.” (Baker-Bell, pg. 3).

This study compounds on the work of researchers who believe that an admission of a standard or dominant English, within spaces that are proposed for the transformation and revaluing of language variety (such as schools), inadvertently upholds White Supremacy (Baker-Bell, 2020). Baker-Bell argues that this is specifically systemized and historicized through two forms of language pedagogies: eradicationist language pedagogies and respectability language pedagogies (2020, pg. 28). This paper is undergirded by both of these language pedagogies—utilized primarily as tools to comprehend the dialogue(s) about and explore the use of Black language within a k-8 school in New York City.

This study strives to understand through participating in dialogue, interpreting visuals embedded within a school model and observing educational praxis in real life context, how a school in New York City may or may not center respectability or eradicationist language pedagogies. In this discourse of Black Language or the “language wars” (Smitherman, 2012), several individuals have elucidated believed pathways and framework(s) that can eliminate the perpetuating of White Mainstream English as the dominant and most valuable language. Their assertions allow and create space for more in depth discourse(s) of what a transcended dialogue and or pedagogy of Black Language could incorporate. Specifically, Baker-Bell’s work provides deep analysis into the discourse around Black Language while also setting the foundation for the type of action research I engage with. Specifically, in this paper, I seek to respond to the three following questions:
• Where is the location of Black Language within academia? What is the contemporary discourse around its importance and what are the possible implications for its role in educational discourse?
• What impact does eradicationist and respectability language pedagogies have on speakers of Black Language? Where is there evidence of attacks on speakers of Black Language through the expressions of preadolescent children?
• How can we create a world, through formalized academic spaces and revolutionary pedagogical praxis, where Black Language is used for leverage in creating pathways and opportunity for marginalized, oppressed and disregarded communities of persons?

Author

• Ja'Keel Daniels, Hofstra University