Critical Social Inquiry 0242 - Racism and Language

What role does language standardization play in perpetuating white supremacy / systemic racism? How is racism evident in dominant assumptions about the relative value of different language varieties? How do institutions employ racism strategically to police the languages of Black people and other people of color? What opportunities can we enact to intervene? In this introductory sociolinguistics course, we will learn about the etymologies and histories of various U.S. languages (including our own); we will analyze controversies such as the Oakland Ebonics debate and the national English-Only movement; and we will consider how U.S. authors and activists navigate language politics to "re-write" the world. Ultimately, our study is intended to propel our activism: How can we use what we learn to make change? This course will also provide the opportunity for students to develop skills in close reading, critical and creative writing, independent research, and creative online presentation methods. Key words:Language, racism, identity, linguistics, politics

In/Justice This course is fully remote. Students should generally expect to have 6-8 hours of work a week outside of class.