Anthropology 297LR - ST-Language and Racism

In this course, you will learn about language, race, and inequality in the contemporary United States. The course will cover theories of how and why languages and speakers come to be associated with racialized stereotypes, as well as how linguistic discrimination continues to be perpetuated in the U.S. today. We will read a variety of case studies in order to learn about the ways in which language and race are intertwined in education, mass media, material culture, and our everyday interactions. While we will focus primarily on language, race, and inequality in American English, we will also explore Spanish-English bilingualism from multiple perspectives.

By the end of the course you will be able to identify the relationships between language and race in your own everyday life, as well as to recognize and analyze instances of linguistic racism, including racial and ethnic stereotypes based on language and the covertly racist nature of certain kinds of language use across a range of contexts.