Lippi-Green part 2

1. Lippi-Green part 2

2. Five Educational/Language Court Cases • 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

3. More Lippi-Green Bias? (133-152) • 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) • —“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)

4. 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

5. Court issues and business • 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)

6. Black English • 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 non-AAVE 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)

7. Southern Dialect • 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)

8. 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

9. Agreements • 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)

10. Your disagreements • 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)

11. More disagreements • 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)