Allison Armstrong
Professor Julie Cook
English
November 1, 2013
Culture and Discourse: American Controversy
We were walking down the sidewalk on our way home from school as we hear
someone scream, “Go back to Africa!” I looked at my friend as her eyes started to well
up with tears. This had not been the first time she had experienced these comments since
she had moved to our neighborhood. A neighborhood located in an ethnically
homogenous county full of predominantly whites. With a town of no diversity, my new
friend was not very accepted. I handed her one of the tissues that I had started carrying
around since we had become friends. I watched how she was treated at school and just
couldn’t understand why race or culture differences even matter. She was made fun of
constantly for her discourse because she is African American. Isn’t America supposed to
be the melting pot of all of the countries? Shouldn’t everyone be able to fit in? Although
we make it seem that way, it is definitely not the case.
Even schools have had controversial issues over the discourse in our classrooms.
In an article by Jane Hill, she mentions the issues coming up with the controversy over
Ebonics, which is American Black English. She writes, “ Like other anthropologists,
linguistic anthropologists have made ‘education,’ with its implicit assumption of a
confrontation with ‘ignorance,’ their central antiracist strategy. Attempts to inoculate
students against beliefs in primitive languages, linguistic deprivation, or the idea that
bilingualism is inevitably seditious can be found in every introductory textbook in
linguistics, and major scholars in the field have tried to spread the message not only as
classroom educators, but as public intellectuals in a wide range of functions. And what
have we to show for these efforts? ‘Official English’ legislation on the books in many
states and a nationwide ‘moral panic’ about whether ‘Ebonics’ might be discussed in the
classrooms of Oakland, California. (Hill. 680)” Schools have a fear to even discuss these
topics in the classroom. Although the textbooks tell us that bilingualism is not to be
feared, the nation goes into panic about whether or not they should even discuss Ebonics.
America does not even have an official language, so what makes it such a big deal to talk
about more than one? Why can we not study different languages and be accepting to
them? America is full of all different types of languages and cultures. There are a wide
variety of different races in everyone whether it is visible or not. Just because someone’s
skin color or speech is the same as yours does not mean that they are from the same
background as you. Everyone is not going to look and talk a certain way because really
we all come from different backgrounds and ancestry. America especially is known for
having so many various backgrounds because of the immigration that brought people
from all over to the country. Would it hurt America to incorporate different cultures into
our country, or would it be beneficial?
With all of the immigration in America, many towns are becoming predominantly
a certain race. In Atlanta there have been many Hispanic neighborhoods emerging
throughout the 1990s and 2000s. An article by Hiromi Ishizawa states, “The geographic
concentration of speakers of a particular language also has an impact on the linguistic
landscape of neighborhoods. For example, Orum addressed the increase in the use of
non-English languages in private and public businesses, such as banks, newspapers,
radio, driver's license centers, and schools as an example of how the current immigration
is influencing the character of American society. One of Orum's propositions is that
‘robust ethnic communities will be likely to exercise their influence high up the chain of
command of a particular organizational or institutional sector’ , such as the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which is now a powerful
organization working to increase the political influence of Latinos.” These communities
oftentimes lack the resources needed and the exposure to English language in order for
them to learn it. This is creating language barriers because they are not able to learn
English which in turns makes it hard for them to understand others. With these
communities growing as they are, some are seeing them as a threat to the English
language. With the Latino population growing the way it is and having their own
businesses as well as being in the political force, it could be a possibility that one day
English speakers will be the minority and there will be more Spanish speakers. Would
this mean that the nation as a whole would use Spanish as their main language? It is hard
to tell. There have also been variations made of the languages that tie the two together
such a Chicano language.
New languages and words are being created all of the time from combining
languages. Another possibility would be that our language could change to mix together
already existing languages like Chicano Spanish and Korenglish have done. Both are a
hybrid of languages combined. Although this is a possibility, it would probably be
difficult for these languages to be considered a language because of the fact that schools
attempt to get rid of these languages. Gloria Anzaldua writes, “At Pan University, I and
all Chicanos were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our
accents.” ( Anzaldua.34) Chicanos were once required to take extra classes in school to
get rid of their accents. While society puts a lot of pressure on others to change their
accents, even people in the same culture are doing this. My good friend Sara was raised
with two parents who had actually moved to America from Korea as adults. They barely
spoke any English, and if they did it was very broken. Every time I would go to her house
they would talk in Korean with a little bit of English mixed in to me. Sara would have to
translate to me what they were saying so that I would understand what they were talking
about. I always wondered why I never heard Sara speaking in Korean like her parents
did. I would ask her about her Korean name or culture and she would quickly change the
subject. She did not want to talk much about it. One day she confessed to me that her
parents hated when she spoke in Korean and made sure that she only spoke English. They
told her how important it is that she had perfect English if she ever wanted to be
successful. She admitted how much of a struggle it was sometimes to not speak in
Korean, but she knew not to. Her parents had told her that she would never find a good
job with an accent, and that she needed to make sure she sounded completely American if
she wanted to be successful. This view of her parents was making her ashamed of her
own culture.
Everyone comes from a different background or culture. We all speak a little
differently and look differently. America is full of a wide variety of different discourses.
Is mixing in all of these different discourses beneficial or is it a threat? Many question
whether or not the growth of different cultures is threatening our language today.
Communication will be more difficult if everyone speaks in different languages. Books
and textbooks will have to be changed so that everyone can understand. On the other
hand, America does not have an official language so who are we to say that others are not
allowed to speak differently than us?
Works Cited
Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to tame a wild tongue." Out there: Marginalization
and contemporary cultures (1990): 203-211.
Hiromi Ishizawa, Population Research and Policy Review , Vol. 28, No. 6
(Dec., 2009), pp. 721-746
Jane H. Hill, American Anthropologist , Language, Race, and White Public
Space, New Series, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Sep., 1998), pp. 680-689