Alienated By Accument

“Alienated by Accent” The manner in which a person speaks is more than just a complex order of certain intonations and slang words, it is a representation of the historical, cultural, and ethnic background of an individual. Infants learn language from their parents who learned it from their parents who learned it from their parents on and on all the way to the ancient ancestors of those infants; meaning that each person carries with their words a cultural identity that is unique to them but also shared by people of similar roots; we call this shared cultural identity a dialect. I was born in the South to a southern family with southern values and a distinct southern accent. In my elementary years I attended schools made up of a majority of
southern students with similar southern accents so I was unaware that my voice sounded any different from others; but when I first became introduced to what is considered Standard American English, I was told that I sounded “funny” and “slow”. I was terrified to speak for fear of being ridiculed for my innate manner of speech, and this fear eventually brought me to a point where my accent reflects those around me rather than the accent of my family. The detrimental effect dialect discrimination (also called linguistic profiling) had on me was significant, making me repress the heritage and cultural identity that I communicated through my unique speech patterns for fear of being singled out by an ignorant or intolerant person and made out to be unintelligent or inadequate just because of my dialect. The discrimination that I faced as a child is a serious form of alienation in modern America because of the nationwide acceptance of the most common stereotypes associated with certain regional or ethnic dialects and the consensual opinion that dialect discrimination is not a real issue.
This assertion is supported by Wolfram’s statement that “people’s intelligence, capability, and character are often judged on the basis of a sentence, a few phrases, or even a single word. Studies show that children as young as 3 to 5 years of age show strong preferences—and prejudices—based on dialect variations among speakers.” (Wolfram). This evidence brings attention to the serious implications of dialect discrimination and the intolerant nature of an environment that ignores these hostile assumptions based on one’s accent. While many people will deny claims of dialect discrimination having any serious effect on people, we can see that “Matters of fairness, which Americans value, lie at the core of linguistic profiling. As with racial profiling, linguistic profiling can have devastating consequences for the US residents who are perceived to speak with an undesirable accent or dialect.” (Baugh). The very nature of any form of discrimination sees to it that a minority group (whether racial, lingual, religious, etc.) is dealt with unfairly and underrepresented to ensure that the ignorance that allows for discrimination to blossom continues; and that is no different with dialect
discrimination. Dialect discrimination and linguistic profiling reveal a tendency for Americans to judge people of different dialects in specified manners that usually adhere to some preexisting stereotype, and subsequently alienates individuals in a way that can limit their human rights and rob them of the opportunities that should be afforded to them.
“[Linguistic] profiling is a skill that too often is used to discriminate and diminish the [speaker’s] chance at the American dream of a house or equal opportunity in the job market.” (Rice). A society allows for the facilitation of dialect discrimination in the form of jokes and assumptions is the same society that will allow people to be treated as less than humans based on their accents. People are always going to have opinions about other people, but those opinions should be formed after truly meeting people and discovering the true content of their character rather than the mainstream ideas about people from a certain region or those with a certain accent; however, “In studying [linguistic profiling] through hundreds of test phone calls, Dr. John Baugh Ph. D, has found that many people made racist, snap judgements about callers with diverse dialects.” (Rice). This discovery supports the argument that dialect discrimination is a real threat to the quality of life of people who speak with accents seen as alien or unfavorable by those around
them. Dialect discrimination is such a serious problem because most people who form or hold stereotypes that they associate with dialects are often residents of communities where those dialects are scarce, meaning that they oftentimes have little to no firsthand experience with a variety of people who use that dialect. This detachment from the persecuted dialect allows for the supporting of the idea that certain dialects are wrong; however, “…distinctive dialects exhibit unique grammatical properties that are shared by other speakers of the same dialect, but which may be unfamiliar to, unused by, or unknown to speakers of other dialects of the same language.” (Baugh). The common belief that dialects such as Southern American English and African American Vernacular English are “wrong” and Standard American English is “right” is a giant misconception. Dialects are variations of language that are resultant by a number of external cultural influences that evolve and split off within a language and develop into their own “sub-language” so-to-speak, and “within this fluid state, all dialects involve intricate, detailed patterning governed by the scientific laws of language structure.” (Wolfram). Since it is these misconceptions that enable dialect discrimination and allow for the continued profiling of individuals based on their speech patterns, the solution to the problem of dialect discrimination can be found through only one means; the means of educating the ignorant. There are many programs that are geared towards eliminating or diminishing the effect dialect discrimination has by educating those that think of other dialects as simple gibberish or improper English, and “the goal of these ‘dialect awareness’ programs is straightforward: to provide accurate information about the nature of dialect differences and promote understanding of the roles of dialects in American society.” (Wolfram). The way forward is to facilitate an environment where people are educated about the various cultures and cultural traits that they will come into contact as they enter more heterogeneous communities and our society becomes more heterogeneous as a whole. As an educator-to-be and a victim of dialect discrimination, I feel that one of the most beneficial things for our future generations to learn is tolerance of other peoples’ cultures and social traits. Not only is dialect discrimination a serious problem in schools that could be changed by dialect education, but teaching children about dialects will establish a gateway to eliminating learned prejudices to create a more culturally relative environment for children to grow and develop in. I can say that I personally have benefited greatly from learning about the various dialects of American English and about my own dialect and the cultural implications that it entails, and I believe that people of all dialects and cultures could benefit just as much from a similar education.