Classist Discourse

The normalcy of racial discourse in everyday language can be accredited to the fact that it has loosely been a part of early childhood development, such as when children are first learning how to read. For example, several jokes books and photography books with titles such “How to Speak Chinese Funny” and “Lost in Translation” encourage children to find humor in foreign language’s translation mistakes. Additionally, these books encourage racist discourses at a young age, teaching children that mimicking Chinese phonemes is acceptable, such as “writing in Chinese” by writing words with linguistic similarities, but still in English. For instance, several joke books encourage children to “decode Chinese,” which is simply misspelled English words that mirror Chinese spellings: “That's not right” – “Sum Ting Wong.” When children are
When students are encouraged to cross-read information, they learn how to utilize opposing texts to “denaturalize and historicize” language. As Beech states in her entry, “While writing up their research on a particular race- and/or class-based epithet, students will need to further reflect upon the ethical implications of their own writing about a particular group.” This type of pedagogy, in terms of racist and classist discourse, will help reduce these prejudice patterns of speech from perpetuating. (“Redneck and hillbilly discourse in the writing classroom: Classifying critical pedagogies of whiteness” Jennifer