WRT 105 Block 1 by Laura Schilly

John McWhorter, an American linguist, discusses the complex relationship between language and racism in the United States, in his article, “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist. Professors, Take Note.” Stated in his writing, “the idea that people’s authenticity stops at their home dialect does not reflect how people operate linguistically or their experience,” further explaining that language and race can coexist together without negatively affecting one or the other.

2023-10-16 12:07:08 UTC

Rylan Hall

Brenna Villnave

2023-10-16 12:07:29 UTC

John McWhorter, the associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, argues the importance of Black English within English Writing classes and standard English in the article, “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist. Professors, Take Note.” The article states, “Attacking the demand for standard English is the only way to end its oppression of linguistic minorities and learning writers,” ultimately proving the issue with standard English in college classrooms.

Allison

2023-10-16 12:07:31 UTC

John McWhorter, an American linguist, argues that forcing students in college to write with standard English is effecting black students ability to be their authentic selves outside of their home. He writes “You can mouth the words that are white, but they’re coming from a body that’s something else” which goes to show that black students try to become another person to please the system, where in reality the system needs to change to please the cultures of the students.

Jonathan Bitner

2023-10-16 12:07:38 UTC

John McWhorter, an American linguist, develops the idea that it is common for people to balance between their dialect and English everyday. He supports this idea the best when he states, “They can process it as a part of who they are,” brining home the fact that people commonly embrace a foreign language or dialect, even if it’s different from their own

lizzie m

2023-10-16 12:07:43 UTC

American linguist John McWhorter argues that forcing black students to compose mainly in standard English is unfair and dehumanizing in his article “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist”. He writes, “…requiring them to write in standard English is a potentially unjust, if not flatly racist imposition, forcing some students to suppress their true selves in favor of a hegemonic artificiality,” meaning that writing in standard English, for most Black students, belittles their backgrounds and coerces them into wanting to fit into an unjust system.

Kat Taru

2023-10-16 12:08:01 UTC

In the article, “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist. Professors, Take Note.” John McWhorter an American linguist and Black English expert writes about how Black people are forced to code-switch to an un-natural way of speech in the professional world due to inherently racist standards in the past. McWhorter writes, “We learned the slide out of one language and into another without being conscious of the effort.”

Hunter

2023-10-16 12:09:09 UTC

John McWhorter, a renowned American linguist and associate professor at columbia, argues that there’s two sides to the same coin in his piece, Blackness and standard english can coexist. Mcwhorter writes, “English is potentially unjust if not a flatly racist imposition forcing some students to suppress their true selves into n favor of a hegemonic artificially,” and to paraphrase that african americans should be able to just use the two different dialects like two different languages, to switch between the two like walking and chewing gum, he takes two opposite ideas and in doing so argues that we need to find a middle ground.

Taylor Patti

2023-10-16 12:09:47 UTC

John McWhorter, a professor of linguistics at Columbia University argues that education shouldn't be restricted depending on the different dialect a person speaks. He explains, "The idea in education circles that standard English functions as an unjust "gatekeeper" holding black students of color, has been around for a long time" showing that people of color shouldn't have to change the way they are just because the things they learn in school teach them to.

Ashton Murdock

2023-10-16 12:09:59 UTC

In “Standard English”, John McWhorter, an American linguist, writes about how a divide between formal and informal language is common throughout the world and something that enriches rather than deteriorates, as argued by some, the lives of African Americans. He says, “Linguistically, Black Americans can and do walk and chew gum at the same time, like countless people around the world- and like it,” in reference to this duality.

Hunter C

2023-10-16 12:10:06 UTC

John McWhorter a NAACP Image award nominee and American Linguist spoke upon Systemic Racism in education and speech in his article "Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist." John Said "Those practices are setting them up for failure," further explaining how standard education limiting the native speech, forcing them to pronounce and use certain words to sound more proper and "white."

Maddie

2023-10-16 12:10:39 UTC

John McWorter, an American linguist with specialties in creole languages, sociolects, and black English, dives into the idea of students being required to write in standard English when their home dialect is Black English, is racist. “You can mouth the words that are white, but they’re coming from a body that’s something else,” McWorter expresses the issue of systems trying to change the students to fit in their program, “to play the game”, but you can make the students write out on paper what you want to see but you won’t change who they are as a person.

Abby

2023-10-16 12:11:07 UTC

John Mcwhorter an American linguist who wrote “Standard English” argued that it is unethical to have black students not have the ability to be themselves when speaking or writing. Mcwhorter wrote “linguistically, Black Americans can and do walk and chew gum at the same time, like countless people around the world” meaning that we are all humans, but have different dialects and backgrounds, and people shouldn’t have to follow the standard.

Reece Balduzzi

2023-10-16 12:15:14 UTC

John McWhorter, an American linguist, writes about the differences in dialect between standard English and Black English, and how Black English can often be seen as "incorrect". In the article, John writes that the practices of black students being encouraged to write in their home dialect is "...setting them up for failure." explaining how though speaking in that way my be encouraged, it still is often said to be incorrect and they are often forced to use standard english anyways.

marlisa perez

2023-10-16 12:15:37 UTC

John McWhorter, an American linguist, discusses the differences of standard English between People of color, that one may speak with an educated tone to someone with a more educated background then switches to a far less intelligent way of speaking when it comes to speaking with someone who they view equal to them and their status. Different backgrounds form different habits especially when it comes to languages and way of speech, John argues that there shouldn't be such a big difference and that there should be no outliers and instead a middle ground.

Bella

2023-10-16 12:15:48 UTC

John McWhorter, an American Linguist portrays the idea that Black students are treated unfairly in school systems and that they should be encouraged to write in their home dialect. This is evident when he says “Requiring them to write in standard English is potentially unjust, if not flatly racist imposition, forcing some students to suppress their true selves in favor of a hegemonic artificially.”

Duncan

2023-10-16 12:17:44 UTC

John McWhorter, author of the article, “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist. Professors, Take Note,” writes about systemic racism in our standard English system and ways to overcome it. He proves this while writing, “Writers should be encouraged to make intentional errors in standard form and usage. Attacking the demand for standard english…” showing ways to take steps forward in overcoming the system that we are put in.

Emily S

2023-10-18 15:01:41 UTC

John McWhorter, an American Linguist, discusses in his article "Blackness and Standard English can Coexsist" the importance of Black english and thats its literature, like standard english. He explains, "English is potentially unjust if not a flatly racist imposistion forcing some students to supress their true selves into favor of a hegemonic artificially." this saying that Black english is just as important and it is wong to not teach it.

Emily Perkins

2023-10-19 01:25:55 UTC

John Mcwhorter, an American linguist, explains that even in a system that is inherently racist, teaching black students “proper English” allows for those students to be given equal opportunities and understanding. He says that even though there are problems with the way the system is portrayed, when teachers don’t let their students to write in the way that they speak, it isn’t necessarily belittling the person they are, but rather teaching them something new. He says “Requiring them to write in standard English is potentially unjust, if not flatly racist imposition, forcing some students to suppress their true selves in favor of a hegemonic artificially.” Then he later goes on to debunk this by saying that allowing these students to speak in their home dialect is “setting them up for failure.”

Meghan McGrath

2023-10-19 03:46:05 UTC

Linguist John McWhorter, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia with a specialty in Black English, describes the systemic racism implanted in our Standard English system which suppresses many Black American’s natural vernacular in his article, “Blackness and Standard English Can Coexist. Professors, Take Note.” He addresses this idea directly in saying, "Requiring them to write in standard English is potentially unjust, if not flatly racist imposition, forcing some students to suppress their true selves in favor of a hegemonic artificially." which shows his beliefs of the racism and suppression caused by the Standard English system.

Savannah

2023-10-26 03:12:35 UTC

John McWhorter, an American professor of linguistics, writes about how systematic racism connects directly to standard English and how it's being taught "Requiring them to write in standard English is potentially unjust, if not flatly racist imposition, forcing some students to suppress their true selves in favor of a hegemonic artificially." which Proves that forcing standard English among black students is happening in unjust ways, he explains that there are many ways we could invite other dialects into standard English classrooms "Blackness and standard English can coexist."