Linguistic racism

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In the terminology of linguistic anthropology, linguistic racism, both spoken and written, is a mechanism that perpetuates discrimination, marginalization, and prejudice customarily based on an individual or community's linguistic background. The most evident manifestation of this kind of racism is racial slurs; however there are covert forms of it. [1] Linguistic racism also relates to the concept of "racializing discourses," which is defined as the ways race is discussed without being explicit but still manages to represent and reproduce race. [2] This form of racism acts to classify people, places, and cultures into social categories while simultaneously maintaining this social inequality under a veneer of indirectness and deniability. [2]

Contents

Different forms of linguistic racism include covert and overt linguistic racism, linguistic appropriation, linguistic profiling, linguistic erasure, standard language ideology, pejorative naming, and accent discrimination. Relevantly, linguistic purism is a foundational factor in many forms of linguistic racism, as it is a practice of defining a language as purer or of higher quality relationally to other languages. Therefore, linguistic purism is also motivated by protecting the perceived purity of specific languages from "corruption" or degradation, further defining and classifying languages and cultures hierarchically based on a perceived difference of quality or historical authenticity. [3] Because language and race have been deeply intertwined historically, race remains a crucial concept in understanding how languages are defined and how the study of language developed. [4] : 382

Languages coincide with classifying and reinforcing racial groups and the social associations with those groups, which relates to racialization. Racialization is the process of imposing and prescribing a racial category to a person or group, often by associating certain racialized traits such as cultural history, skin color, and physical features. [4] : 382 Language constitutes authoritative knowledge as well. When speaking a specific language, one adopts its ideas of morality and discipline, including the dynamics of power that gives particular groups authority and others not. [5] : 117 Additionally, how languages are taught and standardized contributes to how authoritative knowledge is created. [5] : 117

Andrea Moro in his essay, "La Razza e la lingua" ("Race and Language"), shows that there are two ideas that look innocuous if considered as separated but which are extremely dangerous if combined: first, that there are languages that are better than others; second, that reality is perceived and elaborated differently, according to the language one speaks. He highlights that this linguistic racism was at the origin of the myth of the Aryan race and the devastating results it had on civilization. [6]

Scholars known for their work on linguistic racism and related concepts such as linguicism and linguistic imperialism include Jane H. Hill, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Suresh Canagarajah, Geneva Smitherman, and Teun A. van Dijk. Linguistic racism is studied in multiple disciplines, which include communication studies, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, education, and psychology.

Origins and Development of Linguistic Racism

How race is defined and described is implicated in the dynamics of power and the violence of colonialism. [7] : 312 Difference has been recorded and actualized prior to the emergence of race as a category. Christopher Columbus' mistaken belief that the inhabitants of the island of Canibales engaged in the consumption of human flesh popularized the term "cannibal." [7] : 311 This term not only supplanted "anthropophagy" in reference to consuming human flesh but embodied the construct of the other and became the ultimate personification of an antithetical to a "civilized," normative existence. [7] : 311 [8] : 19 Race as a social category that defines physical characteristics in connection to ancestry was formed in the late eighteenth century. [7] : 312 The emergence of race included the social creation of hierarchies that positioned white Europeans at its top, with other racialized groups such as Black Africans and Australian Aborigenés at the bottom. [7] : 312 Within these linguistic traditions of conceptualizing race, color terms such as black or white became a topology associated with racialization regardless of its visual reality. [7] : 312 Within the Western imagination, color typologies reinforced the binarisms of race, especially between white and black, which became codified signifiers of social, racialized hierarchies. [7] :313

In the late fifteenth century, European expansion began, and the rise of dominant language ideologies occurred with the increase in missionary travel. In recording and studying Indigenous languages for the aim of conversion, Missionaries created linguistic hierarchies based on written and oral knowledge. [9] : 36-37 Cultures that were predominantly oral and without writing systems were positioned as inferior to those with alphabet systems. [9] : 38 Another function of missionaries was to choose a chosen language, typically a colonial language or indigenous language ranked high hierarchically, and impose it on communities that were linguistically diverse. [9] : 38-39 Reducing linguistic diversity, which was perceived as a sign of primitiveness and barbarism, was one of the main goals of missionary projects. [9] : 39

The late nineteenth century was characterized by the advent of industrial capitalism, which saw the increase in immigration from Eastern and Southern Europeans as well as the internal migration of African Americans seeking a better life in the Northern states. [10] : 77 This period of time is marked by rising social inequities, economic crises, and global expansion. The U.S. began to construct what constituted the Other, and these discourses influenced how linguistic practices and ethnic groups were categorized. In 1859, On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published, which influenced key debates and arguments surrounding colonialism, capitalism, and the ideas of evolution and eugenics. Darwin’s theories of evolution used evidence from societal conflicts to argue that the supplantation of other groups is a marker of a natural process that led to the improvement of intelligence through natural selection. [11] : 64

The rise in evolutionary theory intersected with discussions surrounding race and language, in which philologists and linguists used the comparative method to systematically hierarchize languages. This technique sought to identify certain language groups and, by extension, their speakers as a representation of an early, primitive stage of evolution while others as more advanced and civilized. [10] : 59 Later in the early twentieth century, Franz Boas and his students, especially Edward Sapir, challenged evolutionary theory and the comparative method, instead proposing historical particularism as an alternative to how languages and societies are studied. [10] 5: 59-60 Contrary to ranking cultures and languages on a spectrum, Boas posits that cultures should be studied within the nuanced conditions of their own contexts and histories, the hybridity of pidgins and creoles, and an emphasis on fieldwork to combat discrimination. [10] : 60 Edward Sapir, with his student Benjamin Whorf, developed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and contributed to the discussions of how language influences the perception of one's reality, which is defined as linguistic relativity.

Forms of Linguistic Racism

Overt and Covert Linguistic Racism

Overt linguistic racism may be expressed in the form of mocking, teasing, laughing, joking, ridiculing, and interrupting. [12] [13] [14] Covert linguistic racism, on the other hand, is expressed through indirect and passive-aggressive acts of social exclusion. [12] In the U.S., covert linguistic racism plays a role in a lack of diverse participation in large studies or political participation, as sufficient access to translations is often excluded. [15] Counties with higher than average minority population percentages and counties with lower percentages of English-speaking residents have lower participation rates in survey participation due to lack of accommodation or outreach. [16]

Personally Mediated Racism and Microaggressions

Personally mediated racism is defined as the interpersonal interactions between individuals or groups that may marginalize or discriminate against one party. Personally mediated racism may take the form of microaggressions, which often manifest negative connotations regarding an individual's or group's speech patterns or linguistic expressions in a demeaning manner. [17] : 383 Linguistic racism underscores how race and linguistic practices are intertwined and how languages can be a tool for perpetuating racism. The everyday biases that define microaggressions are exemplified in statements that claim someone talks like or sounds like a specific cultural or racial group (Indian, Black, White, Mexican, etc.) [17] : 383

Examples of microaggressions also include derogatory remarks about someone's intelligence based on their manner of speaking, suggesting unwarranted assumptions about someone's cultural identity and linguistic homogeneity within racial or ethnic groups. [17] : 383 These statements imply that members of a certain group are expected to talk and linguistically express themselves in the same manner, may insinuate that deviations from presumed cultural norms are abnormal, and can falsely imply that one's linguistic characteristics are dissociated from their culture. [17] : 383 Instructors who are non-native English speakers (NNES) are impacted by student evaluations that undergird ideologies of "nativeness," or the measurement of one's linguistic competence based on being a native speaker, which holds the assumption that non-native speakers have accents or are linguistically incomprehensible. [18] : 37 In a study of student evaluations of Asian American professors on Rate My Professor, Subtirelu found that many students mentioned the instructor's accents in a manner that questioned their linguistic competency. [18] : 53 While the dominant language ideology of nativeness was present in these student evaluations, there was also frequent resistance to it by students acknowledging the instructor's linguistic competence or accent but conceding one understands over time. [19] : 53 This pattern Subtirelu detected shows how some students navigate or resist biases against NNES instructors. [19] : 53

One's capacity to shift into and communicate with a standard dialect can significantly influence one's social status, signifying that racial and social identity can vary depending on certain contexts. [20] : 169 Arthur K. Spears conveys how individuals can deploy what he terms "whiteners," which are linguistic strategies used by non-white people to situationally alter their individual status to modify the consequences of their racialized or marginalized status may invoke. [20] : 169 For example, Black people may use a standard linguistic dialect when interacting with police officers to convey a higher social status and attempt to mitigate the effects of racial profiling. [20] : 169

Naming

Names are tied to social meanings that may index and convey one's gender, ethnicity, class, religion, and other positionalities. [21] : 274 Another form of linguistic racism is the process of ethnoracialized groups being misnamed or denamed, which can be a process of public shaming that others and linguistically marginalize people. [21] : 274 Many marginalized groups such as immigrants, indigenous people, and African Americans endure the experience of their names being mispronounced, anglicized, or even replaced, which represents how specific names undergo a process of becoming deracialized and normative. [21] : 285 An example of this includes the social phenomenon, most common in educational institutions and classrooms, where students have their names mispronounced or their given name displaced due to the assumption that their names are foreign or hard to pronounce. [21] : 276 Many marginalized groups, however, do claim the right to name themselves such as choosing a new name, maintaining multiple pronunciations, and having different naming practices. [21] : 285

Linguistic Appropriation and Mock Language

Linguistic appropriation is the act of adopting linguistic patterns and elements of a language or dialect other than one’s own, typically without a cultural understanding or acknowledgment of said language and its social nuances. Linguistic appropriation typically affects languages or linguistic backgrounds that are historically marginalized. It can occur in everyday conversation but also in the media and advertisements, in which certain dialects and their associated stereotypes are utilized to represent socially desirable qualities attributed to that language. Therefore, this appropriation contributes to the erasure, marginalization, and trivialization of the targeted language or dialect. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been the target of linguistic appropriation for white audiences to make them appear knowledgeable about pop culture and have a “cool” persona that is adopted through the use of AAVE. [22] : 169 However, these appropriations index dangerous and negative stereotypes attributed to African Americans, including hyper-masculinity, higher rates of violence, and promiscuity. [22] : 169 Donor groups, which are the communities from which the language is appropriated, express linguistic appropriation as a form of theft in which those who utilize it reap the benefits of its associations while not acknowledging its origins. [22] : 169 [23] : 218-222

Another example of linguistic appropriation began as early as the seventeenth century in the incorporation of loanwords from indigenous languages into the English language, including place names. [22] : 162 As an example, White Americans have historically appropriated indigenous place names to construct the idea of an "American" landscape, which includes locations such as "Massachusetts," "Chattahoochee," and "Tucson." [22] :162-3 William O. Bright's research on indigenous place names defines the concept of "transfers," which refers to place names from indigenous languages that are used in locations disconnected from those languages, reflecting an assimilation of these names into White narratives and an alienation and alteration from its indigenous origins. [24] : 370

Mock language is defined as the action of imitating and mimicking another language, incorporating grammatical structures, expressions, and terminology that is not native to the speaker. Speakers of mock Spanish reasoned their usage of it as a signifier of being exposed to Spanish, to incite amusement, or to claim regional authenticity to primarily the Southwest, California, or Floria. [25] : 683 To understand the logic and semiotics of mock Spanish as humorous or even intelligible, it requires access to and understanding of negative stereotypes of Latinos and Chicanos. [25] : 683 The works of Jane H. Hill on "mock Spanish," [26] of Barbara A. Meek on "Hollywood Injun English", [27] of Ronkin and Kan on parodies of Ebonics, [28] of Elaine Chun "Ideologies of Legitimate Mockery" on "mock Asian," etc., demonstrate how parodying or re-appropriating non-English languages contributes to presenting certain cultures as inferior to European Americans by disparaging their languages. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena. Racism refers to violation of racial equality based on equal opportunities or based on equality of outcomes for different races or ethnicities, also called substantive equality.

Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages and has grown over the past century to encompass most aspects of language structure and use.

In sociolinguistics, an accent is a way of pronouncing a language that is distinctive to a country, area, social class, or individual. An accent may be identified with the locality in which its speakers reside, the socioeconomic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, or influence from their first language.

White guilt is a belief that white people bear a collective responsibility for the harm which has resulted from historical or current racist treatment of people belonging to other racial groups, as for example in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, European colonialism, and the genocide of indigenous peoples.

Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assimilates the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.

White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With roots in European colonialism and imperialism, and the Atlantic slave trade, white privilege has developed in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges, various national citizenships, and other rights or special benefits.

Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be especially controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from minority cultures. According to critics of the practice, cultural appropriation differs from acculturation, assimilation, or equal cultural exchange in that this appropriation is a form of colonialism. When cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context – sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of members of the originating culture – the practice is often received negatively.

Covert racism is a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. Concealed in the fabric of society, covert racism discriminates against individuals through often evasive or seemingly passive methods. Covert, racially biased decisions are often hidden or rationalized with an explanation that society is more willing to accept. These racial biases cause a variety of problems that work to empower the suppressors while diminishing the rights and powers of the oppressed. Covert racism often works subliminally, and much of the discrimination is done subconsciously.

Hybridity, in its most basic sense, refers to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture. Hybridity is used in discourses about race, postcolonialism, identity, anti-racism and multiculturalism, and globalization, developed from its roots as a biological term.

Internalized racism is a form of internalized oppression, defined by sociologist Karen D. Pyke as the "internalization of racial oppression by the racially subordinated." In her study The Psychology of Racism, Robin Nicole Johnson emphasizes that internalized racism involves both "conscious and unconscious acceptance of a racial hierarchy in which whites are consistently ranked above people of color." These definitions encompass a wide range of instances, including, but not limited to, belief in negative stereotypes, adaptations to white cultural standards, and thinking that supports the status quo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mock Spanish</span>

Mock Spanish is a loaded term used to describe a variety of Spanish-inspired phrases used by speakers of English. The term "mock Spanish" has been popularized by anthropologist-linguist Jane H. Hill of the University of Arizona, most recognizably in relation to the catchphrase, "Hasta la vista, baby", from the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Hill argues using pseudo-Spanish terms like "hasty banana", "buenos nachos", "el cheapo", "no problemo", "hasta la bye-bye", and other words is covert racism. It is also seen as a manifestation of linguistic racism.

Linguistic discrimination is unfair treatment of people which is based on their use of language and the characteristics of their speech, including their first language, their accent, the perceived size of their vocabulary, their modality, and their syntax. For example, an Occitan speaker in France will probably be treated differently from a French speaker. Based on a difference in use of language, a person may automatically form judgments about another person's wealth, education, social status, character or other traits, which may lead to discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black–brown unity</span> Ideology calling for unity among racialized people

Black–brown unity, variations include black-brown-unity[4][5] and black-brown-red unity,[6] is a racial-political ideology which initially developed among black scholars, writers, and activists who pushed for global activist associations between black people and brown people ,and Indigenous peoples of the Americas to unify against white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, and, in some cases, European conceptualizations of masculinity, which were recognized as interrelated in maintaining white racial privilege and power over people of color globally.[7][8]

Frances Jane Hassler Hill was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked extensively with Native American languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family and anthropological linguistics of North American communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race and ethnicity in Latin America</span>

There is no single system of races or ethnicities that covers all modern Latin America, and usage of labels may vary substantially.

Linguistic profiling is the practice of identifying the social characteristics of an individual based on auditory cues, in particular dialect and accent. The theory was first developed by Professor John Baugh to explain discriminatory practices in the housing market based on the auditory redlining of prospective clientele by housing administrators. Linguistic profiling extends to issues of legal proceedings, employment opportunities, and education. The theory is frequently described as the auditory equivalent of racial profiling. The bulk of the research and evidence in support of the theory pertain to racial and ethnic distinctions, though its applicability holds within racial or ethnic groups, perceived gender and sexual orientation, and in distinguishing location of geographic origin.

Raciolinguistics examines how language is used to construct race and how ideas of race influence language and language use. Although sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have previously studied the intersections of language, race, and culture, raciolinguistics is a relatively new focus for scholars trying to theorize race throughout language studies. Geneva Smitherman credits H. Samy Alim for the coinage of the new term, discussed at length in the 2016 book by Alim, John R. Rickford and Arnetha F. Ball which compiled raciolinguistic research. In their work, raciolinguists incorporate intersectionality in theorizing how various identities within a group and/or an individual influence lived experiences of race. Nelson Flores and Jonathan Rosa also used the term in their discussion of "appropriateness" in American language and education.

Mock language is a way of using a language not spoken by or native to a speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial capitalism</span> Post-Marxist social and economic concept

Racial capitalism is a concept reframing the history of capitalism as grounded in the extraction of social and economic value from people of marginalized racial identities, typically from Black people. It was described by Cedric J. Robinson in his book Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, published in 1983, which, in contrast to both his predecessors and successors, theorized that all capitalism is inherently racial capitalism, and racialism is present in all layers of capitalism's socioeconomic stratification. Jodi Melamed has summarized the concept, explaining that capitalism "can only accumulate by producing and moving through relations of severe inequality among human groups", and therefore, for capitalism to survive, it must exploit and prey upon the "unequal differentiation of human value."

Color Blindness is a more contemporary form of ahistorical racism that is epitomized by the phrase, "I do not see color." In essence the term refers to one who places racism squarely in the past.

References

  1. 1 2 Paul V. Kroskrity, "Theorizing Linguistic Racisms from a Language Ideological Perspective", In: The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race
  2. 1 2 Dick, Hilary Parsons; Wirtz, Kristina (2011). "Racializing Discourses". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 21 (s1).
  3. ↑ Langer, Nils; Nesse, Agnete (2012). "Linguistic Purism". In Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel; Conde-Silvestre, Juan Camilo (eds.). The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
  4. 1 2 Hudley, Anne H. Charity (2016). "Language and Racialization". In García, Ofelia; Flores, Nelson; Spotti, Massimiliano (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Oxford University Press. pp. 381–402.
  5. 1 2 Heller, Monica; McElhinny, Bonnie (2017). Language, Capitalism, Colonialism: Toward a Critical History. University of Toronto Press.
  6. ↑ Moro, Andrea (2019). La razza e la lingua. La Nave di Teseo. ISBN   978-8834600238.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ashcroft, Bill (2001). "Language and Race". Social Identities. 7 (3): 311–28.
  8. ↑ Hulme, Peter (1986). Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean 1492-1797. New York and London: Routledge.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Heller, Monica; McElhinny, Bonnie (2017). Language, Capitalism, Colonialism: Toward a Critical History. University of Toronto Press.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Heller, Monica; McElhinny, Bonnie (2017). Language, Capitalism, Colonialism: Toward a Critical History. University of Toronto Press.
  11. ↑ Heller, Monica; McElhinny, Bonnie (2017). Language, Capitalism, Colonialism: Toward a Critical History. University of Toronto Press.
  12. 1 2 Tankosić, Ana; Dovchin, Sender (7 April 2021). "(C)overt linguistic racism: Eastern-European background immigrant women in the Australian workplace". Ethnicities. 23 (5): 1–32. doi:10.1177/14687968211005104. eISSN   1741-2706. hdl: 20.500.11937/91494 . ISSN   1468-7968. S2CID   233600585.
  13. ↑ "Ask the expert: Linguistic Racism". MSUToday | Michigan State University. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  14. ↑ Ro, Christine. "The pervasive problem of 'linguistic racism'". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  15. ↑ Link, Michael W; Mokdad, Ali H; Stackhouse, Herbert F; Flowers, Nicole T (2005-12-15). "Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Isolation as Determinants of Participation in Public Health Surveillance Surveys". Preventing Chronic Disease. 3 (1): A09. ISSN   1545-1151. PMC   1500943 . PMID   16356362.
  16. ↑ Link, Michael W; Mokdad, Ali H; Stackhouse, Herbert F; Flowers, Nicole T (2005-12-15). "Race, Ethnicity, and Linguistic Isolation as Determinants of Participation in Public Health Surveillance Surveys". Preventing Chronic Disease. 3 (1): A09. ISSN   1545-1151. PMC   1500943 . PMID   16356362.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Hudley, Anne H. Charity (2016). "Language and Racialization". In García, Ofelia; Flores, Nelson; Spotti, Massimiliano (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Oxford University Press. pp. 381–402.
  18. 1 2 Subtirelu, Nicholas Close. ""She does have an accent but…": Race and language ideology in students' evaluations of mathematics instructors on RateMyProfessors.com". Language in Society. 44 (1): 35–62.
  19. 1 2 Subtirelu, Nicholas Close. ""She does have an accent but…": Race and language ideology in students' evaluations of mathematics instructors on RateMyProfessors.com". Language in Society. 44 (1): 35–62.
  20. 1 2 3 Spears, Arthur K. (2021). "White Supremacy and Antiblackness: Theory and Lived Experience". Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 31 (2): 157–179.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Bucholtz, Mary (2016). "On Being Called Out of One's Name: Indexical Bleaching as a Technique of Deracialization". In Alim, H. Samy; Rickford, John R.; Ball, Arnetha F. (eds.). Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race. Oxford University Press.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Hill, Jane H. (2008). The Everyday Language of White Racism. Routledge.
  23. ↑ Smitherman, Geneva (1998). "Word from the hood: The lexicon of African-American Vernacular English". In Bailey, Guy; Baugh, John; Mufwene, Salikoko S.; Rickford, John R. (eds.). African-American English: Structure, History, and Use. Routledge.
  24. ↑ Bright, William O. (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press.
  25. 1 2 Hill, Jane H. (1998). "Language, race, and white public space". American Anthropologist. 100 (3): 680–689.
  26. ↑ "Review of Jane H. Hill's "Mock Spanish: A Site for the Indexical Reproduction of Racism in American English"".
  27. ↑ Barbara A. Meek, "And the Injun goes “How!”: Representations of American Indian English in white public space", Language in Society, 35 (1), pp 93-128, JSTOR   4169479
    • Abstract: This article describes linguistic features used to depict fictional American Indian speech, a style referred to as “Hollywood Injun English,” found in movies, on television, and in some literature (the focus is on the film and television varieties). Grammatically, it draws on a range of nonstandard features similar to those found in “foreigner talk” and “baby talk,” as well a formalized, ornate variety of English; all these features are used to project or evoke certain characteristics historically associated with "the White Man's Indian". The article also exemplifies some ways in which these linguistic features are deployed in relation to particular characteristics stereotypically associated with American Indians, and shows how the correspondence between nonstandard, dysfluent speech forms and particular pejorative aspects of the fictional Indian characters subtly reproduce Native American otherness in contemporary popular American culture.
  28. ↑ Ronkin, Maggie; Karn, Helen E. (1999), "Mock Ebonics: Linguistic racism in parodies of Ebonics on the Internet", Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3 (3): 360–380, doi:10.1111/1467-9481.00083

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