CXps 2023 | How to Recognize Linguistic Discrimination

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by | May 25, 2023

The 55 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed have witnessed a profound societal shift with respect to diversity. Forced integrated gave way to tolerance, which eventually transitioned into appreciation of difference, and has most recently transformed into rhetoric that posits diversity should be celebrated as a strength in communities, schools, and businesses. We also have a collectively understood canon of diversity extending from the legally protected categories of “race, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, and family status” to other related categories, such as socioeconomic class and sexuality. Absent from this canon is language. In fact, in many cases, it is still legal to discriminate against people on the basis of language or dialect.

The issue – which serves as the starting point for this session – is that language never operates independently of the other categories of diversity we claim to value, but instead, serves as a proxy by which we enact the standard language ideology that we have been steeped in, and manifest implicit biases that insidiously discriminate against minoritized groups and individuals.

Language and implicit bias impact how we approach employees and clients and the experiences they have with us in largely invisible ways. As such, it is essential to bring a linguistically informed perspective on language to all situations involving employees or clients.  By examining the basics of sociolinguistics and the ways standard language ideology impact all users of language, it is possible to begin to design systems and policies that avoid the linguistic pitfalls examined in this presentation.