How do you feel about the linguistic profiling described in the article? Should something be done about it, or should landlords, employers, etc. be allowed to discriminate if they see fit? When is it OK to practice linguistic profiling and when is it not?
I don't think that anyone should be allowed to discriminate ever, especially by just hearing someone's voice. I think the only time it's OK to practice linguistic profiling is when you're trying to ADD diversity in a job market. Although, I still don't know how I feel about a black or spanish person receiving a job over a white person only because the office needs more colorful people. Another way it might be okay is if your just curious about the person your talking to. Like when I was a freshman and was talking on the phone with my future roommate whom I never met...She had a little bit of a spanish accent and I listened hard to see if I could tell from what part of the world she was from.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Spanish people are from Spain. Usually, we refer to people who speak Spanish or come from a background decended from Latin America, including Mexico, the Caribbean, Central American, and South America as Hispanic. I know that there is discussion about the difference between the words Hispanic and Latino, and I've encountered people who would like to be addressed as people from their country of origin only, such as Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc. But, Spanish people are from Spain.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question, I don't think it is ever okay for people to be discriminated against, however, it happens and it isn't something that is easily corrected or quickly changed. My husband and I have been victims of discrimination in the US more times than I can count. Although he was being discriminated against, I say us because it affected me emotionally. Linguistic profiling, or linguistic racism rather, is something that my husband goes through every, single day of his life. It has taken a toll on his self-esteem and self worth. Linguistic profiling is real, it's wrong, and the only way to get beyond it is to create educational environments that support multicultural respect.
Christy, she was probably referencing the language, not the country. Not everyone can recognize a Castilian Spanish accent from a Central American one based on a phone conversation. Someone from Brazil would still have a Portuguese accent, no?
ReplyDeleteI think it is terrible for people to discriminate on the basis of anything, especially linguistically. The people who are doing the discrimination are generally ignorant to where accents are derived anyway (eg. probably think anyone 'foreign' sounds the same). On the other hand, why do you think they do this? It isn't because they hate foreigners or black people; they are concerned with their bottom line and can't have too many 'non-whites' living in a given area. How many of us plan on living in a 95% black or Hispanic area? Is that really any worse than not allowing them to live a certain place? Only moving to the places where 'they' aren't?
It is probably not ok to practice linguistic profiling like it is not ok to be 'colorblind' in the class room. We should use the situation to promote cultural awareness and want to promote multicultualism on a daily basis - which seemed to be the strong theme of class last week!
ReplyDeleteI think because our society places very little value in being bi-lingual it has further the thinking of our society to being somewhat elitist about our language in general- expecting every one to be able to communicate with them in English. The fact is that our educational system places little emphasis on languages, if we did we would introduce the leaning of different and more languages earlier like in Kindergarten and First grade. And push for more pedagogically relevant practices of the instruction and total infusion of many languages in our society. I think learning language can only have positive implications. Learning how other people communicate can only offer more insight. Hopefully as more funding is directed to Head Start and other 'first years' education programs there will be a push for a fundamental change in how we teach our most precious commodity.
Everyone seems to have the same ideas here, Linguistic profiling is a problem in the United States. We are all guilty at some point for linguistic profiling, no matter if we realize we are doing it. I think that the point is that we should not act on it when we do profile others. I had never really thought about linguistic profiling as a problem until I saw that commercial where the man tries to get an apartment and keeps calling using different types of languages. This commercial really opened my eyes to this problem.
ReplyDeleteAlso when we say we should not be colorblind in the classroom, I think that some people should be colorblind in a since. i think that as teachers we should be aware of the colors in the classroom but we should be colorblind in the since that should give equal opportunities to all of our students.
Jenn I'm glad you brought up that commercial because that is the first thing I thought about when I was reading the article. I really didn't think about linguistic profiling until I saw that commercial. I agree with all of the above comments that it is not right to discriminate EVER and this includes linguistic profiling.
ReplyDeleteClaire made an interesting comment about our society not celebrating different cultures or putting an emphasis on knowing different languages. It is going to be extremely important, especially in the next 25 years, that we start putting a stronger demand on being bi-lingual in our schools because Americans who speak only English will start to become the majority minority. America is known as being a "melting pot" of cultures, how come majority people don't celebrate it?
This issue is clearly and emotional one for me, so it is difficult not to drag my personal stories into it. However, I agree with Claire and Erin. I believe that bi-lingual education is paramount given the high statistics of immigrants living in this country and the global economy we all live in today. However, I don't know if having a larger base of bilingual adults will change linguistic profiling. It doesn't change the negative stereotypes associated with racial groups.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Christy. It is interesting how in other countries kids are brought up learning two to three languages throughout school, but in the United States it just isn't a priority. I just got back from a week in Honduras, and I wish so bad that I grew up learning Spanish like those kids grow up learning English and Spanish.
ReplyDeleteMany elementary schools are starting to teach English and another language (usually Spanish) from Kindergarten up. Even if all they are learning is vocabulary, I think that is a good start. This whole idea that many people have about America needing to speak strictly English only or else the terrorists will win is crazy to me.
ReplyDeleteLike Katey, I wish I had learned Spanish from a young age instead of when I am old and set in my ways.
I was interested to look up the penalties under law for which people receive for linguistically profiling. In most states there is a fine, I think the most that I came across was for about $11,000 something. Very seldom do people spend time behind bars or have to deal with a stigma of being a convicted felon. I am not saying that anyone should be stigmatized but it was shocking to see how this crime is being handled by our civil services.
ReplyDeleteGood point Katey. I wish that I had been taught and exposed to different languages when I was younger. Now in the US elementary schools they are beginning to teach students Spanish beginning in Kindergarten. I think that this will help us a country grow and become more understanding of others from different cultures. The people who are guilty of linguistic profiling I think are incredibly naive in the world and that is one reason that they do it. So exposing our children to many different cultures will hopefully benefit and open there eyes to the world.
ReplyDeleteI think the television programs for kids out there help too in making the idea of speaking spanish more interesting to kids (or other languages in general). Like Dora the Explorer and that other one with the guy and the tools. There's also a popularity with a copy Japanese programs...plus I see more and more children's programs with characters of different colors and race..this would obviously help with children growing up in a more accepting environment.
ReplyDeleteDo I agree with linguistic profiling? No. Do I think that the private companies have a right to it? Reluctantly, yes. Like a gold membership that has the right to exclude clientele, places like apartment complexes are private business', even though they operate publicly. I worked at The Grove apartments here in Milledgeville for two years. While we were never instructed to profile by race, we were instructed to profile by... them having a non-traditional student background. Technically, in the lease, and according to Fair Housing, we are supposed to lease to everyone. However, keeping up with a "college community" image, we were told to tell potential non-student residents or those with families that college students were only allowed to live with college students, and since all apartments had at least one college student living in a unit, it was the new way of trying to discourage them with a "No." Perhaps one reason landlords might profile is because the landlord, in a sense, is investing in their tenants. They want someone who is reliable by paying on time and will not destroy the property or have many complaints such as noise, because quite frankly... that is all just a giant pain in the ass to deal with. Unfortunately, assumptions about certain languages lead to ingrained notions about race that carry on to their pre-conceived racial stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteAs has been said in other's comments, exposure is absolutely key in creating lifelong tolerance. I was sincerely shocked when I asked what foreign languages were available at Baldwin high school, only to be told that once the French teacher quit, they could never find a replacement. So, the only option in the entire school is... Spanish. And maybe Latin, but that's only vital for the SAT's. It is even more crucial for towns without much diversity in the people to have diversity in academics. Having a lack of available language options diminishes cultural exposure and awareness and they will have accumulative disadvantages all their life.
ReplyDeleteWell every thought of mine has been expressed very eloquently. I agree with you all that linguistic profiling should not happen and that we need to teach students more languages earlier in their lives. I saw the result of that when I was in Sweden where every person in the entire country in bilingual because they learn both English and Svenska from preschool throughout high school.
ReplyDeleteI think that Alexxx makes a valid point. I agree, linguistic profiling should never occur, but I also think that property owners who rent out their apartments/houses can decide who they want to live in their investment. The only problem with this is that once the owner has a bad experience with a renter they are likely to have stereotypes that will have a difficult time being reversed. This made me think of my parents when they rented out two townhouses. The houses were close to a college campus, but my parents were very reluctant to rent them out to students because they thought the houses would get trashed. My parents decided to go ahead and let three college males live in one house and a family of four in the other. Much to their surprise it was the family that ended up destroying the house and not paying their rent on time. That family ended up costing my parents money to fix all the damages, while the boys living next door were perfect tenants. Just an example that shows we can't make assumptions about a group/race/ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteI think that linguistics profiling is wrong, but I do think that there are situations where it should be allowed. I agree with Alex about different private clubs and other private businesses. Is it ethical, perhaps not, but they still have the right to decide who they want "in" or who to hire. And the rest of us have the right to decide not to take any part in that if we don't agree with it.
ReplyDeleteLinguistic profiling is obviously not good in any of our eyes. It should not be done, but the harsh reality is that it is done every day, and the sad part is that it is done to our students. It should be reported when a person realizes a business or company is doing this. It is one of the ways to alleviate the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think the saddest part of the article is that people are linguistic profiling within our own language. Yes, it would be nice to learn Spanish and other languages regardless of what age you are, but I think it is important to embrace the English language overall as well. The people that are mentioned in the article are black. It is sad to think that a person speaking proper English can't get any service. I feel so bad for the people of different descents than my own English background that can't even get a person to speak with them on the phone. I worked at a call center in Florida for Voluntary Pre-K, and the parents that would call in had difficulty conversing with some of the call center representatives, and many times would be outraged when their calls were passed off to another individual.
ReplyDeleteMr. Carson has found the issue to which no one has a real answer. Private businesses can indeed do whatever they will. I will take Voltaire's stance on the issue and staunchly dislike what they say until my dying day but fight for their right to say it. Though you all may think otherwise, there are those who believe that my way of saying things can come off as a bit uneducated, and I am sure you all can think of occasions when someone frowned upon the way you've said something. It ain't pleasant, but that's the opinion they're entitled to hold.
ReplyDeleteWe are forgetting, I think, that this whole profiling mess is just another way of putting racism in tie-dye and bell-bottoms: we cloak it in new but still distasteful clothing. It is especially insidious in that we can hide it something still relevant in modern society: language. Where skin color has left, language has picked up the mantle of societal difference and done quite well in perpetuating societal ills.
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