A DEMAND for immigrant Linguistic justice

Because Standard Mainstream English is spiritual murder

Recently, a letter of DEMANDS for Black linguistic justice hit the internet. The letter acknowledges that the same anti-Black violence toward Black people in the streets across the United States mirrors the anti-Black violence that is going down in the academic streets. Using perfectly standard American English, the writers DEMAND that teachers stop using standard American English as the accepted communicative norm, which reflects White Mainstream English and supposedly discriminates against Black Language.

We, a group of immigrant scientists, are deeply moved by the letter, as it hits very close to home. After all, many hard science disciplines are now majority non-native English speakers. So we thought - why not take it a step further and DEMAND that the academic system stop making us speak any kind of English? The fact that we won’t be able to communicate at all is secondary to the fact that forcing us to learn English is linguistically VIOLENT to the humanity and spirit of non-native English speakers.

We DEMAND that:

1. The academic system stop using the English language as the accepted communicative norm, which reflects a mainstream US-born Native English speaker viewpoint.

2. The academic system STOP telling immigrant students and faculty that they have to “learn English to be successful because that’s just the way it is in the US”. No, that’s anti-immigrant linguistic racism. Do we use this same fallacious, xenophobic rhetoric with native English speaking students? Will using English prevent immigrants from being judged and treated unfairly based solely on our accent and pronunciation? Make it make sense.

3. The Academic system reject the term “Bad English” as a way to describe the deficit positioning of immigrants’ use of their second language. It’s Anglo-centric. You should celebrate immigrants’ infusion of English with all their linguistic and cultural glory and make an effort to learn all of our languages. Why should we adapt to you? It’s xenophobic!

4. The academic system cannot force immigrant faculty and students to code-switch or language-switch! Instead, we must teach the community about anti-immigrant linguistic racism and English language supremacy! We have THE RIGHT to instruct in our native language! Most of y’all don’t speak our native language? Tough luck, but we already know that “understanding the material” is a token of white supremacy.

5. Researchers, educators, and policymakers stop using PROBLEMATIC, nationality-neutral umbrella terms like second language, foreign accent, “correct” pronunciation, or any other immigrant-flattened vocabulary when discussing Immigrant Language and thereby Immigrant Lives. Our language is not foreign to us! As a matter of fact - the entire concept of “vocabulary” is xenophobic.

6. The academic system develop and teach Linguistic Consciousness that works to decolonize the mind (and/or) language, unlearn English Language supremacy, and unravel anti-immigrant linguistic racism! And stop making fun of our accents! We are the majority now, so OUR pronunciation is the correct one! We should get to make fun of you!

7. For heaven’s sake, switch to the metric system!