Abstract

In this phase I wanted to follow the idea of the trend of some form of discrimination. After going back and forth with which topic sounds like a good Idea, I had a brainstorm of the topic of language discrimination, how our background impacts our view of the world, the effect of social media has on society, works better, I decided to follow the topics of education and racism. Using the library databases, I learned in class I found a few resources that could work for me. One major resource that helped develop and expanded the idea of the essay was “Confronting Institutionalized Racism” by Camara Phyllis Jones. I found this to be an academic source. Reading that made me want to follow and the arc of sort of talking about the issue of institutional racism in education. Along with who it affects and how it can resolve it. Having that simple idea of talking about the topic, providing examples of what is and who it impacts, and a resolution helped me follow a story of my essay. Writing this essay, I was able to gain new skills, along with a few insights on how to compose a research paper. That allowed me to compare an article with another article. I also used it away from comparing my thesis to the articles. This research paper allowed me to gain the chance of developing a well-established paper, addressing the topic of institutionalized racism in education. 

Language Appropriation / Biting My Style

There has been a rise of misconceptions in dialects and languages. It is because of this society has a limited perspective on people who don’t speak or talk the same way as they do. All over the world, you can notice how much language and literacy impacts our interaction and development. Yet not everyone is aware of the negativity that language appropriation can bring. A wide variety of social outlets like from media to blogs and even music a lot of languages and words are being appropriated and misused. It’s the case that the more “dominate” race always feels that they have more power. Believing that they can claim the language using it to their benefit without acknowledging what they’re truly doing. They don’t understand the background of where the language is coming from. This has been going on especially to many words within the African American dialects. African American language and their music culture are some of the big examples of how people were benefiting from it without understanding. Being more aware of language appropriation can help bring sight to what is going on in cultures not just African Americans.

Many words are used in mainstream America way that will get overused and later declare the word over. I found an article called “Now that white people have declared ‘bae’ over, black people can use it in peace” written by Robin Boylorn which addresses this very topic. The article talks about how white people adopted the term “bae” and distorted causing the word to be misused a lot. It stated how “What was once a word born of the beautifully eclectic black Southern laziness of the tongue and a shortened version of baby, became a catchall term for anything from inanimate objects to food” (Boylorn). This is giving a background of the word “bae” and its origins of coming from a term of beauty to something that gets thrown around anywhere to describe something. This is showing how the cultural tongue of black souths were adopted by white people. This is supporting the idea of people not understanding how a language works, along with how language appropriation can cause a word to lose its meaning. Furthermore, in the article, it stated: “Already you can see terms grounded in communities (“bye Felicia”), disguised in pronunciation (“ratchet”), or invented from imagination (“on fleek”) slipping into mainstream and popular culture lexicons (again). There, they will be mass produced for financial gain (again), and eventually disposed of (again).” (Boylorn). This is giving more examples of words that are well known within the black community and how they’re being stolen. It is also shown that this hasn’t happened once. In the quote, the word “again” is used multiple times signifying that this while continues happening again. Also, it is showing how the word has been grounded and is being used for financial gain. This supports my idea of how being informed can improve the status of language appropriation because if the people who use these words know where they can from they can aware of them and use them better.

Music is another great example of a language being appropriated. Many people don’t address these ideas or speak on them since music is for everyone. There isn’t a limit on who can create or listen to music. It does become a problem when a certain music style is being stolen and used for someone’s benefit. One person who sheds a light on this trend is J. Cole. In the album “2014 Forest Hill Drive” there’s a song called “Fire Squad” which speaks on and addresses this claim of language appropriation within music. He does this by talking about rappers or musicians biting (stealing) each other artist styles. In the third verse, he stated, “History repeats itself and that’s just how it goes Same way that these rappers always bite each other flows, Same thing that my nigga Elvis did with Rock n Roll.” (Cole). J. Cole is stating language appropriation has been going for a while that it is repeating itself and hasn’t stopped. This connects back to the article “Now that white people have declared ‘bae’ over, black people can use it in peace” showing how this isn’t nothing new. Along with how someone can benefit and profit off of languages. He then later expands on the idea of appropriation by giving an example of Elvis and what he did to Rock n Roll. Elvis is considered a thief of music due to him stealing the sounds and music styling of black musicians. This creates the idea of J. Cole acknowledging the appropriation in music since music can be said to be a language of its own. J. Cole doesn’t just stop there with the topics later in the same verse he sated “ Look around, my nigga, white people have snatched the sound This year I’ll prolly go to the awards dappered down Watch Iggy win a Grammy as I try to crack a smile”. (Cole). He saying how the sound has been stolen by white people the same way the word bae was. He is referring to the sound of black people and the sound of rap the sound of storytelling. He trying to address white privilege within the culture of rap. This connects back to my topic because it is expanding on the idea of how language appropriation exists and how it is stolen within a different form.

I also found that the idea of someone liking the way a language and trying to imitate other cultures. The book “English with an Accent Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States” by Rosina Lippi-Green talks about and addresses certain myths of languages. She does this by going in-depth with languages and breaking them down. She also provides examples and creating situations of how language can impact people. One example that shows appropiartion was in the chapter teaching children how to discrimination. It talks about how children learn discrimination at a young age and their environment plays, but it also mentions how appropriation as well. It stated how “This habit of appropriating cultural icons is not limited to English language stories; for example, the Chinese have expressed dismay over Disney’s appropriation and remodeling of one of China’s most beloved legends in Mulan”. This showing how one of China’s most beloved stories got appropriated and use to benefit a company. This also shows how the Chinese people were upset by this. This connects back to J.cole and Robin Boylorn idea of this can be a serious problem for the people who get their language appropriated.

Being more aware of language appropriation can help change and help people be more informed today. Language appropriation isn’t anything new it has been going on for a while. The biggest evidence is how white people appropriated many black people’s words and terms. It also shows how white people claim or take to a point where they can say the word is done but still the black will use it since it has a deeper root within their community. This has also been going to other places like in the music industry. J. Cole addresses this problem and brings awareness to it within a verse that he even gives a personal experience and historical experience. The thing about language appropriation is that it all starts with some admiring the way another language uses their words. It later transcends to coping, biting, stealing taking it for your benefit without acknowledging where they got it from. By being informed and aware language appropriation can’t be seen more as more a serious problem than it is.

Work Cited Page

Boylorn, Robin. “Now That White People Have Declared ‘Bae’ over, Black People Can Use It in Peace | Robin Boylorn.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Jan. 2015, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/14/white-people-declared-bae-over-black-people-can-use-it.

Cole, J. “J. Cole – Fire Squad.” Genius, 9 Dec. 2014, www.genius.com/J-cole-fire-squad-lyrics.

“TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO DISCRIMINATE.” English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States, by Rosina L. Lippi-Green, Routledge, 2012, pp. 103–103.