Manraj Singh
Professor McVey
English Composition
November 16, 2020
The Depths of Cultural Discrimination Unfold within Society
Since the early beginnings of our very own existence, discrimination has grown to hold an extremely significant role upon humanity. Even within modern societies today, the unlawful prejudice against people of different cultures remains prevalent. As seen throughout the works of various different authors battling their linguistic way of life against the real world, it’s become widely evident that the societal world has come to possess many expectations of what they desire the average individual to be like. More specifically, whether it’s the way that one speaks or the way that one acts within society, people belonging to non-English cultures have been singled out and profiled due to this difference. While some individuals may claim that the world is oblivious to the diversity of different cultures within America, other individuals have come to show that society has come to center their own standards of normalcy around the glorification of English and American culture. Thus, while the general public tends to feel that the world remains oblivious from the presence of cultural discrimination, recent publications of personal experiences prove that the acculturation of English standards continues to linger throughout society with its superiority .
To begin with, much evidence goes on to portray that cultural discrimination against non-native English speakers has grown to hold a significant prevalence within America during the 21st century. As seen throughout notable pieces of work such as author Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Safwat Saleem’s “Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent,” there is a huge consensus behind the fact that society has targeted individuals solely based off of the differences that they possess over natural fluency within the English language. With Tan describing the hardships she faced whilst accepting the discrimination against her mother tongue, and Saleem opening up to the many instances of people ridiculing his Pakistani accent and speech flaws, it has become safe to assume that the average individual is prone to being profiled and singled out because of their cultural indifferences. And even so, with its massive presence within the real world, this form of cultural discrimination and suppression continues to remain widely accepted throughout society. The question now remains to be, is why exactly does this form of cultural appropriation continue to remain at large?
Part of the reason why cultural discrimination continues to linger throughout society, has to deal with the stereotyping that has grown from increased opposition to non-native English speakers. In effect, this increased opposition to foreign minorities is largely responsible behind the social hierarchy construct that has sparked into existence. This is predominantly conveyed throughout Phinegchai Sisouvanh’s “Broken English’: People are more than their outer appearances,’ where the scholar goes on to state:
In fact, much of American society views immigrants as ignorant and uneducated people, seeing only their differences instead of their similarities…This form of stereotyping is common with many Americans, particularly where perceptions come into play. In the United States, immigrants are often judged by how well they speak English. (1)
From this, the interpretation can be made that expectations within a society have come to play a huge impact upon the comprehension of those with foreign, cultural differences. Simply put, on behalf of the public opinion, it has often been agreed upon that one tends to rely on his or her “expectations about what they’re [non-native speakers] going to say, rather than what they actually do say” (Erard 3). As if this wasn’t enough to highlight the apparent favoritism that the general public has towards the English standard, a study conducted by psycholinguist Shiri Lev-Ari further clarifies this idea when she states:
In another experiment, Lev-Ari showed that native speakers remember less accurately what non-native speakers say. This is because ‘we expect non-native speakers to be loss proficient speakers… (3)
Ultimately, what can be taken from this, is the fact that many individuals have grown to create a social hierarchy through personal satisfaction, in which non-native speakers have been undermined for the various “flaws” that they possess. The brutal fact behind it all, is that because of their failure to portray commonalities to native speakers whilst speaking the English language, society has deemed them inferior to normal standards of American culture.
The connection here stands to be that variation in languages are evidently present throughout society, with the average individual possessing certain, inequitable opinions about language. These opinions, although not limited to, are well regarded as the discriminatory aspects that go against people of other cultures and languages. With this connection in mind, Writer Michael Erard’s analysis upon the subject appear to extend the ideas presented by Sisouvanh’s claim, as it provides a foundational example of how exactly this discrimination occurs through credible studies and experimentation. Discrimination, from this, is quite explicitly shown with sheer glorification through the voluntary actions of prejudice committed. The fact that people willing choose to discriminate against others of non-native backgrounds, proves to show how structured variation in language reflects the social structures of a community, as society is found to be the byproduct of this massive discrimination against non-native individuals. This connection, in fact, also proves to justify that the world is not naive from the comprehension of cultural discrimination, as this acculturation is only possible from actions done willingly by native speakers. Thus, through a construed reality hindering people from making appropriate perceptions towards other languages, discrimination continues to bear a huge impact upon society as a whole.
Although discrimination has earned its part in placing a detrimental impact upon society, it is necessary to acknowledge the idea that many Americans might actually tend to remain oblivious towards such acts occurring within their society. As mentioned by author Rosina Lippi-Green:
Human beings choose among thousands of points of variation available to them not because the human mind is sloppy…We exploit linguistic variation available to us in order to send a complex series of messages about ourselves and the way we position ourselves in the world we live in. We perceive variation in the speech of others and we use it to structure our knowledge about that person.
From this, Green can be seen countering with the justification that the apparent discrimination isn’t necessarily a means of prejudice against non-native speakers, as she believes that humans tend to take time into processing what’s done or said in front of them by others. In this case, Green represents for the complete innocence of discriminatory individuals within society, as she claims that, with time and understanding, language variations will be better accepted throughout society. However, if this truly was the case, what is to be said of the exploitations that continue to spread? As one study within the 2001 Health Care Quality Survey proclaims;
Language and racial discrimination in seeking health care were independently associated with increased number of chronic health conditions after controlling for age, sex, education, family income, health insurance, primary language, nativity, and ethnicity. Language discrimination was significantly associated with health conditions even with the presence of racial discrimination in the statistical model (Yoo 1).
Through this analysis, it becomes evident that Green’s proposal contradicts the true reality of how society is in actuality, as society continues to wreak havoc upon the wellbeing of non-native speakers. Although this source contests in opposition, the effect that cultural discrimination has already had upon individuals within America far outweighs the oblivious nature of those discriminating.
With all things considered, it is without a doubt that reputable research from many different scholars come to prove that there is an evident prevalence of cultural discrimination that continues to spread throughout modern society. Despite the possibility of humans failing to comprehend the lifestyles of foreign speakers around them, the extent to their prejudice does not take away the fact that cultural discrimination has borne a devastating impact upon non-native speakers.
Works Cited
Cheney, Carol, et al. Racism in the English Language, 2006, www.pcc.edu/illumination/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2018/05/racism-in-the-english-language.pdf.
Erard, M. (n.d.). The reason you discriminate against foreign accents starts with what they do to your brain, https://qz.com/624335/the-reason-you-discriminate-against-foreign-accents-starts-with-what-they-do-to-your-brain/
Lippi-Green, Rosina. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. 1st ed., Routledge, 1997.
McGlone, Matthew S. “Why the Brain Doubts a Foreign Accent.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 21 Sept. 2010, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brain-doubts-accent/.
Phiengchai Sisouvanh, et al. “’Broken English’: People Are More than Their Outer Appearances.” International Examiner, 19 Jan. 2019, iexaminer.org/broken-english-people-are-more-than-their-outer-appearances/.
Yoo, H., Gee, G., & Takeuchi, D. (2009, February). Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897711/
