"The One, Not the Two!" That's what Flippa T says here in "Affirmations" (in the player above). Let that carry us into this theme about Black language and education. Let's hold ourselves accountable for making Black language "the One" and never second-ed by thinking it is deficient, unintelligent, inferior, slang-based, improper, less than, non-academic, inappropriate for anywhere (including school writing). The One, Not the Two!!
Issues To Familiarize Yourself with/ Watch as Much as You Like:
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Our theme, "linguistic justice," takes its inspiration and title from April Baker-Bell's award-winning book, Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy (video introduction is above). It is an intentional move.
In a short amount of time, the coinage of "linguistic justice" seems to come from everyone's mouths without due attribution to Baker-Bell or to the fact that BLACK LIFE AND BLACK LANGUAGE are the centers of gravity that shaped this conceptualization. I've even seen folks loudly proclaim in their publications that "standardized English is linguistic justice for Black students" without ever citing Baker-Bell (or using quotation marks around her words). No one should feel comfortable with teachers who don't know the basics of academic citations and just center anti-Blackness/misogynoir instead. This tendency to erase, appropriate, and steal Black Languages/BlackCultures without recognizing the history and complexity (see the bottom row of videos above in relation to so-called "Gen Z slang") extends to Black women's scholarship. We don't make those kinds of mistakes in here and we won't take on those kinds of violences in this curriculum! "Linguistic Justice" indeed!
In a short amount of time, the coinage of "linguistic justice" seems to come from everyone's mouths without due attribution to Baker-Bell or to the fact that BLACK LIFE AND BLACK LANGUAGE are the centers of gravity that shaped this conceptualization. I've even seen folks loudly proclaim in their publications that "standardized English is linguistic justice for Black students" without ever citing Baker-Bell (or using quotation marks around her words). No one should feel comfortable with teachers who don't know the basics of academic citations and just center anti-Blackness/misogynoir instead. This tendency to erase, appropriate, and steal Black Languages/BlackCultures without recognizing the history and complexity (see the bottom row of videos above in relation to so-called "Gen Z slang") extends to Black women's scholarship. We don't make those kinds of mistakes in here and we won't take on those kinds of violences in this curriculum! "Linguistic Justice" indeed!
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You can also watch any one of these documentaries in this video bank in place of an article.
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What We're Reading
MANDATORY: CHAPTER 1 to Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy (many of you have read this book already, but please reread chapter one which is also available as an ebook at the TCU library)
And choose one article below
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