Hi Hillary!
I really appreciate what you said about measures of fluency being judged not just by communicative ability, but also being heavily shaped by racist, ableist, and classist ideas. What I found especially powerful about Baker-Bell’s chapter, “What’s Anti-Blackness Got to Do Wit’ It,” was her decision to write it in African American English. This choice challenges the common argument that "Standard American English" is necessary in order to create a universal way of communication for clarity and efficiency. By writing the chapter in AAE, Baker-Bell shows the reader that academic writing does not have to be in "Standard American English" for it to be easily understandable to the reader. Once this is made clear, the myth of "Standard American English" begins to unravel. Because AAE conveys information just as clearly as Standard English, it shows that pushing for Standard English isn’t really about clarity, but about upholding racist, ableist, and classist ideas of what ways of languaging are "correct." As you said, language education is entangled with systems of power. Placing value of "Standard American English" above all other ways of languaging is really about privileging white, able-bodied, middle-class ways of speaking, not about clear communication.
I really appreciate what you said about measures of fluency being judged not just by communicative ability, but also being heavily shaped by racist, ableist, and classist ideas. What I found especially powerful about Baker-Bell’s chapter, “What’s Anti-Blackness Got to Do Wit’ It,” was her decision to write it in African American English. This choice challenges the common argument that "Standard American English" is necessary in order to create a universal way of communication for clarity and efficiency. By writing the chapter in AAE, Baker-Bell shows the reader that academic writing does not have to be in "Standard American English" for it to be easily understandable to the reader. Once this is made clear, the myth of "Standard American English" begins to unravel. Because AAE conveys information just as clearly as Standard English, it shows that pushing for Standard English isn’t really about clarity, but about upholding racist, ableist, and classist ideas of what ways of languaging are "correct." As you said, language education is entangled with systems of power. Placing value of "Standard American English" above all other ways of languaging is really about privileging white, able-bodied, middle-class ways of speaking, not about clear communication.