In analyzing the readings for this week's class, one of the biggest conclusions I came to is that there are a lot of similarities between how the state marginalizes its own citizens and those it deems foreign. Baker-Bell (2020) brought on many insights that I had previously not been necessarily aware of. In shining light on the experiences of Black Americans who use Black English, the reading makes the case about how Black English is heavily policed in educational settings. In doing so, it raises many questions on the policing of fluency, its intent, and how it plays into the broader scheme of racial linguistics tied with concepts of oppression and nationalism. Another big point that I got from this reading is that Black English necessarily is its own language. With that in the way that language categorization in schools stand today, the similarities between speakers of Black English and foreigners who go through assimilation in ELL programs are strikingly similar. More so with their accent, immigrant students are taught to conform to White Mainstream English the same way that Black Americans are taught to code switch as Baker-Bell mentions.
The marginalization of minorities is closely tied with the use of language and the hegemony it precedes. As we have discussed in earlier weeks of the class, language is a powerful tool the empire uses to maintain social orders and the structures that uphold the violence required to maintain the empire. In reading Henner and Robinson, a theme that stuck to me was language deprivation. In discussing the experiences of deaf students, the reading showcases some of the struggles these students face in being integrated into social settings, especially in education. To do so, it marks language deprivation as one of the biggest roadblocks imposed by an unaccessible education system and broader societal structures. With this being an extremely important topic regarding accessibility, I also wondered how this concept may apply to immigrant students, abled bodied and disabled alike. In furthering this concept, the reading also mentions the "dinner table syndrome", a phenomenon tailored to the experiences of deaf people being excluded from social conversations due to the lack of efforts from others to meet the needs of these people through translation. In thinking about this concept in classroom settings, I wondered whether you can be a good teacher if you are not being inclusive of everyone, beyond and inside the classroom. As a teacher, are you fitting the needs of your students by making yourself open to their ideas, needs, and complexities? Furthermore, inclusivity does not just stop at the classroom as your students might have loved ones who come from marginalized societal groups and educators as bastions of safety should also expand their inclusivity towards those loved ones.