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October 20, 2020

Dear Professor Crowe,

For people born and raised here in America, it may be easy to overlook linguistic biases ingrained into our educational system. It is so important to have classes like this to give students a chance to undo and break down systems to which we may have gotten accustomed. For those who experience the receiving hand of this prejudice may have also unfortunately accepted the academic microaggressions as something too ingrained and customary to try to change and possibly internalized this mass societal rejection. Unfortunately, this is a practice that is present amongst almost all American systems. This must change.

Take the American Dream, for example; immigrants from all over the world are told to come to America for a “better,” more prosperous life—a land of opportunity! When they arrive, they are greeted with a barrage of prejudices concealed under a flashy cover of diversity and supposed equality. America puts a specific group, usually white or male Americans, in its favor and perpetually pushes them forward toward success. This very success is advertised as equally accessible to all people of any background or ethnicity, and while there are cases of diverse achievement, anyone who is remotely different from the “ideal” American knows how these systems fight to cut you off at the knees. 

Bias is integrated into American systems to stunt the effective learning and professional growth of diverse peoples as soon as the introduction of young students to the academic setting. Maxine Hong Kingston and June Jordan uncover and explore this subtle, though deep-rooted intolerance throughout the entirety of American education within their texts, “Tongue-Tied” and “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan,” respectively. Unsurprising to me and anyone else who is the slightest bit socially aware, it is easy to recognize the microaggressions maintained academically. People are reprimanded for not speaking English “properly” when there are so many correct versions of a language that is spoken by such a wide variety of people. Those who have English as a second language have always been carted off to separate classrooms to teach them to conform to the American idea of correct and respectable English. Instead—something I have never heard outright in an academic setting—the rest of the students should be made aware that it is okay to speak differently because all versions of English are correct. Why constrict those who are different instead of teaching those who have it a bit easier to accept. Reading Jordan’s account of her students rejecting Black English was particularly heart-wrenching for me because it is quite horrifying to witness people blindly deny a part of themselves. After all, they were taught by a system that fails to accept and acknowledge their differences. I could, in a way, relate to Kingston’s narrative when she recounts that instead of trying to understand and help her when she was quiet and found it difficult to speak, she was punished for it and forced into situations that made her so uncomfortable, tears filled her voice.

I hope one day—one person at a time if that is what it takes—America takes a turn and begins introducing accommodations and overall acceptance for differences. If kids can learn to reject themselves, we sure as hell can teach open-mindedness and acceptance instead. 

Sincerely,
Samiha Hussen

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