CERD The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is a United Nations convention. A second-generation human rights instrument, the Convention commits its members to the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. Controversially, the Convention also requires its · CEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international convention adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. Described as an international bill of rights for women, it came into force on 3 September 1981. The United States is the only developed nation that has not ratified the CEDAW. Several · CDE Convention against Discrimination in Education is a convention adopted by UNESCO in 1960 aiming to combat segregation and discrimination in the field of education. It has entered into force in 1962. There is an additional Protocol Instituting a Conciliation and Good offices Commission, adopted in 1962 and entering force in 1968. As of March, 2010, · ILO C111 Discrimination Convention, 1958 is an International Labour Organization Convention · ILO C100 Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 is an International Labour Organization Convention · ILO C169 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding international convention concerning indigenous peoples, and a forerunner of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples · Protocol No. 12 ECHR Protocol No. 12 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an anti-discrimination treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted on November 4, 2000, in Rome and entered into force on April 1, 2005, after tenth ratification. As of February, 2010, it has 17 member states and 20 signatories (from 47 CoE member
Adultcentrism CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR · Androcentrism Androcentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of one's view of the world and its culture and history. The related adjective is androcentric, while the opposite of androcentrism is gynocentrism Anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism is a concept that human beings may regard themselves as the central and most significant entities in the universe, or that they assess reality through an exclusively human perspective. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, while the first concept can also be referred to as human supremacy. The views are · Afrocentrism Afrocentrism, Afrocentricity, or Africentrism is a world view which emphasizes the importance of African people, taken as a single group and often equated with "Black people", in culture, philosophy, and history. The roots of Afrocentrism lay in a reaction to the repression of Black people throughout the Western world in the 19th century Americentrism Americentrism is a pejorative term referring to the ethnocentric practice of viewing the world from an explicitly American perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of American culture · Black supremacy Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR Chronocentrism It is in one sense the interpretation of events and actions of other times within the moral context of one's own time. For example, a slave owner in the 1700s who treated his slaves like free estate workers and arranged for them to be freed at his death was unusually enlightened when viewed within the proper context of his time, but someone guilty · Economic Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR Ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with concern to language, behavior, customs, and religion · Eurocentrism Eurocentrism is a term coined during the period of decolonization in the later 20th century to refer to the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture. The term Eurocentrism implies criticism of the concerns and values at the Genetic Genetic discrimination occurs when people are treated differently by their employer or insurance company because they have a gene mutation that causes or increases the risk of an inherited disorder. People who undergo genetic testing may be at risk for genetic discrimination · Gynocentrism Gynocentrism is a belief system whereby the perceptions, needs and desires of women have primacy. In this system, the female view is the reference point or lens through which matters are analysed · Indigenism Indigenism is a kind of ethnic nationalism emphasizing the group's indigeneity to their homeland. This may be embraced by post-colonial anarchism as well as in neo-völkisch or national mysticist nationalism building on historical or pseudohistorical claims of ethnic continuity. While New World movements usually go by the name indigenism , the Jingoism Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy". In practice, it refers to the advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country's national interests, and colloquially to excessive bias in · Linguistic Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR · Sinocentrism Sinocentrism is any ethnocentric perspective that regards China to be the center of civilization which is superior to all other nations. This belief was popular among the Chinese elites up to Qing dynasty; however it is not so widely popular among Chinese in present day. In pre-modern times however, this took the form of viewing China as the only Xenocentrism Xenocentrism is a political neologism, coined as the antonym of Ethnocentrism. Xenocentrism is the preference for the products, styles, or ideas of someone else's culture rather than of one's own. The 18th Century Primitivism movement in European art and philosophy, and its concept of the Noble savage is an example of xenocentrism · White supremacy Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR
Bigotry CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR · Diversity The term diversity is a form of euphemistic shorthand to describe differences in racial or ethnic classifications, age, gender, religion, philosophy, physical abilities, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, intelligence, mental health, physical health, genetic attributes, behavior, attractiveness, cultural values, or · Eugenics Eugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. In a historical and broader sense, eugenics can also be a study of "improving human genetic qualities." Advocates of eugenics sought to counter what they regarded as dysgenic dynamics within the human gene pool. Specifically, Hatred Hatred is an intense feeling of dislike. It may occur in a wide variety of contexts, from hatred of inanimate objects or animals, to hatred of oneself or other people, entire groups of people, people in general, existence, or everything. Though not always, hatred is often associated with feelings of anger · Oppression Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and anxiety Political correctness Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the term is primarily pejorative, while the term politically incorrect has been · Prejudice A prejudice is a prejudgment: i.e. a preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment made without recourse to reason; drawing typically instead upon received information or upon instinctual preference. The word prejudice is most commonly used to refer to a preconceived judgment toward a people or a person because of race, social class, gender, ethnicity, Religious intolerance Crime of apartheid · CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR · Tolerance In social, cultural and religious contexts, toleration and tolerance are terms used to describe attitudes which are "tolerant" of practices or group memberships that may be disapproved of by those in the majority. In practice, "tolerance" indicates support for practices that prohibit ethnic and religious discrimination
Linguicism is a form of prejudice A prejudice is a prejudgment: i.e. a preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment made without recourse to reason; drawing typically instead upon received information or upon instinctual preference. The word prejudice is most commonly used to refer to a preconceived judgment toward a people or a person because of race, social class, gender, ethnicity,, an "-ism" along the lines of racism CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR, ageism CERD · CEDAW · CDE · ILO C111 · ILO C100 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR or sexism Sexism, a term coined in the mid-20th century, is the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to, less competent, or less valuable than the other. It can also refer to hatred of, or prejudice towards, either sex as a whole , or the application of stereotypes of masculinity in relation to men, or of femininity in relation to women. It. Broadly defined, it involves an individual making judgments about another's wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions or the control of such assets. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem. An individual, community, region or country that possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources is known as wealthy, education Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another, social status In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc, character, and/or other traits based on choice and use of language Language is a term most commonly used to refer to so called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of human thought process which creates and uses language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of.
The word is attributed to the linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning (semantics and pragmatics). Grammar encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the rules that determine how words Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, who coined the concept in the mid-1980s, and gave it the following definition: "ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate, and reproduce unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between groups which are defined on the basis of language."[1]
Linguicism is a primarily social phenomenon; in some regions this takes the form of policy decisions against certain linguistic groups, but the two are not necessarily present together (much like racism is social while apartheid Bantustan · District Six · Robben Island is political). Parts of language which may go into this consideration are accents In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language. Accents can be confused with dialects which are varieties of language differing in vocabulary, syntax, and morphology, as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or social status.[citation needed], the size of vocabulary A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge (whether the person uses complex and varied words A word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme (e.g. wolf), but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form (e.g. the English plural morpheme -s)), and syntax In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages. It may also involve a person's ability or inability to use one language instead of another; for example, one who speaks Japanese Japanese (日本語?, [nihoŋɡo] ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none of them has gained unanimous acceptance. Japanese is an agglutinative in France will probably be treated differently from one who speaks French.
As a form of prejudice, linguicism is often more subconscious than other forms, possibly because not much attention has been raised about it; it is not a cultural taboo as racism and sexism are today. Furthermore, many feel that it is not logically unjustifiable or morally reprehensible to draw inferences about a person's education partly based on their linguistic proficiency. However, as most linguists note, the definition that such people use of what constitutes proficiency is often illogical.
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Linguicism and minority groups
While, theoretically, any individual may be the victim of linguicism regardless of social and ethnic status, oppressed and marginalized social minorities are often its most consistent targets, due to the fact that the speech varieties that come to be associated with such groups have a tendency to be stigmatized.
African-Americans and linguicism
Since some African-Americans speak a particular non-standard variety of English which is often seen as substandard, African-Americans are frequently the targets of linguicism. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is often perceived by members of mainstream American society as indicative of low intelligence or limited education. Furthermore, as with many other non-standard dialects and especially creoles, AAVE sometimes has been called "lazy" or "bad" English.
The linguist John McWhorter has described this particular form of linguicism as particularly problematic in the United States, where non-standard linguistic structures are frequently judged by teachers and potential employers to be "incorrect," in contrast to a number of other countries such as Morocco, Finland and Italy where diglossia (a single person being able to switch between two or more dialects or languages) is an accepted norm, and use of non-standard grammar or vocabulary in conversation is seen as a mark of regional origin, not of intellectual capacity or achievement.
For example, an African-American who uses a typical AAVE sentence such as "He be comin' in every day and sayin' he ain't done nothing" may be judged as having a deficient command of grammar, whereas, in fact, such a sentence is constructed based on a complex grammar which is different from, and not a degenerate form of, standard English.[2] A hearer may judge the user of such a sentence to be unintellectual or uneducated when none of these is necessarily the case. The user is most likely proficient in standard English, and may be intellectually capable, and educated but simply have chosen to say the sentence in AAVE for any one of a number of social and sociolinguistic reasons such as the intended audience of the sentence, a phenomenon known as code switching.
Hispanic Americans and linguicism
Another form of linguicism is evidenced by the following: in some parts of the United States, a person who has a thick Mexican accent and uses only simple English words may be thought of as poor, poorly educated, and possibly an illegal immigrant by many of the people who meet them. However, if the same person has a diluted accent or no noticeable accent at all and can use a myriad of words in complex sentences, they are likely to be perceived as more successful, better educated, and a legitimate citizen.
Oralism
In 1880, most deaf schools (where sign languages are transmitted from children from deaf families to the children from non-signing hearing families) had adopted oralism, an educational philosophy which prohibits the use of sign languages in favor of spoken language. Many sign languages had all but become extinct during this time sometimes called by Deaf people as the "Deaf Dark Ages." In 1960s, the United States become the first major country to switch back to manualism. Unfortunately, even today, many first-world nations retain oralist educational philosophies and attitudes.
Linguicism and texts
Linguicism, of course, applies to written as well as spoken language. The quality of a book or article may be judged by the language in which it is written. In the scientific community, for example, those who evaluated a text in two language versions, English and the national Scandinavian language, rated the English-language version as being of higher scientific content.[3]
The Internet operates a great deal using written language. Readers of a web page, Usenet group, forum post, or chat session may be more inclined to take the author seriously if the written language is spelled and constructed in accordance with the written norms of the standard language.
See also
- Linguicide
- Linguistic imperialism
- Minority language
- Nonstandard dialect
- Prestige dialect
- Language ideology
- Language policy
Notes
- ^ Quoted in Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove, and Phillipson, Robert, "'Mother Tongue': The Theoretical and Sociopolitical Construction of a Concept." In Ammon, Ulrich (ed.) (1989). Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties, p. 455. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter & Co. ISBN 311011299X.
- ^ Dicker, Susan J. (2nd ed., 2003). Languages in America: A Pluralist View, pp. 7-8. Multilingual Matters Ltd. ISBN 1853596515.
- ^ Jenkins, Jennifer (2003). World Englishes: A Resource Book for Students, p. 200. Routledge. ISBN 0415258057.
References
- Kangas, Tove (1988), Multilingualism and the education of minority children.
External links
- Tove Skutnabb-Kangas' Homepage contains information on many of her writings.
Categories: Prejudices | Sociolinguistics | Dispositional beliefs
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wowlove
hu, 21 Jun 2007 03:55:09 GM
example of what Phillipson (1992:47) calls '. linguicism. ', which he defines as "ideologies, structures, and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and ...
