newmeyer's quote

[George Elgin, Suzette Haden Elgin]

On January 24th Dr. Myhill wrote:

"I think it would be a good idea for linguists to just keep our mouths shut
if the popular press comes looking for quotes about language and genetics.
It's obvious, to me at least, that, unless we know for sure in advance that
we will have 100% control over exactly what is printed, we are going to
comeacross as having a racist agenda. We know that this isn't true, but after
Newmeyer's quote in Newsweek, I think that many non-linguists are going to
think either that linguists are racists or that linguistic research shows
that black-white differences in speech are genetically-based. It isn't
enough to say`Alas.' Let's think first and talk on the record later or not
at all. We don't
need to be so desparate to see ourselves in the news.  John Myhill"

 I agree with most of what Dr. Myhill says here, and understand the parts
with which I do not agree. However, I am much afraid that it's just not
this simple. True, the media will grab whatever part of an interview seems
to have the most "legs" and will use that, no matter how many warnings are
given; true, much of the time there's no way to control what is printed.
Even when the reporter has agreed to the interviewee's constraints, the
editors/publishers often overrule that agreement and do whatever they think
will move copies or raise ratings. And it's not that they're indifferent to
the fact that what they're doing is dangerous, it's that they haven't the
least *idea* that it is. That's all true.

But the charge that linguists have a racist agenda is not the only image
problem we have. The average level of accurate information about language
and linguistics in the general public is at Flat Earth level, and I am not
just talking about "the masses." In the current "ebonics" mess, for
example, the ghetto children have plenty of excuses for *their* ignorance;
the allegedly educated adults from every walk of life who are pontificating
in the public press on the subject have none. I respect each and every
linguist's individual right to respond to this problem of public ignorance
with "So what? It's not my problem and it doesn't interest me."  Or with
"If I tried to do something about it, I'd be misquoted -- what's the use?"
Or both. But I don't, personally, feel that way about it. That ignorance
has serious real-world consequences; we're all paying for those
consequences. Language is our science; it seems to me that linguists have
some responsibility in this matter.

Because I am of the opinion that it *is* my problem,  I do many interviews
every year. (Much of the time I am misquoted, to some degree; quite right.)
At least half the interviews begin with someone (or several someones)
saying to me, "I hate interviewing linguists. They're elitists, they look
down on everybody who isn't a linguist, they can't even get along with each
other, and they can't be bothered to speak English." Followed, often, by
the ultimate insult: "You people are worse than *doctors*!"  I will never
forget a conference on bilingual education in the seventies where the then
secretary of education -- allegedly an educated adult -- got up for the
keynote address and announced that "the reason bilingual education has
failed in the United States is because the linguists have refused to help."
It is still the case, after all these years, that when I go into a school
and people are told that I'm a linguist, they say one of two things: " I'm
afraid to talk to you, because all linguists do is watch for people to make
mistakes" or "I don't want anything to do with linguists -- they're
responsible for the mess we're in." I got an email message last year in
which an academic who'd been flamed on Linguist List for asking a question
informed me that that was the last time *he* intended to open his mouth in
front of "Your Linguistnesses."

With all due respect, it seems to me that perhaps being desperate to see
ourselves in the news -- after taking time to think carefully, as Dr.
Myhill stipuates -- is not necessarily such a bad idea.

Suzette Haden Elgin