An Urgently Needed Campaign!

[Clare Walsh]

Dear All,
 
This is my first ever posting to the list, but it is one that has been
inspired by my sheer disbelief and then consternation at comments made by a
keynote speaker at a conference today in London entitled 'Diversity Matters'
run by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education in conjunction with the
Arts Council.  
 
Like many of you, no doubt, I have struggled for years to challenge my
students' deep-seated prejudices about non-standard Englishes being
'debased' forms of the language and I have tried to promote the value of
linguistic diversity and the central role it plays in shaping the identity
of individuals and their communities.  Yet Trevor Phillips, the head of the
Commission for Racial Equality in England no less, claimed today that he is
worried about declining standards of English amongst the young and, despite
all the empirical siciolinguistic evidence to the contrary, about the
alleged inability of young people to code-switch when this is required,
notably in job interviews.  I knew as soon as I challenged him that he had
probably written me off as a middle class white woman who lives in an ivory
tower and his patronising response was that he hoped that I was right
otherwise people like me were disadvantaging the future prospects of young
people as a result of well-meaning, but erroneous beliefs!  It was as if he
had been primed by Professor John Honey himself and perhaps he had.
However, I am asking for your help in challenging this dangerous myth by
emailing info at cre.gov.uk <mailto:info at cre.gov.uk> , citing studies that you
are aware of that offer a very different view of young people's linguistic
behaviour in Britain and elsewhere.  Needless to say, I wasted no time in
sending him as many scholarly references as I could think of.
 
In his speech, Phillips also made two other highly contentious claims that
may be of interest to you as feminist researchers involved in the field of
language and gender.  One was that Disney films promote enlightened
contemporary fables castigating selfishness and greed (he obviously hasn't
read Jack Zipes' work or Marina Warner's critique of the represention of
gender politics in 'Beauty and the Beast').  The other was that 'The
Godfather' should be celebrated as the ur-narrative of American immigrant
life.  Never mind the fact that it glamorises violence and endorses a
traditional patriarchal view of women's secondness (or perhaps I am being
unfair here?).
 
I feel so much better now that I have got this off my chest an into an email
that will be going into the mail boxes of so many eminent feminist academics
and I urge you all to help me prevent other audiences from having to endure
the pedalling of such dangerous myths by such an influential figure.  Please
feel free to pass this on to anyone outside the list that you think might
find it of interest.
 
Best wishes - Clare