Language and Racialization

Language and Racialization Elaine Chung & Adrienne Lo     

Race: a semiotic process that naturalizes social difference [ useful]

ethnoracial (emphasizing distinctiveness) / racialization (emphasizing naturalization)

distinctive ethnoracial language      one-to-one mapping of language to ethnoracial group ethnoracial identity      how linguistic elements index ethnoracial meanings      identity as an outcome of language, not preceding it racialization      languages become enregesterd as racialized objects      isomorphism between linguistic difference and social difference      language introduces, enforces these social differences in interactions

using language to perform identities      obama      crossing      “dog whistle” white racist meanings

new work: how racialized signs are taken up along trajectories of speech events, traveling through institutions such as schools

Naturalize, Normalize, Essentialize

How can we compare the sex / gender discourse with regard to race

“we construct ourselves” / “others construct us"