Abstract
This is about analyzing 3 sources which includes two political cartoons about linguistic discrimination and the language myths.

Linguistic discrimination
There are many ongoing conflicts between people in the way they perceive languages and different dialects. Language has progressed over time and it’s still progressing. However, the only language and dialect that is appealing to people in our society is the standard English. When someone doesn’t speak standard English, they are considered as someone whose English isn’t correct but broken and wrong. Hence, because of this mindset other dialects and languages are being neglected and being labeled incorrect when different dialects and languages make an individual, unique way to portray their identity. On the contrary, in today’s modern world standard English is only given all the value and labeled as the correct English which is followed in education, media, newspapers, online, and every other platform. These common language attitudes indeed can lead to problematic actions and consequences among people.

According to the political cartoon, it portrays three people at a restaurant, where it can be seen that the lady is the waitress and a couple looking at the restaurant’s menu trying to figure out what to order. The waitress says, “if youens are fixin’ to ate, I’ll skeeter up some viddles”. In a response to that, the male said, “I wish these immigrants would at least try to learn English.” Then, the lady went on telling her husband, “she’s not an immigrant, dear. She’s from South Carolina.” This shows the way the husband perceived the waitress’s dialect which is in a negative way calling her an immigrant. Being an immigrant is not a crime or shame and the perception of all immigrants not speaking good English is also wrong. There are many immigrants who speaks good English and just because the waitress is not speaking “standard” English she is being mistaken as an immigrant when in reality she’s from South Carolina. The way this white guy labeled the waitress an as immigrant didn’t just come out of nowhere, but it came from the perspective our society has as well. If you look around most immigrants work at these kinds of jobs. This became a stereotype because of the way it’s been structured for immigrants in our society because many people like that white guy also believes immigrants can’t work in good positioned jobs. In addition, according to the white guy he expected only immigrants to speak broken English or in a different language other than standard English. Therefore, it can be inferred that if the waitress talked in standard English, she wouldn’t be thought as an immigrant. Immigrants in American society are always perceived as uneducated, poor and they speak broken English when in reality they just have their own languages and dialects in which they are only comfortable at speaking. Besides, the waitress in the cartoon has a different accent because she is from South Carolina and they speak Gullah English. Since the guy wasn’t aware of the dialect the waitress was speaking in, he assumed she’s an immigrant which is totally wrong and ignorant. Therefore, people in this country should be educated about different dialects and languages more in order to understand there’s nothing wrong being different and speak different

Linguistic discrimination still exists like it does in the cartoon where the African American waitress is being discriminated by the white guy who labeled her as an “immigrant” for speaking in Gullah English instead of Standard English. Lippi Green in her essay, “Accent, Standard Language Ideology, And Discriminatory Pretextin the Courts” represent the myth that there is only one correct way to speak and write English which is “standard” English. Lippi Green analyzes how linguistic discrimination is still being continued in our society. As she states, “No distinction is made between pidgin or creole, socially or geographically based variation, native or nonnative language: they are all just accents, which may be described as adenoidal, barbarous, broad, cute, dis- tinct, educated, flat, foreign, funny, guttural, harsh, heavy, lilting, nasal, posh, provincial, quaint, rough, rustic, sing-song, strong, and uneducated.”(page 165) This shows that these are just accents and they can be perceived in many ways. Accents portrays an individual’s identity and it depends on the way we perceive it whether we accept it or reject it as well as rejecting their identity which comes along with it. For example, the kind of accent an individual has reveals where they are coming from whether it’s their race or their country. There are many ways our society perceives different accents and languages and they tend to also label those people as immigrants since they don’t speak “standard” English or don’t have the American accent. Lippi green introduces the standard language ideology that is found in school administration. As she states that, “Whereas only 26 percent of the private school students surveyed felt that HCE use should be allowed in school, 54 percent of the public-school students supported this idea.” (page 168) This demonstrates that students prefer to speak the languages that portrays their identity instead of being forced to use standard English. They would be able to connect to what they are doing more if given the languages they like to speak and in the accent they speak. Also, Lippi green mentions that “Comments ranged from “Pidgin English fosters illiteracy,” “Pidgin is a lazy way to talk; it promotes backward thinking,” and “Correct English will get you anywhere “to the polar opposites of “Banning pidgin would violate our freedom of speech,” “Pidgin is a natural language,” and “It’s our way to make Hawaii different from anywhere else in the United States.”.” (page 168) As you can see, there are people who perceives pidgin language as illiteracy and lazy just like in the cartoon that the white guy thought of the African American female as an “immigrant” because of the language she was speaking. This reveals the myth that standard English can only get you to place and achieve success in life and other languages and dialects only makes me you look illiterate, lazy and etc. However, this myth is just a myth because other languages, dialects and accents are natural, and it makes an individual different and shapes their identity not their intelligence nor capability.

In this political cartoon, there is one guy (A) with the telephone calling his other coworker(B) and telling him “PLEASE, MATE, BRING US SOME DOSH FOR THE DOG AND BONE!” The other guy then replied saying, “I DON’T UNDERSTAND. I ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH.” This exposes the mentality that people of our society have with different dialects because in this cartoon the guy(B) is calling the guy(A) with the telephone that what he said is not English and which is why he doesn’t understand him. However, the guy (A) with the phone, he spoke in English, but he had a different accent which to the other guy (B) seemed wrong. The guy (B) didn’t make the effort to understand guy (A) instead he called out saying he’s not speaking in English. As you can see, if guy (A) spoke in standard English, guy (B) wouldn’t say he’s not speaking in English. Standard English is not the only correct English because the other languages and accents are also correct, and it just depends on us as a society to accept and familiarize ourselves with other languages and dialects. Hence, our society needs start to value different accents and languages in order to change this mentality and ignorant behavior because it affects the other person in negative ways since they would think their mother tongue is wrong and create this embarrassment within themselves for speaking in their mother tongue and even being unique. 

Hence, both cartoons are a portrayal of how biased our society is towards accepting other languages, dialects and accents. standard English is just a structure that is forced on people to speak, neglecting others in that process. The cartoon that portrayed the South Carolina accent is not wrong, but it was taken in a wrong way by the white customer as he called the waitress an immigrant for speaking in south Carolina’s language. However, the white guy perceived that language in a wrong way and also commented about her being an immigrant which is another myth that people in our society has as they think people with accents and different languages are often to be immigrants. Also, in the other cartoon, the guy also spoke in different dialect which wasn’t “standard” English and because of that the other guy told him he wasn’t speaking in English. According to guy (B) “standard” English is only the correct English and the other dialects of English are not English at all. These cartoons are used to show how our society is based upon and how the mentality of our society is. Those people in the cartoons represents people of our society. Therefore, people should be able to speak and write in the language, dialect and accent they prefer to express and represent themselves in different and unique ways. Therefore, standard English is not the only correct English because other languages, dialects and accents are also correct.

Work Cited

Lippi-Green, Rosina. “Accent, Standard Language Ideology, and Discriminatory Pretext in the Courts.” Language in Society, vol. 23, no. 2, 1994, pp. 163–198. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4168513.