The article, written by a public anthropologist Andrew Hernández, provides an overview of eight essential benefits that are obtained by those who speak Standard American English (SAE). Apart from that, the author discusses the detriments of the non-SAE speakers and issues of discrimination on the language base. The current paper will briefly describe the main points of the article and give feedback on the core issues.
The fundamental privileges of the SAE speakers include their public image, career and study opportunities, certain stereotypes, and patterns of behavior. Precisely, according to Hernández, despite the absence of customary laws in the United States that indicate English as a national language, only those who speak English as the first language are counted as Americans. Besides, most information in public places either has no translations or is translated improperly.
Furthermore, SAE speakers, by default, create an impression of highly competent and amicable professionals. Television and filmmaking, as Hernández claims, tend to exaggerate accents and negatively represent non-English speakers. Consequently, non-SAE speakers are obliged to change the way they speak to create a positive image on native English-speaking colleagues, employers, acquaintances, etc.
Every non-SAE speaker’s daily life confirms the critical ideas of the article. Nevertheless, the writer’s point on the role of language in cinema is disputable. It could be argued that an exaggeration is a tool that creates a desirable image of the character. Besides, this tool is used by almost all countries national filmmaking industries in favor of the dominant language. Notwithstanding this point, it seems fair to agree that overcoming discrimination based on the use of language will bring many benefits to the whole non-English speaking society of the United States.
To conclude, the article by Hernández outlines several critical aspects of discrimination based on the use of language and illustrates it with examples of informal saying and advertisement. These aspects contain, to name but a few, preconceptions, inconveniences in public places, and impediments to career development. Still, the author does not suggest means on how to suspend the exciting distinctions between SAE and non-SAE speakers.
Works Cited
Hernández, Andrew. “8 Harmful Examples of Standard American English Privilege.” Everyday Feminism. 2015. Web.