Abstract

Prejudice individuals discriminate minorities based on their accent that defines who they are. In this essay, I explored the topic of Accent Discrimination in the US. In real life scenarios, people don’t value accented individuals as much as they value natives. Opportunities are being taken away from them. Oppressors should put themselves in their positions and feel remorse about their hurtful actions.

 Accent Discrimination in The United States

Accent discrimination in the US is growing repeatedly. One criticizes another by accent is a common thing that we encounter almost every day. Having a non-native standard-American English accent leads to discrimination, lack of equal opportunities and self-doubt. If we look around us, we may see a certain group of people are being judged for their native tongue.

Minorities in the U.S. face discrimination throughout their lives when it comes to applying for opportunities. They often have trouble to get to their destination because their accent gives it all. According to a peer-reviewed article where five authors have done an experiment by analyzing the impact of accent discrimination against immigrants “Accent provides further information about people, legitimatizing discrimination against them. Individuals evaluate the extent to which the quality of an accent conforms to socially more desirable standards of speaking (Souza, L., Pereira, C., Camino, L., Lima, T., & Torres, A,).” This demonstrates that accent provides tons of information about someone. For instance, where they are from, race, color etc. Prejudice individuals look at the way we speak and then based on that they figured out our proficiency in the English language. Similar to what has been said by the peer-reviewed article, the author Dr. Ursula Hirschfeld who is a professor of speech science, specializing in phonetics, extended the idea in her article by mentioning “People who have a typical immigrant accent will not enjoy the same opportunities when it comes to choice of profession or finding a job.” So, most of the time employers deny minorities applications over native speakers because they think that minorities are not smart enough to perform certain types of jobs.” This reiterates the idea that immigrants are limited to when it comes to opportunities. People believe that natives are qualitatively better than immigrants. This stereotype belief hurting all the minority groups who are endeavoring to improve their life. They start from the bottom and others make them stuck in the same position. They underestimate the immigrants due to their peculiar accent. Therefore, accent leads to discrimination.

Accented individuals often have self-doubts. They doubt about the words that come out of their mouth. Afraid of getting criticized or mocked. According to an author named Centeno, founder of an online website where she expressed her feelings regarding accent, mentioned, “I was scared that no one would understand me because of my accent.” This illustrates that speaking with an accent always make a person nervous because they think that they aren’t saying it right. Therefore, they repeat themselves which can be very irritating but accented people go through it regardless. I have personally encountered some accented people who would repeat themselves over and over again just to make sure that others are understanding the concept of what there is exactly trying to say. It’s their harsh reality that is hard to overcome. Just like the author Centeno, Lippi-Green who is an author and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Princeton University added that “When I’m involved in my subject, when I forgot to monitor my speech carefully, my origins come forth (Lippi-Green, 16).” From this, it’s clear that the author had self-doubts because she had trouble putting it together and she would also sound different. People would listen to her for a few minutes or so and then they would lose interest in her because of her English. Prejudice individuals are so ignorant that they don’t understand how it feels to be ignored. Some Individuals with an accent have issues with their self-esteem because of the way they speak, and when they criticize them for being different, it just makes the situation worse. Therefore, expressing oneself with an accent other than native-American accent can create self-doubts.

Even though minorities face intensive hassles throughout their lives because of their accent but they are ones helping the U.S. to improve many ways. Some immigrants work super hard for a little. The resources they have is not enough to live life, but they are still assisting the U.S. to evolve for the better. According to an online article written by Furman and Gray, two researchers who research about how immigrants are strengthening the US, said “Immigrants create their own jobs, open businesses and generate billions of dollars, come up with new technologies, help the government by paying taxes, improve, earnings for American workers etc.” Immigrants or minorities are very serious about life because they weren’t born with a golden spoon in their mouth. They work twice as much as natives work just to make a better living. Unlike Lippi green, the peer-reviewed article and other authors who have focused on the negative view of having an accent, Furman, and Gray only concentrated on the positive things that the immigrants are doing to make America better. According to a video about “How immigrants helped build the US” supports Furman and Gray’s by providing details about Beardstown, Illinois where “most of the businesses owned by immigrants and they’ve helped the town to maintain its population and propping up the economy.” They are not only helping themselves but also helping the U.S. to develop. There’s always been a language barrier and cultural issues however immigrants didn’t stop looking forward and make their way up. If we explore US history, we will come across a million of significant things where minorities have had contributed their valuable time to build the US itself. Even nowadays, minorities are the ones doing the hard jobs for a little profit and natives nowhere around it, they would be making thousands by sitting down on a chair. Criticizers should understand that fact their struggles helping America to evolve and without them, the U.S. wouldn’t be The United States of America.

In addition to the negative effects of accent, it is something that shows our identity, something that makes us unique. Sometimes, we can’t change the way we speak, it may stay lifelong unless intensive practice takes place. According to “How to tame a wild tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua “Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self-inside (Anzaldua 42).” This text clarifies how identity plays an important role defining who we are as individuals. Anzaldua had hard times finding her own self because of the language she would speak wouldn’t go along with speakers who would speak Standard American English. She had to learn a series of languages just to know herself. We have our own way of expressing ourselves and it shouldn’t be an issue since minorities are from different part of the world. They grew up speaking a language with vowels and consonants that vary from English and prejudice people should stop being so judgmental about it and respect other cultures. Based on the author, Robert MacNeil who is a retired journalist, a news anchor who has written several books including memoirs agree with their perspectives added that “Some may be thought beautiful and some ugly, some may live, and some may die, but it’s all English and it belongs to everyone.” This demonstrates the idea that even though some may not like our accent, however, it’s all English- broken or perfect. We can see that Anzaldua’s and MacNeil’s perspective sound alike such that they both want people to embrace their own nature. People who criticize others for being social linguistics, they should realize that they know just as much as natives know regardless of how they sound like. At the end of the day, we all should make each other happy by helping them feel comfortable on their own skin.

In conclusion, Tons of opportunities have been taken away from accented individuals and made them work at the bottom. They are working super intensively however things don’t flow through them naturally like natives, their rights are there by law but not in reality. They also struggle with their identity and their own accent; however, the accent is something that might stay with them forever since they weren’t born speaking the English language. Criticizers should put themselves into their positions and feel the way they feel when minorities face discrimination because of their accent. we all should embrace ourselves and be kind to one another instead of judging or hurting others. That’s the only way we may see a better society in the future.

 

Bibliography

 

Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Borderland/ La Frontera,

Borderland/ La Frontera, 1987.

 

Centeno, Olene. “Your Accent | An Enemy Or A Friend?”

Bilingual Kids Rock, 2017.

 

FURMAN, JASON, and DANIELLE GRAY.

“Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy.” National Archives and Records Administration, 12 July 2012.

Hirschfeld, Dr Ursula. “A Part of Our Identity.” Accessed,3,2018.

www.goethe.de/en/spr/mag/20874270.html.

 

“How Immigrants Helped Build the US.” USA News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 5 Mar.  2018,

www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/immigrants-helped-build-180305172025927.html.

 

MacNeil, Robert“English belongs to everybody”

Wordstruck, January 1st, 1989, pg. 42.

 

Souza, L., Pereira, C., Camino, L., Lima, T., & Torres, A…

“The legitimizing role of accent on discrimination against immigrants.” European Journal of Social Psychology, 2016.

 

Self Reflection

I have learned a ton of new things from my research exploratory essay. I have done a research paper back in high school, however, there weren’t any requirements to follow. So, I would just use one or two sources to clarify my ideas but this time there were requirements to go over. In this Essay, I had to look for many different articles, books, online sources to support my thesis. In the beginning, I was confused about how to find legit sources such as peer-reviewed articles and other online sources, however, everything became clear to me when we went to the library and a librarian showed us every single step to come across a thousand of good sources. This is not only going to help me now but also in the future classes. I also learned how to make a comprehensive thesis by getting help in class. My thesis provides details about what my essay is going to be about. This is something that takes the reader’s attention and fascinates them to read more about it. I have explored the topic of accent discrimination in the U.S. because I wanted my readers to know the hassles immigrants go through when they come here in the U.S. to improve their lifestyles. The language barrier and others way of seeing and judging them puts their life on the line. I also added counterclaims to let my audience know what the other side might be feeling. Even though, general immigrants face discrimination because of their tongue however they are helping the language to evolve and assisting the nation to improve for the better.

This research exploratory essay also helped me improved my writing skills because I had to write at least five pages to meet the requirements which weren’t easy since I had writers’ block while I was writing it. It took me several days to get it done, however, now that I know how to write that many pages, it just made my life easier for the future. I have used rhetorical strategies such as pathos to make my audience who would be the general individuals in the U.S, understand the struggles minorities go throughout their lives. I explained how having an accent can ruin thousands of lives summary to dig under the surface of what the authors were saying about accent and how it affects us. Evidence and synthesis helped me to support my ideas and make relationships across the texts. This is also something that would make my essay stand up among my audiences. Revision and editing helped me clear up some general mistakes throughout my research papers. It also makes the reading smooth and comprehensive. Everything that I have learned from this assignment will never be forgotten.

Moreover, this phase’s assignment helped me to achieve the course learning goals on the syllabus in many ways. For instance, the charting worksheets helped me learn more of what the author was saying and doing., synthesis prep worksheet to combine authors point of views to support my thesis, and the summary to explain the quotes. Also, by reading the language and narrative booklet I’ve learned how to take notes and annotate the texts which played an important role throughout my research exploratory essay. The texts also supported my thesis by providing details of how an accent can affect an immigrant’s life. Life becomes a catastrophe when we don’t get along with others and don’t receive the same opportunities as natives because we have an accent