Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice (Links to an external site)
As a black child growing up in inner-city neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, John Baugh witnessed racial discrimination at a young age and began to notice correlations between language and race. While attending college he worked at a Laundromat serving African Americans who were often subjected to mistreatment by the police.
Talkin Black Talk: Language, Education, and Social Change (Links to an external site)
Talkin Black Talk captures an important moment in the history of language and literacy education and the continuing struggle for equal language rights. Published 50 years after the Brown decision, this volume revisits the difficult and enduring problem of public schools failure to educate Black children and revises our approaches to language and literacy learning.
Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic Pride and Racial Prejudice (Links to an external site)
The media frenzy surrounding the 1996 resolution by the Oakland School Board brought public attention to the term “Ebonics”, however the idea remains a mystery to most. John Baugh, a well-known African-American linguist and education expert, offers an accessible explanation of the origins of the term, the linguistic reality behind the hype, and the politics […]
Out of the Mouths of Slaves: African American Language and Educational Malpractice (Links to an external site)
When the Oakland, California, school board called African American English “Ebonics” and claimed that it “is not a black dialect or any dialect of English,” they reignited a debate over language, race, and culture that reaches back to the era of slavery in the United States.
Towards a Social Science of Language: Papers in honor of William Labov. Volume 2: Social interaction and discourse structures (Links to an external site)
This is a two-volume collection of original research papers designed to reflect the breadth and depth of the impact that William Labov has had on linguistic science.