Synthesis Essay
First Draft:
Daniel Makayan
Linguistic Discrimination. This is such an interesting, debatable, harsh, and socially powerful topic to talk about. What is Linguistic Discrimination? According to (CETL: Central for Excellence in teaching and learning) they define Linguistic Discrimination “when individuals are mistreated and/or devalued based on their language use”. Now why is this a problem? Because people’s language in how they speak should not be a focal point on how others perceive them. Treating people unfairly because of the way they speak, especially if they speak in a different accent or way of English, is super wrong. Toleration on the fact that Linguistic fields are towards one way is not right. Many people are different and what is to show is that everyone comes and speaks from different backgrounds. Society shows cases of these discrimination in language in many settings but one of the biggest settings that is shown is through social media. Social media is a gateway for many to connect and what does this bring? A clear pathway for discrimination as well. There are levels to social media even when it was first starting up, but now, the line has definitely been crossed.
When we first look at linguistic discrimination, we have to look at the backgrounds of many other people. Tami Winfrey Harris confronts her background in her article titled “What's So Wrong With "Sounding Black?" She goes on to explain that the case starting her argument is that ‘black english’ would have been a problem when it comes to Government officials and now they are considering translators for those in the Government who speak ‘black english’ because it is perceived as a lower education and not formal. “It is telling that it is not just black speakers of a more vernacular language that are criticized for their speech patterns. So, too, are those that speak Standard American English with tones, cadences, and pronunciations associated with blackness.” This is more of a psychological thing. What is crazy is that ‘black english’ is literally english but the thing is that it comes with a different tone, pronunciations and speech patterns in which the formal English does not apply. She then states later in her article “There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a black accent, except that in a society where whiteness is normative, a black accent is judged as less desirable. Making a call without your "white" voice on could mean the loss of a job, an apartment, any number of opportunities” What this shows is that society has now labeled ‘black English’ as a way where you can miss out on life changing opportunities, such as a job. Now the question is, where does this stem from and what can this do to a person?
A study drawn up in an article titled “Daily multidimensional racial discrimination among Black U.S. American adolescents” explained by Devin English, Sharon F. Lambert b, Brendesha M. Tynes c, Lisa Bowleg b,Maria Cecilia Zea b, and Lionel C. Howard b, was done. In this study and stated in the article “Participants were 101 Black U.S. American adolescents for this ecological momentary assessment study that measured daily racial discrimination and 14-day depressive symptoms slopes. Confirmatory factor analyses specified subscales, t-test analyses compared subscale means, and hierarchical linear analyses tested associations between subscales and depressive symptoms slopes. Results showed that six subscales fit the data well: individual general, vicarious general, individual online, vicarious online, individual teasing, and vicarious teasing. Participants reported 5606 experiences of racial discrimination during the study and averaged 5.21 experiences per day across the six subscales. The two online subscales were more frequent than the offline subscales. Aside from online vicarious experiences, all subscales were positively associated with depressive symptoms slopes. Findings underscore the multidimensional, quotidian, and impactful nature of racial discrimination in the lives of Black adolescents in the U.S.” This is a powerful study. What this brings out is that there is a psychological effect towards those who are discriminated against by their backgrounds. The study proved that the test subjects that were online were more affected than the ones who were online. Those online developed depressive symptoms. The article then states “An emerging literature indicates that the Internet is a critical context for racial experiences among Black adolescents (Keum & Miller, 2018; Tynes et al., 2015). Studies have found that the vast majority of Black adolescents use the Internet daily and spend more time online and on social media than their peers from different races/ethnicities (Rideout, Lauricella, & Wartella, 2011). In particular, a Pew Research Center study found that 34% of Black youth report going online “almost…”
Now what can we take from this article? We can assume that a big margin of racial discrimination can come from online use and being on social media. The study did show that a majority of Black adolescents use the Internet daily. This gives them a gateway into the world of many other races and ethnicities. One thing that is to mention about social media is that it is so easy to say something, post something, and hear about many other different news around the world. Anybody can post anything of their want and it can go viral with the fact that you can use different hashtags to reach out to a wide margin or different people on the internet. Claims about races are made and it can have a Negative viewpoint towards the public. Different types of false research or biased research can easily be uploaded onto social media
which gives that viewpoint towards people. Comments are ways people of different kinds argue and tapping someone’s profile is so easy with
just a click of a button. It is so easy to have racial discrimination because of social media, and it can point back towards society itself because with such easy access to false news, studies, different perspectives, and different types of people on just a little device you carry every day, people can tend to have that viewpoint on what they consume online towards society today!
Let’s look at the age groups that are shown to be using social media the most. A study conducted by the Pew research center shows that the majority of users on social media (depending on the app) fall into the range of Ages 18-29. This is basically the start of Gen Z and the age group that they are in. This is a major showcase towards discrimination in social media because it points to the fact that younger generations are suffering from racial discrimination compared to ever before. The majority of people that are suffering from the way they perceive the outside world is Gen Z and that is not just the fact that you can say what you want to others in a comment section, but rather the fact that anything can be posted and seen through your personal feed by just a scroll.
Another study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health, (NIH), showcased a study conducted in 2021 about major depression. What did the study show? “In 2021, an estimated 14.5 million U.S. adults aged 18 or older had at least one major depressive episode with severe impairment in the past year. This number represented 5.7% of all U.S. adults.” The article then states “An estimated 5.0 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States had at least one major depressive episode.
This number represented 20.1% of the U.S. population aged 12 to 17.” (
The study conducted showed that the majority showed to have suffered from a depressive episode falling into a huge margin of the age group of 18-25 with most of the race affected is Hispanics and Whites. This is actually crazy and it backs up the fact that this age group is GEN Z! Can you not fathom the fact that everything just adds up!? Gen Z having easy access to phones. Next, phones have social media
and you can easily tap it with a finger to open it. Then scrolling. It is so easy to doom scroll and see so many different news and perspectives you do not know what is real.
And the fact that depression rates in race are so high for the younger
age during this time, it just adds up! Does it not?!
Now a Youtube video posted on October 27, 2021 titled “Why do teens think they can get away with racism on social media?” Had a Journalist by the name of Reshonda Tate make a comment to the question “Why are young people using these racial slurs on social media?” She responded “Because we are in a society that just thinks it is no big deal. Our children just do not understand the consequences of their actions. You’ll see that so many times that these young people on social media saying “I was just playing, I was just kidding around” and they don’t understand the long term effects in so many assets of their life that it can hurt them” This was such a powerful point. Many think that a racial slur being commented on social media is just a silly little word to be played around with. But the thing is that it’s a word that has meaning towards it. The psychological factors that these words bring towards people stem from the past history and society’s viewpoint and it can be heavy on someone when they believe that that word co-exists with who they are. The depression symptoms coming from this are shown and it stops people from really embracing who they really are.
Let’s look at another point of view from a different research that took place supporting the fact on how racial discrimination in social media has a psychological effect on the youth. An article posted by Fordham now made a study titled “Grad student studies impact of Social Media Discrimination on adolescents of color” posted by (Taylor Ha, February 18, 2022) In the article, it states “Xiang Yu’s research represents an innovative and methodologically rigorous approach to understanding how racially biased social media posts affect the mental health of Asian, African American, and Latinx youth” This is the base of the study and what it is mainly focusing on. Later on in the article, she goes on and says “There are two types of social media racial discrimination: individual and vicarious, said Tao. Someone who experiences individual discrimination could receive a racist comment or direct message through social media. Vicarious discrimination is less direct, but still harmful, said Tao. That’s when someone sees news on social media about someone who was discriminated against—and the victim is the same race or ethnicity as the viewer.” She then goes on and talks about Civic engagement
So what is ‘Civic Engagement’? Civic Engagement (according to Google) is “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.” Social media has so much politics that are posted. It is also very easy to post whatever news on social media, like I mentioned before, and because of this, many false news can be exposed. Like what Xiangyu mentioned, one of the discrimination types is Vicarious discrimination. This one is passive aggressive as it is not directed towards the person who is reading the post, but rather their race if they relate towards it. Then there are the comments made directly towards people whether it is from the comment section or social media direct messaging.
Because of these roles that social media opens towards discrimination, the depression rates are high and even towards the younger generation. I remember being uncomfortable about being me and trying to post aesthetic photos because I would get comments from my high school friends saying Asian slurs in which I was too Asian. I try to make my photos look cinematic and appealing, (I won’t lie, it comes with a factor of looking good), but the main point is that I felt like I could not be me because anyone can comment about who I am, even those who do not follow me. It is a really big deal and it took a mental toll on me. The time it took to really get over those thoughts was quite a while as well so really looking deep into it, racial discrimination in social media is such a big thing that is not really talked about.
So, really looking into how Racial discrimination really comes from the linguistic side by the factor of social media and how it can affect people, especially Gen Z, psychologically, there are major effects. What is crazy to add for a fact is that the brain does not fully develop until the mid 20s of someone’s age. This is big to note because if people are dealing with racial discrimination at such a young age with their brain not being fully developed, it can affect them long term and really looking into this, it is a big topic that should really be focused on and it really shows our society today.
Sources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/colorstruck/201009/whats-so-wrong-sounding-black
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0193397319300462
Final Draft:
