Language - attention: long(ue)

I have recently been informed by multiple monolingual anglophones that discrimination based on language is not racism. At best, I am conceeded that it is discrimination but racism, many have asserted, is skin deep and skin pigmentation alone. In the interest of giving this due consideration, if I am to accept this, I then need a vocabulary to precise discrimination based on language apart from non-specific discrimination or those already defined by their own specific vocabulary (e.g. sexism, heterosexism, etc.)

Also, from the get go, I want to be clear on where I stand on racism as I understand it. For the last ~6-7 years, I have been of the school thought that by virtue of my whiteness, I am racist. There is no qualifer to my whiteness, I am white. If you are suddendly frightened that I secretly have a white hood in my closet, you are probably equating racism to xenophobia. (Yes, yes, it's true. I'm making a generalization. I do them all the time despite knowing better. Culpa mia.)( Read more... )