NYU: Men Have “Linguistic Privilege”

NYU plans to hold a “Linguistic Prejudice, Linguistic Privilege” forum tomorrow, claiming “differences in language use among social groups have led to discrimination against speakers who diverge from the dominant group.”

The event page, which is being held by NYU’s Linguistics Department, argues, “linguistic prejudice seems to remain socially acceptable today even when other types of overt discrimination are otherwise shunned.”
Thus, if you are part of the “dominant group” of speakers in the United States, you are privileged. One such group is men, according to Professor Lisa Davidson.

Professor Davidson’s section of the forum is titled, “Talking While Female: The Science and Censure of Women’s Voices.”

Speakers at the event include Professor Laurel MacKenzie, who will speak about “the Myth of Standard English” and Professor Renée Blake whose section is titled, “Don’t CALL me what I AM!: On being BLACK and ARTICULATE.”