Drake Lim Itxaso Rodriguez LING 472

Outline

The topic I am interested in is how speaking with African American Language can cause unequal employment opportunities in the United States. This also applies to other accents that are not standard American accent, but in this essay, I will discuss about AAL specifically. Many people in the US that speaks with an accent such as African Americans suffer from high unemployment rate, and this is very much due to how people link negative stereotypes to the race they think the person’s accent is from. I choose this topic because one of my friend who has an accent has been struggling to get an internship, even though he is doing considerably well academically. Even though it is illegal to recruit and select candidates by listening to their accents, many organizations’ hiring managers tend to still practice that. I am writing about this topic because I would like to show people who are not aware of this situation that many hiring managers select by judging the way you speak, especially when nowadays most interviews are held through zoom meeting or phone calls due to the pandemic. When a person is treated unfairly because of her native language or other aspects of her linguistic abilities, this is known as linguistic discrimination. One may also be subjected to language discrimination if he or she is treated less favorably than other employees because the person speaks English with an accent, or whether he or she is ineligible for a position because of her inadequate English. “Language discrimination is a subset of national origin discrimination. Language discrimination refers to the unfair treatment of an individual based solely upon the characteristics of their speech; such as, accent, size of vocabulary, and syntax.” (Midwest New Media). Discrimination based on a person's appearance is not included in language discrimination; instead, it focuses on the person's speech style. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a set of federal laws that protect people from discrimination based on their race and national origin. Many courts and federal agencies regard linguistic discrimination to be a form of national origin discrimination, which is illegal under federal and California state law. Because main language is strongly tied to where a person comes from, certain courts and government bodies have ruled that discrimination based on language is a type of national origin discrimination (Legalaidatwork, 2018). The federal law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is created to help prevent the problem with linguistic discrimination, which is closely linked to national origin discrimination.

It is illegal to treat employees differently just because they speak English with an accent. An employer must provide a reasonable, non-discriminatory reason for refusing to hire someone because of their accent or speaking style. Requiring workers or applicants to be fluent in English may be a violation of Title VII if the regulation, and it is implemented to discriminate against people of a certain national origin and has nothing to do with job performance. According to Midwest New Media, If a candidate with a fluent standard

American accent is preferred for a receptionist position while candidates with Chinese or Spanish accents are turned down, the recruiter may be involved in unlawful discrimination by displaying a bias against accents associated with some national origins. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination and to eliminate illegal discrimination in employment. The EEOC is dedicated not just to overcoming discrimination in employment through strategic law enforcement, but also attempting to prevent employment discrimination through education and outreach, ensuring that both members of the public and employers and other covered entities are aware of their rights and how to prevent, address and resolve discrimination in the workplace. According to EEOC.gov, The Commission has long recognized that, as part of these outreach and education initiatives, we must reach out to all segments of the nation's workforce, including the many workers who read and speak languages other than English and may not be fluent in it. Is it important to educate the world and not only in the US that linguistic discrimination is closely linked to discrimination of national origin, and it is illegal for workplaces to not select or hire someone just based on the accent of the candidate.

References:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Language Access Plan. U.S. Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2022, from

https://www.eeoc.gov/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-language-access-

plan

Language discrimination. Legal Aid at Work. (2018, December 10). Retrieved March 22,

2022, from https://legalaidatwork.org/factsheet/language-discrimination/

Midwest New Media, L. L. C.- http://www.midwestnewmedia.com- (513) 742-9150. (n.d.).

Workplace fairness. Language Discrimination. Retrieved March 22, 2022, from

https://www.workplacefairness.org/language-discrimination#1