Volume 2.2 - Discrimination - Spring 1998

Title: Language and Social Policy: An Analysis of Forces That Drive Official Language Politics in the United States

Author: Rodney K Hopson, Paul E Green, Carol Camp Yeakey, Jeanita W Richardson, and Tracey A. Reed

Abstract: This essay examines the current language politics in the United States amidst significant educational, social, political, and economic change. The discussion suggests that explaining the larger, brooder forces and ideologies that drive official language politics is a prerequisite for understanding the history and context of language tensions and debates in this country. Within a framework that presumes that language politics, in school's and the public sector, function as part of a more general process of social reproduction and cultural hegemony, we argue that social inequalities and disparities have been camouflaged in much of the recent language policy debates and decisions. Historical patterns in America reveal that race/ethnicity, class, privilege, and identity issues have always played a role in language politics. By juxtaposing the birth of the recent official language movement with the influence of the Reagan administration, we reveal that contemporary language politics are not in fact enigmatic, but a predictable result of the impending socioeconomic and political cleavage between the "haves" and the "have nots" in the United States.

About the Author: Rodney K. Hopson is an assistant professor of Education at Duquesne University. Paul E. Gren is an assistant professor of Urban Policy and Politics at the University of California at Riverside. Carol Camp Yeakey is a Professor of Urban Policy and Chair of the Graduate Programs in Policy Studies at the University of Virginia. Jeanita W. Richardson is a doctoral candidate in the same department. Tracey A. Reed is an assistant professor of Educational Policy at Ohio University.

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