Disadvantages Of Linguistic Profiling

Denise Gutierrez

Professor Buchanan

English 73x

21 February 2017

Judgment

People are not only discriminated by their race and gender but also on the way one may speak. Judging someone base on their ethnicity or gender voice is called linguistic profiling. Linguistic profiling can be a benefit or a disadvantage depending on the situation.

Linguistic profiling often happens over the phone. Author Patrica Rice, from linguistic profiling tells us how one individual goes through this discrimination when he tries to buy a house. Baugh himself writes, "I could do a comedy routine about reactions and what they didn't say... ‘Oh we didn't know you were black on the phone" (189). In other words, he was rejected by a real estate agent because of ethnicity.

In stating this, Lopez is reminding us that because of not being able to speak fluently in Spanish she was an outcast and looked down on because of her ethnicity. I don't speak fluent Spanish and I'm constantly judged by my father who is a native Spanish speaker. There's times when I'm too embarrassed to have a conversation with him because if I mispronounce a word or can't say a specific word he'll call me out on it and tell me "how are you Mexican". The judgment not only comes from my dad but from others as well. I've learned to get used to it because the fact is, I’m a Latina and proud of my ethnicity and if someone doesn’t like that it should be their problem not mine.Although I don’t care if people think I’m not a true Mexican for not being a fluent speaker, it can be a big disadvantage because it can cause a loss of job

You’re not just learning the words of things or actions, you’re becoming much more aware of other values, perspective and beliefs. According to Mickey Gast, Studies have shown “Being exposed to different ways of speaking about and understand the world will make you more open to the idea that your view of the world is just that: your view of the world. Rather than being fixed and absolute, you will become more aware of variety perspectives” (Gast). Gast point is that, the more things you are exposed to, the greater chance you have at being more open-minded rather than those who don’t expose themselves to the world.

You also gain the chance to communicate with other people from around the world. You can learn from one another. Along the way you may even learn about your own culture, it gives you the chance to step out of your comfort zone, to see your cultures traditions and customs from someone else point of view. Author, Henry Boye quotes, "The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway". This quote speaks for itself, it’s not about the trip you take, but the people you meet along the