1 1 1 Intervention Discrimination and Employment Name School Ling 472 Professor Intervention Discrimination and Employment Discrimination is an everyday reality where we face all sources of discrimination at the workplace or as we walk in the streets. This does not mean it is right for people to be discriminated against. There are different forms of discrimination, like linguistic discrimination. Linguistic discrimination is discrimination based on accent. It is the unjust treatment of people based on their native language or other aspects of their linguist abilities (Craft et al., 2020). It is the unfair treatment of a person based on the characteristics of their speech, such as accent, vocabulary size, and syntax. Linguistic discrimination can explain the huge differences in employment gaps among different races in the United States. Minority races face discrimination when seeking employment opportunities due to their linguistic abilities. The unemployment rate of African Americans is 11.4% in 2020 due to discrimination based on their accent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). Awareness-raising is an intervention that can help reduce discrimination against others based on their accent. Awareness Raising Raising awareness is one of the oldest forms of trying to change the behavior of society. It involves educating the people while trying to initiate change through behavioral and attitude change. In most cases, people believe in something based on their knowledge over the years, including being passed on from parents or guardians. Most of the time, the knowledge may be wrong but has an adverse impact on the attitude and behavior of the person. Their knowledge of something having passed down generations may not reflect the true picture of the subject or issue. Therefore, raising awareness tries to change the person's attitude, beliefs, and behavior by informing them and educating them on the topic or issue. The new knowledge gained by the person is supposed to influence their attitude and behavior. This will lead to having new ideologies which are true. Raising awareness can be a successful initiative when well planned and implemented. Raising awareness can be used as an advocacy tool to help in convincing policy makers of the urgency of a certain issue. Raising awareness can be used to help educate people about topics or issues and encourage them to participate in bringing change (Voirol et al., 2021). There are two thoughts behind raising awareness. The two thoughts can effectively bring change to the society facing an issue. The current issue of discrimination can be fought by raising awareness. Very few people can define discrimination based on the accent of the person. This is because explaining this form of discrimination is a complex process. Those who discriminate against others based on their accents mostly do it out of fear. Therefore, the intervention is to help educate thos ...

1. 1
1
1
Intervention Discrimination and Employment
Name
School
Ling 472
Professor

2. Intervention Discrimination and Employment
Discrimination is an everyday reality where we face all sources
of discrimination at the workplace or as we walk in the streets.
This does not mean it is right for people to be discriminated
against. There are different forms of discrimination, like
linguistic discrimination. Linguistic discrimination is
discrimination based on accent. It is the unjust treatment of
people based on their native language or other aspects of their
linguist abilities (Craft et al., 2020). It is the unfair treatment of
a person based on the characteristics of their speech, such as
accent, vocabulary size, and syntax. Linguistic discrimination
can explain the huge differences in employment gaps among
different races in the United States. Minority races face
discrimination when seeking employment opportunities due to
their linguistic abilities. The unemployment rate of African
Americans is 11.4% in 2020 due to discrimination based on
their accent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). Awareness -
raising is an intervention that can help reduce discrimination
against others based on their accent. Awareness Raising
Raising awareness is one of the oldest forms of trying to change

3. the behavior of society. It involves educating the people while
trying to initiate change through behavioral and attitude change.
In most cases, people believe in something based on their
knowledge over the years, including being passed on from
parents or guardians. Most of the time, the knowledge may be
wrong but has an adverse impact on the attitude and behavior of
the person. Their knowledge of something having passed down
generations may not reflect the true picture of the subject or
issue. Therefore, raising awareness tries to change the person's
attitude, beliefs, and behavior by informing them and educating
them on the topic or issue. The new knowledge gained by the
person is supposed to influence their attitude and behavior. This
will lead to having new ideologies which are true.
Raising awareness can be a successful initiative when well
planned and implemented. Raising awareness can be used as an
advocacy tool to help in convincing policy makers of the
urgency of a certain issue. Raising awareness can be used to
help educate people about topics or issues and encourage them
to participate in bringing change (Voirol et al., 2021). There are
two thoughts behind raising awareness. The two thoughts can
effectively bring change to the society facing an issue.
The current issue of discrimination can be fought by raising
awareness. Very few people can define discrimination based on
the accent of the person. This is because explaining this form of
discrimination is a complex process. Those who discriminate
against others based on their accents mostly do it out of fear.
Therefore, the intervention is to help educate those who are
unaware that discriminating against others based on their accent
is wrong and can hurt their employment opportunities. Some of
those discriminated against due to their accents are highly
qualified. Companies may miss out on the best talent due to this
form of discrimination. The education should be about how
minority communities suffer from this type of discrimination
due to a lack of employment opportunities. The Goal of Raising
Awareness
The main goal of raising awareness on the issue of linguistic

4. discrimination and its impact on employment is to educate the
people. People make better choices when they know what can
aid in decision-making. They can make better decisions when
they are made aware of aspects that can aid them. The educati on
will help change attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs (Ones, 2005).
They will start shunning the vice of discrimination and embrace
better beliefs and attitudes.
It is difficult to change the habit of the public, especially when
dealing with an issue that is deeply rooted. However, raising
awareness aims at achieving long-lasting behavioral changes
among the people. Reaching out to the public regularly will
make people aware that discrimination is a problem that needs
solving. This will not be easy as discrimination campaigns have
run for over fifty years, yet the issue is still rampant. The public
must be educated on the adverse long-term impact of linguistic
discrimination on employment. Target Audience
One of the reasons why discrimination has been rampant is
because some of the fears of discrimination have been passed
down from generations. Breaking the cycle will help stop the
issue of linguistic discrimination and its impact on employment.
The target audience will be two generations, millennials and
generation Z. These two generations are tech-savvy and
different from each other. They are in management and can be
used to effect change in their companies as they help end
linguistic discrimination. They can be used to break the cycle
and enable the longterm solution to the issue of discrimination.
The support of the millennials will be required as they are the
more mature audience. Resources
Some of the resources needed will include human, technical,
financial, and material. Human resources are the most effective
in advocacy. People are supposed to play a key role in
influencing others. This will be done through education.
Therefore, human resources should be able to educate the
masses on the issue. Some of them should be tech-savvy to help
in setting systems to be used. The use of technology will help in
reaching huge numbers of people. A resource center is needed

5. to help in collecting data on the impact of linguistic racism on
employment. The data should show how minority races,
especially those with accents not regarded as standard American
English, are discriminated against. Media to be Used
Over the years, several mediums have been used to raise
awareness. Some of the most common and popular include
newspapers, articles, television, and radio. New spaper and
writing articles are the oldest forms still being used today. They
involve writing about the topic or issue and educating the
people. Television and radio have been effective as they allow
engaging the audience on the topic and issue. When the
audience is engaged, they can learn new things, which
effectively influence behavioral and attitude change. The
various advancements in technology like the internet and social
media present other forms of mediums to raise advocacy.
Social media is the most popular form of media, growing
extraordinarily over the last decade. More people are active on
social media today than there were five years ago. It is
estimated that in 2020, there will be 3.6 billion active social
media users (Statista, 2021). This is a big crowd to be engaged
with when raising awareness on the current issues. The choice
of social media as a medium of engaging the people matches the
audience's choice. Millennials and
Generation Z are active members of social media tools, making
it easier to raise awareness.
Social media tools have also grown, making it easier to contact
people.
Social media can create a platform for sharing stories, and
photos, providing facts and data, engaging the audience, and
helping them understand (Wu et al., 2018). The use of social
media will help create a community around the issue. The
public will be made aware of the issue with stories being shared
by the victims, data and facts being shared, and the audience is
engaged. Those who do not understand the issue are given a
chance to ask questions and understand the issue to help break
the cycle.

6. The use of hashtags has proved to be popular over the years in
raising awareness. The hashtag #endlinguisticdiscrimination can
ensure more people understand linguistic discrimination and its
impact on employment opportunities. The hashtag can be used
on all the social media tools to raise awareness of the issue.
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are among the most popular
social media tools.
References
Craft, J. T., Wright, K. E., Weissler, R. E., & Queen, R. M.
(2020). Language and discrimination: Generating meaning,
perceiving identities, and discriminating outcomes. Annual
Review of Linguistics, 6, 389-407.
Ones, D. S. (2005). Personality at work: Raising awareness and
correcting misconceptions. Human Performance, 18(4), 389-
404.
Statista. (2021). Social Media & User Generated Content.
Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/markets/424/topic/540/social -media-
user-generatedcontent/#overview
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Labor Force

7. Characteristics based on Race and Ethnicity, 2020. Retrieved
from https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-
andethnicity/2020/home.htm
Voirol, C., Pelland, M. F., Lajeunesse, J., Pelletier, J., Duplain,
R., Dubois, J., ... & Audetat, M.
C. (2021). How Can We Raise Awareness of Physician’s Needs
in Order to Increase
Adherence to Management and Leadership Training?. Journal of
Healthcare Leadership, 13, 109.
Wu, Y., Xie, L., Huang, S. L., Li, P., Yuan, Z., & Liu, W.
(2018). Using social media to strengthen public awareness of
wildlife conservation. Ocean & Coastal
Management, 153, 76-83.
LING 472: Social Justice Final Paper
Due Thursday, May 10, 12:30pm, Dropbox,
Now that you have developed an understanding on the injustice
you researched about, and have proposed some interventions, it
is time to take ACTION. For this portion of the project, asks
you to present a FULL REPORT where you explain the injustice
you researched about, and exercise your own agency to enact
linguistic justice. In doing so, you will combine material from
the Injustice Write-up, Intervention paper and your
reflection/understanding of social justice and its relationship to
language.
Your final paper should be around 4,500-5,000 words (you may
extend, inf necessary). You should include ALL the feedback
you obtained (both from me and your peers). Your final report
should include the following sections and labeled as such.
Title
Prelude (5 points)
· A personal short definition of social justice and its relation to
language
· Feel free to also add a couple of inspirational quotes from
activists or community members that have and continue to work

8. towards a just world.
Injustice (30 points)
· Describe (in detail) the injustice that you investigated about in
your injustice write up and explain why it is important to
address it.
· Remember that this section should at least address 3 major
points (e.g., history, people, power structures, ideologies, etc.)
· Use subsections addressing the different major points (you can
divide this as you please)
Previous Interventions (10 points)
· This section should describe interventions that have been
proposed or executed. Explain which of these interventions have
worked, and what aspects of the intervention have still fallen
short. What else is there to do?
· You researched some of this for your Injustice Section as well
as your Intervention Draft.
The goal here is to have a short separate section that will make
your paper more coherent.
Proposed Interventions (40 points)
· Provide a detailed account of the proposed interventions. If
you chose option 1, please, divide them into 3 subsections
1. Awareness-raising / educational projects
2. Policy change (organization policy and/or law)
3. Mutual aid and/or direct action
· Explain the goals and methodologies of your proposed
intervention(s):
· What specific aspect of the injustice is this intervention
designed to target? o Why this intervention in particular? (Why
do you believe it will be effective?) o What kinds of resources
would be needed for this intervention?
· Who is the target audience? Whose support will it be
necessary to ensure?
· If relevant, you may also want to describe a specific group or

9. organization you want to work with for one or all of your
proposed interventions.
· Although these are individually-authored papers, justice is
rarely accomplished alone. Most lasting social change is
accomplished in community settings. If your proposal involves
working with a community, make sure to do some research on
existing linguistic interventions in that community before you
start designing your own. Instead of trying to reinvent the
wheel, thing about how you could best plug into or support
existing projects – including selecting particular organizations
or individuals with whom you might work – and make sure to
include this information in your proposal.
· Optional
· Any reach out material you created (TikTok videos, Instagram
slide deck, Twitter posts, Flyers)
· Additionally, you could also include a lesson plan (if working
within education). o This optional material may replace a full
page of the proposal itself and you can send it to me as “mock-
up draft” for me to give you feedback on. Please note that this
mock-up should actually include a meaningful amount of
content – i.e., it shouldn’t just be an illustration or logo without
any words.
Conclusion (10 points)
· In 1 paragraph o Briefly mention the injustice being addressed
(1-2 sentences) o Briefly summarize the proposed interventions
· Briefly summarize which of the three proposals you plan or
are likely to take on in the reasonable short future and why
· In another 1 paragraph, acknowledge the ways in which your
peers have influenced your thinking on this project.
· The most helpful suggestions you received during class
brainstorming session as well as peer feedback sessions, and
who those reviewers were
· What changes you made to your initial drafts and in what
capacity has your paper improved.

10. References (5 points)
of cited sources using APA.
2
Linguistic Injustice: Discrimination and Employment
Name
Linguistic 472
Professor
Date
Linguistic Injustice: Discrimination and Employment
The United States has a population of 331,893,745 based on the

11. estimates for 2021 (United States Census Bureau, 2021). The
population is broken down into different races where 76.3% are
whites, 18.5% are Hispanics, 13.4% are African American, and
5.9% are Asians. These are the major races in the United States.
The data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that other races
make up 23.7% of the total population. This means people with
accents not considered standard American accents are more than
15% of the general population. This can be used o explain why
the unemployment rate of other races, like Africa Americans, is
higher than that of the whites. The unemployment rate of
African Americans in 2020 was 11.4% (U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2021). Speaking with an accent that is not considered
a standard American accent can lead to discrimination creating
unequal employment opportunities. This has been a problem in
the U.S. as people are discriminated against based on their
accents. This impacts employment opportunities and other
aspects like wages, growth opportunities at the organization,
and others. African-American Vernacular English, or Black
English, has also grown in controversy impacting employment
opportunities for African Americans. The different African
dialects heavily influence African Americans. This has led to
the high unemployment rates of African Americans as people
link negative stereotypes to the race they think the person’s
accent is from. This paper will look at discrimination based on
language while focusing on African Americans and show the
various legal remedies in Title VII of the Civil Act of 1964.
Discrimination And Unemployment
Discrimination is defined as the unjust treatment of people and
groups based on characteristics like race, age, sexual
orientation, or gender. Discrimination is an everyday reality as
people face discrimination at the workplace and even as they
walk the streets. Explaining why discrimination is rampant is a
complex process. In most scenarios, the origin of discrimination
is fear and misunderstanding. The human brain becomes fully
developed by the age of twenty-five. However, even before
being fully developed, it can put various categories of the

12. world. A person can distinguish the various differences between
white or black persons or boys and girls at a young age. The
young person's values on these differences are learned from the
parents, peers, teachers, or others.
Discrimination is a public health issue. An American survey in
2015 showed that people who faced discrimination had an
increase in their stress levels compared to those who had not
faced discrimination (APA, 2015). The employment inequities
in the United States can be blamed on discrimination. There are
huge gaps in employment opportunities for the different races in
the U.S. A. African Americans make up 13.4% of the population
in the United States. The statistics show they have to pose a
high caliber of professionalism when seeking employment.
Being one of the minority aces in the nations, they exhibit a
lower power in the corporate sector. However, even when they
are qualified for some of these employment opportunities, they
face discrimination based on their race. Data from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021) shows that the unemployment
rate of African Americans is 11.4%. In most cases, they face
discrimination based on their accent.
Linguistic Discrimination
Linguistic discrimination is discrimination based on accent. It is
the unjust treatment of people based on their native language or
other aspects of their linguist abilities. Craft et al. (2020)
suggest that language discrimination is a subset of national
discrimination in the definition of language discrimination. It is
the unfair treatment of a person based on the characteristics of
their speech, such as accent, vocabulary size, and syntax. This
type of discrimination focuses on the person’s speech style
ignoring their appearance. Language-focused discrimination is
part of the social structure in America, which maintains that
African Americans are inferior to whites (Henderson, 2001).
African Americans have different accents based on the different
regions or countries in Africa. Africa has more than fifty
countries, each with different dialects that impact the person's
English. The neighborhoods of African Americans also impact

13. their English. African Americans are denied employment
opportunities because they speak English with an African
accent. They are subjected to discrimination or treated less
favorably because they speak English with an African accent.
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is systematically
rooted in history and is an identity marker for its speakers
(Rickford et al., 2015). AAVE resembles other vernaculars like
Appalachian English as an identity marker for the speaker.
Language is usually influenced by exposure, social identity, and
peer group influence. The speech patterns are shaped by their
family, regional, and social environment. This would explain
why immigrants from non-speaking countries at a young age can
speak English with the same proficiency as those born in the
U.S. while their parents cannot. AAVE is the most vernacular
variety in the United States and can trigger discrimination at the
workplace, schools, and others like the other vocabularies.
There have been many studies on discrimination, with most
being able to show how regional differences contribute to
stereotypes. Henderson (2001) was able to show how speech
patterns can significantly contribute to a person's wages,
especially for African Americans. Others have shown how the
same language patterns will impact employment opportunities
for African Americans. Some employers will try to place the
accent on the different African countries. Workers with regional
and racial distinctive speech patterns earn lower wages than
those who speak in the mainstream (Politzer-Ahles et al., 2016).
African Americans will have wage differences based on a
sorting model. African Americans who have mainstream accents
will be given jobs involving intensive interactions with
customers and earn sizable wages. The others will be denied
employment opportunities, or if they are luckily given such
opportunities, they will be given low jobs with minimal
interactions with customers and co-workers. The wages will
also be minimal compared to other African Americans with
mainstream accents. This is the same with hiring managers,
where pronunciation differences will determine whether one

14. will be hired as a manager (Henderson, 2001).
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the
federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws against
workplace discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) was established by Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 to enforce federal laws that prohibit
employment discrimination at the workplace and to eliminate
illegal discrimination of employment. The commission strives to
eliminate discrimination in employment through law
enforcement. It also offers education and outreach intending to
prevent employee discrimination. The commission strives to
ensure the members of the public, employers, and other
stakeholders are aware of their rights and how to prevent,
address, and resolve discrimination in the workplace.
EEOC has long recognized the need to reach 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
(EEOC.gov, n.d.). The commission aims to educate the world
that linguistic discrimination is linked to discrimination based
on national origin. This shows that hiring, firing, and promoting
workers is illegal based on their accents. The United States
workforce has grown extensively over forty-eight years, making
it more diverse. Therefore, there is a need to educate employers
and provide technical capabilities to eradicate the issue of
linguistic discrimination or any other form of discrimination.
Title VII of the CIVIL Rights Act of 1964 is a group of federal
laws that protect people from discrimination based on various
aspects like race, national origin, disability, and gender.
Linguistic discrimination is looked upon as a form of national
origin discrimination. The Act shows that national origin
discrimination is illegal, with many courts and federal agencies
able to enforce this law. Language is tied to where the person
comes making it possible for courts and government agencies to
rule that linguistic discrimination is a type of national origin
discrimination. Therefore, the federal law, Title VII of the Civil

15. Rights Act, offers a remedy against linguistic discrimination as
it is closely linked to national origin discrimination.
Since the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the
number of immigrants, women, people of color, and older
people have entered the workforce has increased. The number of
those who have advanced into managerial positions has also
increased. These changes in demographics have created
opportunities and challenges for EEOC. The commission had
had to address new forms of discrimination, including people
and groups that speak languages that were rarely heard in the
U.S. when Title VII of the Civil Act was passed in 1964
(EEOC.gov, n.d.).
Conclusion
Linguistic discrimination is a major problem in the United
States. This form of discrimination involves discrimination of a
person based on the characteristics of their speech, such as
accent, size of vocabulary, and syntax (Craft et al. 2020).
African Americans have borne the problem of linguistic
discrimination with problems of accessing employment
opportunities, lower-wage gaps, and growth opportunities in
organizations due to their different accents. The emergence of
Black English in the 70s also increased the problem of
linguistic discrimination. Studies have shown that the use of
black English in the workplace is detrimental to growth
opportunities in the organization (Jackson, 2011). The U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the unemployment
rate for African Americans is higher than for other races. Most
of this can be attributed to racial and linguistic discr imination.
EEOC offers a remedy against linguistic discrimination based
on Title VII of the civil rights Act of 1964. EEOC has
recognized the changes in the American workplace with an
increase in diversity. They have made various changes like the
education of employers and employees on linguistic
discrimination as the number of non-Engli speaking immigrants
increases.

16. References
American Psychological Association. (2019, October
31). Discrimination: What it is, and how to
cope. https://www.apa.org/topics/racism-bias-
discrimination/types-stress
Craft, J. T., Wright, K. E., Weissler, R. E., & Queen, R. M.
(2020). Language and discrimination: Generating meaning,
perceiving identities, and discriminating outcomes. Annual
Review of Linguistics, 6, 389-407.
Henderson, Anita. (2001). Is your money where your mouth is?
Hiring managers' attitudes toward African-American Vernacular
English.
Jackson, Kanika Nicole. (2011). Speaking the part - is black
English in the workplace a detriment to climbing the corporate
ladder? A sociolinguistic study regarding black English in the
workplace. Wayne State University Theses. Paper 124.
Politzer-Ahles, S., Holliday, J. J., Girolamo, T., Spychalska,
M., & Berkson, K. H. (2016). Is linguistic injustice a myth? A
response to Hyland (2016). Journal of second language

17. writing, 34, 3.
Rickford, J. R., Duncan, G. J., Gennetian, L. A., Gou, R. Y.,
Greene, R., Katz, L. F., Kessler, R. C., Kling, J. R.,
Sanbonmatsu, L., Sanchez-Ordoñez, A. E., Sciandra, M.,
Thomas, E., & Ludwig, J. (2015). Neighborhood effects on the
use of African-American Vernacular English. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 112(38), 11817–11822.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500176112
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Labor Force
Characteristics based on Race and Ethnicity, 2020. Retrieved
from https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-
ethnicity/2020/home.htm
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission Language Access Plan.
Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/equal-employment-
opportunity-commission-language-access-plan