Racialization and language policy: The case of the U. S. A.

Employing critical discourse analysis, this paper interrogates the question of whether it is racist to pursue an English-only language policy in the contemporary ideological context of the United States. This question has generated heated controversy in the United States for over two decades. Proponents of bilingualism or linguistic pluralism often charge that English-only advocates are motivated by racial animosity and that their English-only program is aimed at keeping racialized minorities subordinated and excluded from the country's civil society and public domains. Official English advocates are adamant in their denunciations of these charges, claiming that their program of linguistic assimilation is inclusive and egalitarian, while it is the false goal of 'bilingualism' that is responsible for maintaining ethno-linguistic social stratification in the United States. The paper goes beyond the contentious question of the subjective motivations behind language policy proposals to examine the discursive social context in which language policy might be systematically linked to societal processes of racialization through ideology. The analysis points toward the conclusion that a policy of bilingualism has distinct advantages over a policy of English-only in trying to undermine U. S. racialization processes through language policy.