Linguistic policies for African American language speakers: Moving from anti-Blackness to pro-Blackness

We explore the disconnect between education policy and culturally sustaining instruction, curriculum, discipline, and assessment for African American Language (AAL) Learners. Framing the omission of language policies as linguistic violence and anti-Black linguistic racism, we discuss antecedent and contemporary educational language policies and how they negatively position AAL speakers. We demonstrate that despite substantive research on AAL, P-12 schools and teacher education programs have systematically failed to integrate language policies specific to AAL learners. We emphasize that the maintenance of anti-blackness stances has legally denied appropriate culturally sustaining language instruction for AAL speakers. We contrast current anti-Black policies and practices with a transformational, pro-Black vision and its components. Here we discuss classroom instruction, curriculum, discipline, assessment, and resources. We conclude with recommendations including the need for ongoing professional development and federal funding for culturally sustaining programs for AAL learners.