The Relationship of Racial Identity and Language in American Ideology

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the concepts of racial identity and language in the American linguistic ideology, which are most clearly reflected in the changes in the racial classification and scenarios of the US census. Racial identity cultivated in the United States is a legacy of hegemonic ideology and implies the legal and social division of people with differences into different races. Linguistic ideologies have influenced the legitimization of racial categories and their integration into the structure of American identity. The immigration and citizenship debate has played a key role in the formalization and reformalization of American races. The use of the language-race ligament, traditional for the American racial and linguistic ideology of the 19th century and using the concept of the mother language to identify races, in practice turned out to be difficult due to the objective difficulty of determining the mother language of a person. In parallel with the use of language as an indicator of race, the connection between language and national identity was strengthened, reinforced by the three-part ideological construct “White race – English language – American identity”. The ideological link between national identity and Anglo-Saxon racial identity has led to changes in immigration policy and calls for racial restrictions on immigration. In the ever-changing classification of races, language has invariably been an important component of individual identity and has played a key role in shaping racial categories. Today, the ideological basis for differences between groups is not physical, but cultural characteristics. This transition led to the emergence of a new discourse of marginalization: the responsibility for socioeconomic oppression rests with the oppressed themselves, ostensibly unwilling to accept the cultural values and behaviors that lead to social and economic success.