Talking College Making Space for Black Language Practices in Higher Education

Talking College shows that language is fundamental to Black and African American culture and that linguistic justice is crucial to advancing racial justice, both on college campuses and throughout society. Writing from a linguistics-informed, Black-centered educational framework, the authors draw extensively on Black college students’ lived experiences to present key ideas about African American English and Black language practices. The text presents a model of how Black students navigate the linguistic expectations of college. Grounded in real-world examples of Black undergraduates attending colleges and universities across the United States, the model illustrates the linguistic and cultural balancing acts that arise as Black students work to develop their full linguistic selves. Talking College provides Black students with the knowledge they need to make sense of anti-Black linguistic racism and to make decisions about their linguistic experiences in college. It also offers key insights to help college faculty and staff create the liberating and linguistically just educational community that Black students deserve.

Book Features:

• Weaves together information and approaches drawn from the authors’ extensive experience working with Black and other students of color in higher education.
• Provides an up-to-date discussion of Black language practices and their role in Black students’ college experiences.
• Discusses the racial politics of language, including anti-Black linguistic racism and the struggle for linguistic justice as part of racial justice.
• Offers a detailed model of Black college students’ diverse linguistic and racial identities.
• Outlines concrete steps toward racial and linguistic justice that students and faculty can take today.
• Accessible to students and faculty without a background in linguistics, while also engaging and informative for linguistics scholars.