Sociolinguistics

    Due to the importance of language to the very nature of mankind, it is not surprising that linguistical study can be applied in many places one would not expect. This is where John Rickford's Paper on the relationship between the African American community and sociolinguistics comes in. The most interesting part of this paper for me was when he went over how linguistics can help shed light on the actual discrimination that the community is subjected to when he talked specifically about the issues of lack of representation in linguistics however I felt like he was taking a much larger issue that effects much of academia and specifying the issue to linguistics. That said, I felt that he did have a point that his field has relied largely on AAVE to develop more general theories of linguistics and therefore might have a greater burden on his field in particular.

This is not to say that linguists should "excis[e] references to 'bitches' and other misogynistic postur-ing" from their studies of the dialect but instead that they should expand their coverage of these terms in studies of other languages. All patriarchal societies (ie  almost all societies) have some kinds of misogynistic language excluding it from study is a loss from linguistics, not a gain even if it is overstudied in regards to AAVE it still exists. Instead, in order to give back to the community linguists should follow Rickford's second advice and investigate the linguistical aspects of oppression of African-Americans such as discrimination against certain dialects in hiring practices and employing teachers who speak AAVE.