Dialect and our Society

To me a dialect is an informal version of a main, formal language. An example is how Spanish is spoken different in Spain than it is in Mexico. I think this could mean English has a lot of dialects. A dialect usually results because of regional differences. I think Southern-English, Northern-English, Black English, street talk, etc. are all examples of dialect. They all are English and all have the same grammatical rules for writing but speak different. A reason I would consider this dialect is because of the noticeable difference there is within these sub-culture's languages. The man who called about housing advertising using an African American, Hispanic, and Standard English accent proved the relevance dialect has in our culture today. It is sad that dialect creates such racism and discrimination.

To be completely honest I didn't realize linguistic profiling was such a prevalent issue. When I watched the video "Do You Speak American?" I was shocked and disturbed. I did not realize that people would discriminate against your race just based off of the sound of your voice. There is the question of why they are doing it; is it for their business so that no one moves out when one moves in, or is it just because they themselves are racist? I don't think many people are just that outright racist and wouldn't give you the house because they had a problem with another race. I think the real issue is the neighborhood and who is already in it. I can understand how the realtor wouldn't want to cause more to move out based on one moving in but this just proves that racism is never going to end. It is always there, we can push it down and suppress it, but something will happen that will bring it back up. This is not a problem with a realtor; it is a problem with our society.