In fact, it’s one of the last ways it’s acceptable to be racist.
Dialect discrimination doesn’t just have an impact on people in the housing market. It also affects how likely you are to be believed when it’s most important: in the justice system. A 2016 paper by John R. Rickford and Sharese King argues that George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the Trayvon Martin murder case was based in part on linguistic discrimination. Jurors described the prosecution’s star witness, Rachel Jeantel, as “hard to understand” and “not credible” because she spoke AAVE. Her testimony was not mentioned once in the more than 16 hours of jury deliberations, which no doubt contributed to Zimmerman’s acquittal.
Linguistic prejudice also harms children in the educational system, where nonstandard English may be judged unintelligent or lazy. This has lasting impacts, as teachers put these children in less challenging classes and expect poorer performance from them, which is often a self-fulfilling prophecy.