I Wonder What They Think Of Latin

On Monday, The Daily Caller posted an article about some recent insanity at one of our college campuses.

The article reports:

An “antiracist” poster in a college writing center insists American grammar is “racist” and an “unjust language structure,” promising to prioritize rhetoric over “grammatical ‘correctness.’”

The poster, written by the director, staff, and tutors of the University of Washington, Tacoma’s Writing Center, states “racism is the normal condition of things,” declaring that it permeates rules, systems, expectations, in courses, school and society.

Sounds like a junior high student who is tired of diagramming sentences.

The article further reports:

In an article accompanying the poster, the University of Washington, Tacoma revealed Friday that Dr. Asao Inoue, director of the writing center, is behind the new push for social justice.

On his Tacoma faculty page, Inoue states that he does “research that investigates racism in writing assignments.” Meanwhile, the professor’s Twitter presence indicates no love for President Donald Trump:

“[The statement] is a great example of how we are striving to act against racism,” said Dr. Jill Purdy, Tacoma’s vice chancellor of undergraduate affairs. “Language is the bridge between ideas and action, so how we use words has a lot of influence on what we think and do.”

The Tacoma Writing Center’s prioritization of social justice over grammar resembles previous concerted efforts to legitimize incorrect speech, such as Ebonics, “inventive spelling,” and “whole language.”

The purpose of language is communication. Using ‘inventive spelling’ may actually cause your message to be misunderstood. Legitimizing incorrect speech will only make effective communication more difficult. As the article states, “Language is the bridge between ideas and action…”  However, if your language is incorrect and misunderstood, the actions resulting from that language may not be what you had in mind.

The majority of Americans speak English, and as far as I know, some degree of English is taught in our schools. Taking away correct English will not only create problems in our communication with each other, it will prevent students from reading the classic literature that forms the basis of our society. Hopefully that is not the actual goal of this particular Professor.