Summary Of Language, Race, And White Public Space By Jane Hill

In this paper, my main goal is to provide an ‘argument mapping’ of Jane H. Hill’s article ‘Language, Race, and White Public Space.’ Firstly, I will present what I believe to be the articles main argument as well as linking it to the different pieces of evidence provided. I will then explain how these claims are interrelated into a larger argument structure. Throughout my paper, I will define the various terms provided to make her main argument clearer. In my understanding, there are two strong ethnographic facts with four supporting ethnographic facts and two weak ethnographic facts. Hill then goes on to provide a general ethnographic explanation. Jane Hill’s main focus is on the ‘elevation of whiteness’ from ‘Mock Spanish’ through direct indexicality of negative and racializing slurs. It consists of the orderliness of language and how these boundaries are necessary. Throughout the article, she cites multiple scholars to back up her claims focusing on the racial aspect of Mock Spanish. She makes six claims
Hill goes on to state that those who speak English in public with an accent are looked down upon more so than if they spoke their native language. Meanwhile, their white counterparts seem educated and well rounded when they speak Spanish in public, no matter how grammatically incorrect they are speaking. The other three claims are: Mock Spanish euphemisms, its “vulgar racist discourse,” and its “elements of heterogeneity.” Examples of these claims would be accompanying the suffix –o to Spanish words to create phrases like “el cheap-o.” This interrelates to the second claim in that using Spanish to say this phrase would demonstrate that most Spanish speaking persons are cheap. All three of these claims correlate with each other because it creates a space where a Spanish speaking person would desire