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Thework of Code Switching Religion & Theology 25 (2018) 190–207 Religion &Theology brill.com/rt The Work of Code Switching Implications for Gender and Racial Inequality in Employment Jackie Krasas Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA [email protected] Abstract Although the term “code switching” arose in linguistic contexts, its meaning has broad- ened to include shifting the use of language, interactions, appearance, and the body in all areas of social life. Uncritical applications of the concept render invisible the normative nature and power dynamics along familiar dimensions of social inequality such as gender and race. “Whiteness” and “maleness” often become cast as the neutral standards against which all else is judged and are rarely revealed as the social con- structions that they are. The result is the call for non-dominant groups to assimilate. In employment, we see this call for assimilation often under the guise of “soft skills,” with particular reference made to the needs of a postindustrial service-oriented labor mar- ket. Cast in terms of skill, the heightened demand for code switching in employment promises to reproduce and even intensify existing labor market inequalities along the lines of gender and race. Keywords code switching – work – employment – race – gender – soft skills – inequality 1 Code Switching in Linguistics Code switching is a term that has its origins in linguistics.1 Switching codes, or languages, dialects, or tones happens in a bilingual and multilingual con- text. Individuals mix language within a conversation sometimes consciously, 1 Penelope Gardner-Chloros, Code Switching (Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2009). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/15743012-02503004Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:04:02AM via free access the work of code switching 191 sometimes without thought for a variety of reasons; to better convey a thought, to persuade, to emphasize group membership, when there is no direct trans- lation for a word or concept, to evoke emotion, or to strongly make a point. For example, in a prior workplace of mine that had a large Filipino-American population, the informal rules of communication required Filipino-Americans to speak Tagalog with each other. Those who did not were seen as “stuck up.” However, workers who did not speak Tagalog were known to comment (often with an air of suspicion or irritation) that the code switching behavior was “rude” or exclusionary. It was not unusual, for example, for my friends and coworkers to switch into Tagalog temporarily while talking to me if another Filipino-American entered the conversation or interrupted with a quick ques- tion. Indeed I found this switching very confusing until one friend explained the reasoning to me. Code switching can also be observed in the phenomenon of naming a hybridized language, that is, informal mixtures of two languages (Hinglish, Franponais, Spanglish). Traveling with a group in India, I recall my Hindi speak- ing colleagues using this mixture of language in a way that eased situations that might otherwise have been difficult even though everyone started out speaking English. For example, it is always handy to have someone who can pop in and out of both languages when navigating the seating and luggage of a 9-person delegation or moving a meeting location at the last minute due to construc- tion noise. Code switching in the form of hybridized language has even made its way into advertising. A Domino’s Pizza ad in India asks, “Hungry, Kya?” Dr. Pepper uses Spanglish, “23 sabores blended into one extraordinary taste.” Code mixing is also prevalent in Hong Kong advertisements.2 2 Social/Cultural Studies and Code Switching Although discussions of code switching emanate from linguistics, code switch- ing as a concept has taken on a more expansive definition that moves well beyond its use in language.Within sociology, code switching can be understood within the broad frame of symbolic interaction, for example, with the tools of ethnomethodology or dramaturgy. Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach is exemplified by the phrase, “all the world’s a stage.”3 Specifically, code switch- 2 Chi-Hong Leung, “An Empirical Study on Code Mixing in Print Advertisements in Hong Kong,” Asian Journal of Marketing, 4 (2010): 49–61, doi:10.3923/ajm.2010.49.61. 3 Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1959). Religion & Theology 25 (2018) 190–207 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 11:04:02AM via free access 192 krasas ing is a type of impression management,4 a “front” to use Goffman’s term that can be picked up or put down as necessary. Code switching understood in this fashion highlights how we all participate in impression management as we move through the social world. Impression management includes props, dress/costume, language, voice, mannerisms, and will often vary depending on the audience. For example, my impression man- agement varies from context to context (e.g., work vs. family) and whether I am interacting with students, colleagues, family members, friends, or strangers. When I was a brand new professor at age 30, I routinely wore suits to teach class. Those who have been in my class in recent years know that this is no longer true. I might call my daughter “dude!” but I would certainly never refer to our Dean that way. Switching ranges in the degree to which it is consciously undertaken. While my example of changing work attire was a more conscious shift, other shifts are less so. When I am visiting my mother in Philadelphia, I find myself saying “wooder” instead of “water” and “dese and dose” instead of “these and those.” My examples here make it easy to understand the concept of code switch- ing, but they offer a benign perspective that is devoid of power dynamics. Code switching should not be simply understood as a discursive practice in a rela- tivistic sense. We may all code switch, but for some there is much at stake in code switching. Linguistic profiling and discrimination are real and can affect housing, employment, educational, and other opportunities.5 3 Examples in Popular Culture There are many examples of code switching in popular culture that both broaden the concept and begin to make clear the power implications. In the 1984 Saturday Night Live skit by Eddie Murphy, “White Like Me,” Eddie Mur- phy goes undercover as a white man to see if he is treated differently. In order to pass as white, Murphy dons makeup, practices “talking white” by reading Hallmark cards, and learns how to walk like a white guy, telling us that “they clench their butt cheeks real tight.” Appearance, language, voice/accent, and 4 Janet K. Swim and Charles Stangor, Prejudice: The Target’s Perspective (New York, NY: Aca- demic Press, 1998). 5 John Baugh, “Linguistic Profiling,” in Black Linguistics: Language Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas, eds. Sinfree Makoni, Geneva Smitherman, Arnetha F. Ball and Arthur K. Spears, with a foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (Abingdon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2003), 155–168. Religion & TheologyDownloaded 25 from (2018) Brill.com09/25/2021 190–207 11:04:02AM via free access the work of code switching 193 movement all contribute to the code switch. The outcome of the experiment, being given free things, makes clear that there are material consequences to code switching. Although most frequently discussed in relation to race, code switching does not only happen in racial terms. The concept is broadened further when used in relation to gender. Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star in The Birdcage, a 1996 film about a gay couple whose son is getting married to the daughter of an ultra-conservative senator.6 To impress the son’s in-laws-to-be, Lane who plays a beyond-stereotypical gay man (conflating gender and sexuality), must learn to “act like a man” so that he can pass as an uncle instead of Robin Williams’s partner. Williams coaches Lane on the finer points of masculinity with inspi- ration from John Wayne, sports banter, and how to “schmeer” bread. Language, voice, movement, and the expression of emotion are central to code switching in these scenes. Lane almost gets it right until he describes how he felt about a bad call in the Dolphins’ game, “How do you think I feel? Betrayed, bewildered … wrong response?” Although rarely explicitly labeled as such, gendered code switching is often cast as a means of self-help for women who want to succeed in business. Books advise women to avoid uptalking, to drop the word “like” from their vocabulary, to lower their pitch, to stop using qualifiers (“you know what I mean?”), and to become adept at conversational interruption especially without apology (using “I’m sorry” to introduce a thought). The book, Code Switching: How to Talk so Men Will Listen, exemplifies this genre.7 Women’s self-help books walk the line between recognizing and reifying difference and acknowledging although not disrupting power relations.8 More recently we have an abundance of popular culture examples of code switching. The National Public Radio (NPR) blog “Code Switch: Race and Iden- tity, Remixed” provides many excellent examples that include observations about President Obama (how he greets different people) and several skits from Key and Peele.9 Code switching is a theme that runs throughout Key and Peele’s comedy in skits like “Obama’s Anger Translator” and “Phone Call.” The com- edy pivots on the notion that someone (e.g., President Obama) “acts white” in 6 The Birdcage, directed by Mike Nichols (Los Angeles, CA: United Artists, 1996), https://www .imdb.com/title/tt0115685/. 7 Claire Damken Brown and Audrey Nelson, Code Switching: How to Talk So Men Will Listen (New York, NY: Alpha Books, 2009).
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