Not All of Us?

Picture 8National Public Radio’s “Code Switch” team has posted some pretty interesting stories, I think, but it nonetheless seems to perpetuate a notion of code switching as a very specific sort of move, the possession of just a select few strategic actors, rather than seeing it basically as synonymous with being any social actor.

For example, as part of their FAQs they post the following:

Picture 4Only “many of us”…? Isn’t it something we all do, all the time — from sitting up just a little straighter when the job interviewer walks into the room to how we address our friends as opposed to Aunt Edna, or even the difference between writing an essay as opposed to a shopping list.

So what’s at stake in not going that little extra distance, Code Switch team, to see it as universal?

You’ll learn more at Lehigh University when
the Edge comes to town in a week.

 

 

 

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