Discourses of Bilingualism: Facebooking in the Margins -- Generating Sexist, Classist, and Racist Backlash

This session will focus on sexist, classist and racist Facebook discussions about bilinguals and bilingualism. Feminist and critical discourse analyses inform analytic lenses for identifying and making sense of peoples’ attitudes, ideological penchants and the possibilities for having an informed dialog regarding concepts about dialog participants. Two research questions guide the study: How can unlike-minded people come to some agreement or consensus about a highly controversial issue like bilingualism in the United States? To what degree is attempting to converse with people from different political persuasions a worthwhile endeavor in light of polarized tensions in the United States