The Racialized World System and Colorblind Sociolinguistics:The Non-Declining Significance of Race as an Analytical Concept

Abstract

The systemization of US sociolinguistics, having a great influence on Nippon’s sociolinguistics, began in 1964 as a collaborative effort between linguistics and sociology. At the time, US social sciences provided a scientific rationale that helped maintain the existing world system—a neocolonial system of exploitation and oppression structured along racial lines, principally led by the US and its West European allies. Sociolinguistic research was initiated primarily by white interests investigating non-white groups within and outside of the US—groups which aimed to liberate themselves from white domination. However, white sociolinguists and their non-white counterparts who unconsciously or inadvertently adopted white discourse, avoided using race as an analytical concept for examining the relationship between racial exploitation and oppression and language structure and use, problems, and planning. Instead, they substituted ethnicity or ethnic group for race. This influence can be felt in Nipponese sociolinguistics. Contemporary Nippon’s sociolinguistics may not appropriately address the interactive process of exploitation and oppression and language structure and use, problems, and planning within the world system racialized by the US and its Western allies. This paper examines four sociolinguistics journals published in Nippon to see how often, and in what ways, race is used as an analytical concept, and how such usage helps conceal the racialized process.