The Waiting Game
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Clarence Thomas, the only African American serving as a Supreme Court Justice, is of Gullah descent. Clarence Thomas’s childhood came from humble beginnings. Raised on the coast of Georgia in a one-bedroom hut, he was brought up in a broken family with his father walking out of the family when Clarence was 2 (World Biography). This led to him moving in with his grandfather in Savannah, South Carolina, where he attended an all-black public school. However, Clarence stood out from the rest. He exemplified extremely strong academic rigor --causing his grandpa to move him to an all-white boarding school. Despite being met with harsh racism there, he continued to work hard, eventually gaining admission and graduating from Yale Law School. Unlike many other African Americans in his time, he was known to be a strong conservative -- holding strong conservative views on legal policies. This gained him recognition and paved his way up the federal rankings, most notably being recognized by President Bush. President Bush advocated for Thomas’s position to replace Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1991 (World Biography). Thomas had done it. He defied all odds and achieved one of the world’s highest legal positions. However, even after he achieved this status, he has been famous for only speaking three times -- once in 2006, once in 2016, and once in 2019 -- in his whole service as a supreme court justice (Liptak, 2019).
This brings up the question of why? One would think, a man of such strong academic and political standing, would make himself known at the court. However, from a young age, Thomas had always exercised silence throughout his whole life. The critical reason to understanding how this shaped him lies with his education. The community he first grew up in was called “Pin Point” – a community where mostly freed slaves resided and only spoke Gullah. When he moved to Savannah at the age of six, he was scrutinized at school for his Geechee (interchangeable with the term Gullah) dialect even within the all-black community and chastised for being “lower class.” At 16, transferring to all-white school: St. John Vianney, just made matters worse. He became the only black student and faced an immense amount of racism, triggering his fear of accidentally code switching to Gullah and showing traces of his “former life” (Oyez). Thomas has said that growing up, Geechee reflected poverty and it was taught at an early age to never speak it outside of his home. However, he still carried his accent and he was so mocked for it, that he realized silence was a better alternative. This has stayed true for his whole life -- whether it be at Yale Law School or on the Supreme Court (Nesbit, 2016).
In recent years, Gullah has slowly become more accepted and revered as a beautiful symbol of American history and culture. In fact, in 2016, Charleston schools began to consider the challenges native Gullah speakers have to adjusting into the public-school system due to their school district having many of their African American students (about 1/3rd of overall student population) be of Gullah descent (*See Figure 1*) (Source: National Center for Education Statistics, 2019).
Figure 1: *Made by Author using source statistics*
According to their district survey, 50-75% of their student population have been exposed to the Gullah language and culture (Bowers, 2016). A proposal of $85,000 has been suggested in order to hire an “English for Speakers of Other languages (ESOL)” teacher for the elementary schools to help address the language barrier for Gullah speakers moving forward (Bowers, 2016). This type of education reform would reflect a transitional model and help children like Clarence Thomas feel more included in the education system rather than self-conscious of the accent that they carry. A transitional model uses the language of the minority speaker in the early years of education, but transitions to the language of wider communication as quickly as possible. This helps the student to cope with the transition to English or the language of wider communication (May, 2017). However, there has been some debate over the effectiveness of the transitional model. Scholars such as Stephen May, have argued that transitional models are not as effective due to it being modeled as a "quick exit" program that could lead to loss of retention in the speaker's L1 (subtractive bilingualism). Nonetheless a transitional model would be a step in the right direction and better than sitting back and not doing anything. Clarence Thomas grew up in the mid 60s and the stigma around the Geechee dialect has yet to be addressed and is still being noted by students in the classroom today. One student from Charleston public schools has remarked that some teachers ignore the language barrier and do not bother correcting some of their students if they turn in papers that are grammatically incorrect (Hart, 2019). Not only does this reflect a lack of support towards students struggling with English, it can lead to a viscious cycle that only enhances the stigma of Gullah people and self consciousness Gullah people may have. Having the transitional model will not only allow for the dual proficiency of bilingualism as many still speak Gullah at home, but it could also reduce the social stigmas around Gullah being a “lesser” language, and make the transition to learning English and its grammatical structure a lot easier.
This proposal would be similar to that of the one we studied in class, where the kindergarten teacher code-switches from Spanish to English (Sabo, 2019, Lec. 14). Currently, most of the transitional model education programs in the United States are Spanish and English (see example of a classroom below).
These programs serve as an example of the strength in implementing programs that help transition ESL speakers. The use of implementing code-switching between teaching allows the students to retain both their proficiency as Spanish and English speakers while maintaining the interest in multilingualism and multiculturalism. Research has shown bilingual education programs “reduces drop out and falling behind for minority language students” (Sabo, Ramirez, Lec. 14). Another thing to note has been the benefit it gives to monolingual English speakers as well. In DC, the strength in a dual language program (*important to note this is different from a transitional model, but can be a useful comparison*) is reflected by a white family as they have claimed that the program has helped them “recognize the value of access to a second language” (Williams, 2017). This two way immersion program is supported in the ESOL proposal (May, 2017). In a city like Charleston where the city is still in its slow transition to accepting Gullah, this would benefit those “on the other side” to be more understanding of the Gullah language.
Nonetheless, it may be a little bit of time until true implementation will take place in Charleston. The proposal was brought up in early 2016 and still has been in discussion to this day. One has commented that even if the proposal is successfully passed, the earliest signs of change would be in August 2020. The lack of urgency in the school system is disheartening as it reflects the same ignorance that has shaped Clarence Thomas’s silence today. Clarence Thomas’s fears and insecurities stemmed from the stigmatization of the Gullah people and the criticism he faced from his classmates and teachers. That was 1964 and yet, in 2019, nothing has been subject to change in Clarence’s voice or the Charleston public school system. How much longer must students like Thomas wait?
