The Whiteness of Nerds: Superstandard English and Racial Markedness

Abstract

Anthropological research has shown that identities that are "not white enough" may be racially marked. Yet marking may also be the result of being "too white." California high school students who embrace one such white identity, nerds, employ a superstandard language variety to reject the youth culture norm of coolness. These practices also ideologically position nerds as hyperwhite by distancing them from the African American underpinnings of European American youth culture.

Cite this

Mary Bucholtz (2001). The Whiteness of Nerds: Superstandard English and Racial Markedness. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.84

@article{mary2001the,
  title  = {The Whiteness of Nerds: Superstandard English and Racial Markedness},
  author = {Bucholtz, Mary},
  year   = {2001},
  journal = {Journal of Linguistic Anthropology},
  doi    = {10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.84}
}

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