ABSTRACT
This chapter examines John R. Rickford’s commitment to using sociolinguistic research to advance social justice, particularly but not only for black language users. Drawing on Rickford’s (1997b) critique of sociolinguists’ ‘unequal partnership’ with speakers of African American English, the chapter surveys Rickford’s three goals for sociolinguistic scholarship and teaching with regard to the African American community and other racialized groups: (1) making the discipline of linguistics more inclusive, (2) producing more accurate and complete scholarship, and (3) using linguistics to challenge racial injustice. The chapter argues that long-standing shortcomings in each of these areas is due to the structural racism of linguistics as a field and proposes some possible areas where improvements can be made, using Rickford’s work as a model. The discussion concludes with a call to place sociolinguistic justice at the center of sociolinguistic research and with an injunction to white linguists to dismantle white supremacy within the discipline.
