Interview with April Baker-Bell, Associate Professor of Language, Culture, and Justice in Education at the University of Michigan

Student Project Manager Ella Layton ’26 interviews Dr. April Baker-Bell about her book Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy (2020). Dr. Baker-Bell discusses how she needed a framework to explain the discrimination her Black students faced because of their language. She asserts the autonomy of Black language because of its historical and social factors leading to its existence. Baker-Bell offers advice on how to practically dismantle white linguistic hegemony and uplift speakers of Black language. Read more