The Black Deaf Community’s Fight Against White Language Supremacy

Intersectionality, Audism, and Linguistic Racism

Abstract

Co-written by intersectional Deaf authors, this article examines how White Language Supremacy (WLS)-the privileging of white, standardized, and hearing-centric language norms—marginalizes Black Deaf languaging, particularly Black American Sign Language (BASL), and how Black Deaf communities resist. We address a persistent gap in scholarship that has long analyzed WLS in spoken language contexts but has not sufficiently examined how WLS intersects with audism and impacts signed languages. Data comprise co-authored first-person narratives and reflective accounts from five Deaf students of color, developed in a Writing Seminar research project and elaborated post-course with their multiracial Deaf professor. Guided by Black Deaf Feminism and critical qualitative traditions, we conducted an intersectional thematic analysis that included collaborative open coding, iterative development of higher-order themes, and integration with scholarship in raciolinguistics, composition, Deaf education, and BASL. Given our situated narratives-highlighting lived experiences of tokenization, linguistic policing, and systemic inequities across Deaf and mainstream schools-we offer analytic generalizations supported by thick description and triangulation across multiple narrators. Findings show that WLS operates through code-switching respectability pedagogies, standardization logics that privilege white ASL, and segregation legacies, while counterspaces and Black Deaf feminist praxis enable belonging and resistance. Our analysis positions BASL as a site of cultural resilience and resistance—calling for flexible intersectional solidarity to dismantle racial and audiocentric hierarchies. We conclude with actionable implications for recognition, policy, pedagogy, and assessment in U.S., Canadian, and international contexts.