The Takeaways from Sunn m’Cheaux’s Two Messages

by Linda Redmond Taylor, M.A., CCC-SLP-L, lindaredtaylor@aol.com

Part I

This was the title of this hour-long, Donn F. Bailey Lecture that left a lifetime mark on the audience. How can a writer share a “takeaway” in a few lines of such a memorable lecture by Sunn m’Cheaux, the speaker. Who? Sunn m’Cheaux (hereinafter, m’Cheaux). You know that man, the one who ends all of his Instagram posts with his personal mantra, “#WEOUTCHEA”. Oh, that man?

Yes, the man who is known to be a true Gullah/Geechee “binyah”(native), and who has traveled the world, advocating for the freedom of people to just “be” who they are in the present, and for other people to accept those people in their present states of being. During this lecture, m’Cheaux pulled out his “lens” of sociolinguistics, and, seemingly, held it up to each participant’s eyes to help them see the importance of a “culturally competent curriculum” in today’s classroom. ‘m’Cheaux stressed how “normalizing ‘codeswitching’ in classrooms” is a step in the right direction, but that the ‘active destigmatization’ of Black English in education is also imperative.’

The participants saw how beneficial his concept has proven to be or could be from the real ‘case studies and personalized testimonials’ he shared. m’Cheaux suggested that Black SLPs and AuDs need to develop an acceptance for their natural tongue that many try to suppress and hide, but they fail to quench that natural outpouring of their unique and culturally sound speech and language. What is needed? Well, “Students whose language has been subject to stigmatization benefit greatly from social and linguistics knowledge of how both, their language features and the stigmatization against them, came to be. NBASLH’s Convention participants left this session with a better understanding of Black language, and with a familiar but oft ignored rallying summons to begin listening to the Black language that’s all around them to realize that it is here to stay.

So, this writer’s summation is, thusly: Since “progress” is desired in all that SLP’s and AuD’s do, “progress” will show up, stand at attention, salute, and shout, “Forward march!”, if a therapist or teacher practices m’Cheaux’s concept of “active destigmatization”. Professor Donn F. Bailey would have been proud.

STATS

103 PROFESSORS

300 ST-TIME ATTENDEES