From a white supremacist perspective: Being professional = quietly accepting racism at work Being unprofessional = calling out this racism

I will be giving a hybrid talk at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Linguistics Department about my recent book, Workable Accents. What does academic labour sound like? Using the case of international teaching assistants, my talk attempts to answer this question!

Pronunciation is not a technical action. Pronunciation is a political act.

"Native" and "nonnative English speaker" are products of racism, colonialism, and nationalism. They are not objective linguistic descriptors.

Do you work in #education? This post is for you. It centres #Gaza at the heart of everything we do and say in education. Living with Wounds in Education www.repair-ed.uk/reparative-p... Read it. Share it. Act on it #GazaMatters

You do not assess the pedagogical competence of an immigrant teacher through their accent. You assess the pedagogical competence of an immigrant teacher through their actual pedagogy.

disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2025/08/24/i... Check out my interview with Moaz Mansour of Gaza Online on the Disability Visibility Project blog! @sfdirewolf.bsky.social @thellpsx.bsky.social

I finally have physical copies of my book! If you are interested in how accent acts as a type of work in higher education, then you should read Workable Accents. 30% off if you buy from Bloomsbury: www.bloomsbury.com/ca/workable-... @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social / @bloomsburyling.bsky.social

You should not have to standardize your speech in order to be heard.

Open Access for this new exited collection Beyond Sanctuary. Please read and circulate. nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Please contribute to help Hammam's family. They are in absolutely desperate circumstances. Anything helps.

“Given the ongoing genocide in Gaza…we call on Sport Canada and Tennis Canada to forbid Canadian athletes to compete against Israeli athletes at the Davis Cup and all other international events.” - 413 🇨🇦 academics, athletes + sports journalists, inc 3 former UN special rapporteurs + an Olympic 🥈ist

Once again, language teaching is inherently political because languages are political inventions in the first place.

White supremacy is the problem, not those who point out this fact.

It takes a certain kind of ignorance and arrogance to believe that if marginalized people change the way they sound, they will automatically get people to listen to them in a more ethical manner.

Ep. 163: Gaza and Global Sport We return from our too-long hiatus to discuss athletic boycott in the context of genocide with former Ireland basketball captain Rebecca O'Keeffe, as well as our views on some of the atrocities over the last seven months. open.spotify.com/episode/3Odh...

"Professionalism" is typically used to police marginalized workers, not uplift them.

Just asked my library to purchase this book! You should do the same! #appliedlinguistics #accent

Thanks very much for Prof. David Gramling for writing an insightful blurb for my book! Just another reminder that Workable Accents is available to order (sadly, there is a delay with print copies, but e-copies are readily available): shorturl.at/MfGLQ

LANGUAGE & POLITICAL SUBJECTIVITY: Stancemaking, Power and Politics in Chile and Venezuela by Miki Makihara and Juan Luis Rodríguez ( @jlrodriguez10.bsky.social) has now been published! Find out more here: bit.ly/4jTo9UQ #PoliticalAnthropology #Anthropology #EconomicAnthropology

Palestine is already recognised #GazaStarving #GazaGenocide‌ #KeepTellingofGaza

Every day is the same pain we just hope someone sees her and helps 💔😔 Maali is paralyzed and suffers from painful bedsores. We urgently need $150 just for 3 days of diapers. She also needs nutritious food and, but we can’t even afford the basics. @mommunism.bsky.social chuffed.org/project/help...

"Books are dangerous. This is why repressive regimes try to exile and kill those who write them, confiscate and close libraries and bookshops, and ban and burn books that contradict their narratives and the image they want to present to the outside world" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Check out my latest article, which explores how vocal accent, a seemingly auditory construct, reinforces the problematic idea that race is simply something we see. It is open access, so there is no excuse not to read it: doi.org/10.1111/ijal...

Language learning is not an inherent means to anti-racist learning.

A NHS nurse was told that this background image on a Teams call was “potentially antisemitic” and cause for disciplinary action. Palestinian existence has been criminalized in the UK. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

Check it out!

My book is now officially available to order! Workable Accents critically explores how international teaching assistants in Canadian universities vocally fashion and contest various aspects of their academic labour. Please ask your university or local library to order a copy: shorturl.at/MfGLQ

Unconscious bias training has never dismantled any type of structural oppression.

Talk tomorrow: Open to everyone! www.ilc.cnr.it/events/accen....

Be skeptical about intercultural communication training that treats intercultural communication as an issue (rather than something that just happens on a daily basis).

Let's just say that white supremacy comes in all colours.

No, a "foreign accent" is not a speech disorder. But this clarification invites a discussion of what Henner and Robinson (2023) call the disordering of language. "Speech disorders" are made by the abled listener. They are not inherent truths.

"Sounding white" can be a survival strategy for racially minoritized workers. It can also operate as an organizational requirement. Think of a transnational call centre worker, for instance.

According to university policies and curricula in the Global North, there is the problematic assumption that "international student" is synonymous with "nonnative speaker of English."

Unlearn blaming immigrants for structural issues. Learn how to blame racial capitalism and colonialism instead.

Too many language educators treat standard language ideology as their religion.

Calling for the end of settler colonialism is not genocidal language.

The "apolitical teacher" does not exist. All teaching is political.

Accent discrimination is often racial discrimination by another name.

A Jabalia data centre has been bombed and Internet has been cut off again. You know the drill!! @sfdirewolf.bsky.social @thellpsx.bsky.social bit.ly/eSimsRUs #ConnectingGaza

I keep telling y’all: don’t let power tell you how to protest them. They will always move the goalposts. The don’t want peaceful, nonviolent protest

I will be facilitating a workshop on rethinking the teaching of listening in relation to anti-racist pronunciation pedagogies at the TESL Toronto 2025 Conference: bit.ly/TOSCON25program Hope to see some of you there!

You can learn how to pronounce a "difficult-sounding" name. It is less work than you think it is.