As of May 2019, the Linguistic Society of America has officially approved the LSA Statement on Race that Anne Charity Hudley and I drafted, with contributions from LSA members Mary Bucholtz (University of California, Santa Barbara), Nelson Flores (University of Pennsylvania), Nicole Holliday (Pomona College), Elaine Chun (University of South Carolina), Arthur Spears (The City University of New York), and Wesley Y. Leonard (University of California, Riverside).
The statement has several, interrelated aims: to address inequality in linguistics, to inform research on language and race and its intersections, to help empower and welcome people from various racial backgrounds into linguistics, and to broaden the conversation on race so that future work can best promote diversity and inclusion. The drafting of this statement came about as a result of a 2018 Linguistic Society of America Symposium, a summary of which may be found here. While this is a “final” statement, we recognize that it is a living document as dialogue continues around this topic. LSA members are able to leave comments using the “Add new comment” field at the bottom of the Statement on Race.
Christine Mallinson, Ph.D. 