Reconstituting ethnocentrism: The American Ethnic coalition and official English

This analysis considers the rhetoric of the Texas‐based American Ethnic Coalition, and details the AEC's Attempt to achieve legal protection of English as the official language of the U.S. AEC rhetoric aligns itself with key metaphors, and uses the metaphors to exclude its opponents. Further, the AEC seeks legitimacy by posing as spokesman for the English language movement at a time when such languarge issues find currency. The constructs of freedom and unity are used to ethnocentrically justify support for Official English.

Key terms:

• Metaphor analysis
• American Ethnic Coalition
• English First movement
• ethnocentrism
• coalition‐building
• symbolism
• racism
• legitimization
• archetypal imagery
• rhetoric