It is important to recognize that the Good Speech movement was not specific to Smith, but part of a widespread national fervor around accent and dialect informed by contemporary ideologies and narratives around race, class, and ability (see next: The Rise and Fall of Speech at Smith). Sociolinguists now refer to these ideologies and narratives as “raciolinguistic hierarchies” -- that is, in general, when speech practices associated with Whiteness, wealth, and power are deemed inherently superior to speech practices associated with People of Color, people of lower socioeconomic status, people with disabilities, and other marginalized identities and communities. These raciolinguistic hierarchies are, and have been, both the cause and the result of racist policies, practices, and attitudes. 

Linguistic racism and discrimination are evident in Smith’s approach to speech correction, namely in a 1931 study conducted by the Spoken English department on students who were placed into Group III, which was the group that performed the lowest on the speech test (below middle-performing Group II and highest-performing Group I). According to the Speech Examinations procedure, “Group III includes those students with definitely inadequate voice and speech; those with a stutter, marked lisp, marked nasality, markedly poor voice production, or other marked defect."(1) The reported results of this study claim that “racial or local accent,” “poor personality,” and having "mediocre mental equipment" are among the many “difficulties with which the [Group III] students are confronted.(2) Moreover, deafness is referred to as a "physical defect."

It is evident from these statements, and many similar ones, that faculty decisions to place students in Group III were informed by discriminatory attitudes that pathologized the speech practices and dialects of students of color, students with disabilities, Deaf students, immigrants and first-generation students, international students, students of lower socioeconomic status, and, in some cases, students with regional backgrounds that were considered "other" at the time, e.g. Greek and Italian. Their “poor” speech practices were deemed to be a reflection of personality, intellect, and upbringing, therefore pathologizing not only their linguistic backgrounds, but also their social, cultural, and, arguably, their genetic backgrounds. It is not a far stretch to say that this study reproduced eugenist ideas about race and disability.

1. Speech Examinations procedure, undated. General: theatre articles, enrollment in Speech/Dramatic Arts courses, 1907-1953. Department of Theatre records, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-01079, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.
2. Speech Dept: Study of Students in "Group III Freshman Year," certain. Department of Theatre records, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-01079, Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, Massachusetts.