ar•tic•u•late while black
H.Samy Alim and Geneva Smitherman
In general, members of every minority group continue to be measured largely by the degree of assimilation—how closely speech patterns, dress, or demeanor conform to dominant white culture-and the more that a minority strays from these external markers, the more he/she is subject to negative assumptions.
WARNING:
Individual prejudice leads/feeds structural discrimination. When students see their language as having lesser value, they start to see themselves in that light too.
Purpose: to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted…
WHEN STUDENTS ASK WHY IS THE SYSTEM THIS WAY: Work to show them that the system is rigged and how they can work to change it.
Cultural and Political Struggle of Language
· Language is a site of cultural and political struggle
· How we feel about a language, more often than not, reflects how we feel about it speakers.
· White policing of Black (others use of) language
· Language is currency
· Language has symbolic power (how we distinguish ourselves from others)
· Americans are socialized to link articulateness with intelligence and whiteness;
· White people are automatically assumed to be articulate and others use and style of language are compared to that of Whites or “EWC.”
· Articulate is connected to deeper enduring politicized, non-neutral, views, that is loaded with a sociohistorical, sociocultural, cultural-linguistic hegemony that imposes itself on a people, and praises them for covering up their own language varieties;
· Articulate is used by members of the dominant culture to describe the speech of those on the linguistic margins
· Our everyday discourse is “racially” structured!
· Black communication “becomes” controversial only because of fear from social groups- there is nothing inherently controversial about Black communication (fear of losing power, acts as a neoenslavement)
· When people refer to Black English as ignorant, they are actually showing their ignorance of linguistic principles
· White English is the “price” of admission to mainstream society—so others try to assimilate by dropping their English variety
· The way we talk can grant or deny us access to social, political, and economic opportunities
· Since racial discrimination is legally banned, language has become a vehicle in the denial of access to resources to Blacks; a “postracial” proxy for discrimination
Obama- the master Styleshifter (some might call it codeswitching but that was a different connotation)
· Sytleshifter: shifting between discourse models and linguistic forms in the same interaction
· Obama shifts between language (grammatical structure) and style (language use)
· See youtube clip: “Nah we straight.” (see pp. 7-9) (it can be said in three ways, compared to American English, which has one acceptable form)
· We are straight; We’re straight; We • straight.
· Go to saved NPR clip.
· See transcript below
· Obama uses verbal/emotional persuasion: repetition (altering pitch and stress), code-switching, rhythmic patterns, metaphors, stories (connected to larger themes), adopts a Pastorial African-American vernacular and references Biblical verses, uses passion and rousing speech tools of preachers from Black churches (signifyin’), and has a slow cadence and uses pauses pregnant with meaning.
· Election: Understands White, main stream linguistic codes; knows how to speak familiarly Black; can bring together “White syntax,” with “Black style”—this made him appear both “American” and “Christian” (through his use of language and style, he reminded folk of MLK (linguistic links) and they could make links); needed to “sound White” to get elected
· He demonstrates a linguistic flexibility which is a creative response to the awareness of how linguistic prejudice manifests
· Satisfied the psychosocial demands of Whites, Blacks, and all others
· Considered the first “Hip Hop President”
· Linguistic role model for how to use language varieties well
Black English
· Complex verbal system which derives from a Creolized form of African and European language varieties-distinct from white, mainstream English
· Black English is irrefutable evidence that there is a distinct, healthy, functioning African American culture which is not white and does not want to be white.
· Black students who speak BE, for survival sake, are forced to be bicultural/bilingual in a white social system. The same societal pressure does not exist for many Whites unless they choose it (neoenslavement)
· When people refer to Black English as ignorant, they are actually showing their ignorance of linguistic principles
· Black English syntax contains rules and use:
Rule / ExampleCopula absence / “Nah, we Q straight”
Invariant be for habitual aspect / “He be talkin a lot in class”
Equatives / “We be them bad boys”
Intensified continuative (use of steady) / “She steady prayin her son come back from Iraq”
Stressed been to mark remote past / “I been told you not to trust them”
Mark future or conditional perfect (use of be done) / “By the end of the day, I be done collected $600”
Aspectual stay / “She stay up in my business”
3rd person present tense, s absence / “I know who run this household”
Possessive s absence / “I’m braidin Talsesha’s hair”
Multiple negation / “You can’t help folks who ain’t gonna make it nohow”
Negative inversion / “Ain’t nothing gonna change”
Generalization of was w/plural and 2nd person subjects / “Tell me we wouldn’t be treated different if we was white:
Cultural modes:
Ø Signifyin (bustin, crackin, cappin, dissin)
Ø Playin the dozens
Ø Call and response
Ø Tonal semantics
Ø Battin and entering the cipher
Ø Artful use of direct and indirect speech
Issues with “Articulate”
· Articulate is used by members of dominant culture to describe the speech of those on the social and linguistic margins.
· When someone praises another for being articulate, i.e. how well they speak English, it engages in paternalism and infantilizes Black (or others) intelligence and morality (i.e., moral failings). Implication is that most Black people don’t have the capacity to engage in articulate speech when White people are automatically assumed to be articulate. They are deficient (not). Yet celebrates Black movement toward White mainstream and away from cultural separatism. “Compliments” can perpetuate racist ideas.
· Subtextual racism: When a Black person is given a compliment for being articulate with other adjectives like, “handsome,” “clean,” “good,”… it is a backhanded compliment-
· Black people can call the lie- they know they are being praised for abiding by white Norms
· If an adult Black person is given the same compliment, do you think it is read the same as a Black youth? One who is 5? 10? 15?
· Brings to the fore related issues of racial segregation, cultural assimilation, assimilation, and linguistic policing- that in order for a Black person to “make it” in America, he or she must be an exception to the racist view of Black deficiency and must prove it by not speaking like other Blacks.
· Query: Does it matter who is making the comment about articulate? Explain.
·
Crossing Over—Afro-Americanization of Youth
Crossing Over into the Mainstream
· Fashion, music, attitude, dance, children’s games, and words
· Unabated Words Include: man, go, put down, make, beat, cool, swing, with it, crazy, dig, flip, creep, hip, square…. (travelling into twitterverse vis-a-vis Black twitter), social media
Hand gestures:
· Givin’ dap or pound- not a fist bump bump
· With Church origins, hand waving has become a cultural symbol connected with agreement, signifying, and a form of expressing something that one cannot find words for; spiritual connectivity
Verbal play
· Playing the Dozens--Snappin’/signifying: incorporates double meaning and humor, playful commentary, or social critique couched as verbal play, involves rhetorical hyperbole, irony, direction, metaphor, deployment of semantically or logically unexpected
· Battlin- Black verbal dueling associated with Hip Hop and improvisational rhyming- try to outsmart your opponent through linguistic wit and creativity
· Hush mode- tends to be played by Black girls through argumentation and play- try to leave your opponent dumbfounded and speechless.
· These activities should be built upon in schools!
· Have students analyze their own and others patterns.
· Do Linguistic Profiling Activity (John Baugh) see p. 187 for worksheet
· Watch American Tongues: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/8711115/american_tongues/
History of nigga(er) pp. 112- 114: (er) was used to “re-enslave” African slave descendants
History of motherfucker/muthafucka pp. 122—used to describe white men who raped/abused Black women and tried to break their spirits and break the family down physically and psychologically
WHEN STUDENTS ASK WHY IS THE SYSTEM THIS WAY: Work to show them that the system is rigged and how they can work to change it.
Transcript of Ben’s Chili Bowl
Barack: (Handing over his money to the cashier) You just keep that. Where’s my ticket? You got my ticket?
Cashier: (offers Barack his change)
Barack: Nah, we straight. (Reaching over to take his soda)
Customer: You got cheese fries, too?
Barack: Nah, nah, that’s you, man… (video cuts away and returns after Barack receives his chili dog)
Barack: Now, do y’all have some Pepto Bismol in this place?
All Present: (all laugh)
Barack: (walking back up to the counter, addressing ashier again) Hey, home come he’s got some cheddar cheese on his and I don’t on mine?
All Present: (laughter) Woahhh!
Cashier: Whatever you like, sir.
Barack: We got some cheese, you can sprinkle on it (gesturing the sprinkling of cheese, then signifyin)? Not, not, not, not the Velveeta but the…
Customers: (Laughter)
Customer: The cheddar cheese!
Barack: The cheddar cheese