Week 4 - Jose Di Paola Questions

As I was reading through the CCCC's declaration, a constant question on my mind was "What is Black language?" I come from a place of ignorance. I understand the rejection of linguistic standardization; the purpose of a language is to communicate, not to enforce an arbitrary standard. The problem is that Black language still has conventions and rules, and many people, including myself, aren't familiar with those rules and conventions. Demand #4 aims to solve this dilemma, but until there's widespread consciousness of Black language, how do we address the topic? I'm especially concerned about what advice to give students using Black language when I don't know the professor's attitude on the topic. Do I talk with the professor with the student's permission? 

The previous paragraph highlights a mental block in how I treat Black language. I say I'm fluent in English, yet I also say I'm not familiar with Black language, which is just English. Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison's article was about how she felt isolated and uncomfortable having pressure put on her because of her Blackness. Acceptance of Black language is only the first step to making students who use it feel welcome and not like outsiders to their own language; we also have to see English as an umbrella under which many forms of communication reside. The CCCC article explicitly labels white mainstream English as such, which seems like a good solution to this othering. I worry though that declaring that form of English as white would alienate people of color who feel it takes away their ownership of that dialect. 

Comments

  1. TatianaSeptember 22, 2020 at 9:52 PM

    Hi Jose! I also wondered what the article meant by Black language, then thought of the memoir I just taught my students and figured that's what it's talking about (an excerpt of dialogue from the text: “Everythang about y’all is erroneous. Every. Thang. This that black abundance. Y’all don’t even know.”)

    This is obviously a creative work, so perhaps readers are more accepting of the language than in academic writing. Like I mentioned in my original post, I had a student say "they don't talk normal" and this was one of the "confusing" passages she referenced, which seems especially problematic to me--the dialogue isn't hard to understand, and if you don't get it, you can just read it again. If anything, the push for "standard English" seems like another move to make reading/writing comfortable and easy for white people.

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    1. Jose Di PaolaSeptember 23, 2020 at 12:20 PM

      Thanks for the excerpt, I think I need to read more texts like that memoir. I think it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone when reading, because it will expand what I consider comfortable and familiar.

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