The Black Vernacular By Jack Sidnell, Ted Hall And Katherine Clay Bassard

Until then, little to no people had ever heard of the term Ebonics. Coined in 1973 by Dr. Robert Williams, an African-American social psychologist, he amalgamated the words “ebony” with “phonics” in reference to “black sounds.” Dr. Robert Williams, as well as numerous African-American social scientists had previously discussed the psychological development of black children and ultimately were largely displeased with the term Black English and began to ponder on the alternatives, in which he subsequently found significance with the term Ebonics. He states that Ebonics must “define what people speak and to give clear definition to the language.” With the knowledge that ebony meant black and that phonics refers to speech sounds or science of sounds, he mingled the two words to codify the term.

Talking Black In America addresses how advanced, unique, and culturally important African American English is (Hutcheson and Cullinan, 2017).

From discussing his argument with a group of white people after they had attacked Samori to discussing his personal ideas of African-American education at his own high school, Coates uses personal experiences in order to make the reader empathize with him. He lacks, however, statistics, analogies, or many other forms of logos appeal in his argument. Furthermore, after his last reflection of the time when Samori was attacked, Coates expresses that he “came home shook” ( 23). While his use of modern slang may make him seem more relatable to teenagers, his intended audience consists mainly of parents who are far less likely to use slang themselves and who may see his use of it as seemingly unprofessional in comparison to his otherwise well-written letter, detracting from his ethos

She states, “White standards of English persist, supreme and unquestioned, in these United States” (124). White english is hardly doubted as the only language accepted in the United States. Jordan acknowledges many of the African American students in her class don’t relate with the language they speak everyday. The class pinpoints their discussion of The Color Purple around the

Johnson uses words like “disdainful”, “magnificent”, “pompous”, “incompetent”, “imitate”, “supercilious”, “arrogant,” “meed,” and bold to describe the Negro in Harlem and to show their ‘supercilious’ nature towards other cultures.

With a background affected tremendously by the dark history of African Americans, language has become a significant problem to what the term Black English really means to different people. In If Black Language Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is, James Baldwin attempts to analyze what a language really means and how Black English evolved to fulfill an important role for Americans. Black English sounds proper to blacks, but to whites it may not be a proper use of language. Throughout this essay, Baldwin uses a specific tone and relates to his audience by opening his mind to both emotion and logic while still upholding his credibility. Baldwin tries to persuade the audience to respect the language of Black English using his personal experience. The history of different languages mentioned in the essay is used to help convince the audience of thinking about the term language from a new perspective. Whites and Blacks both may speak the same language, but that does not mean that they understand each other because the language can be spoken in different matters. As Baldwin states, “The white man could not possibly understand, and that, indeed, he cannot understand, until today”. A white man or black man had to be careful about the words they used in front of each other because some words would be considered offensive for one another. Baldwin uses African American language and culture to reveal the impact that the English language Americans use has created.

-New Negro" as a means of rediscovering individuality of voice in the context of community.

In this unit I have learned many interesting things about being Black. For example, in the article by Awad El Karim M. Ibrahim, Becoming Black, I learned about BE meaning Black English and BSE meaning Black talk. Because where I am from I never was taught that there was a such thing as Black English, only talking black. Also, I did not know about Code meshing, which was mentioned by Vershawn Ashanti Young in the article, Should Writers Use Their Own Language.I have always mixed formal and informal talk my whole life and I never know it had a proper name for that style of talking. I thought it was intriguing that in the article written by Johannes A. Smit, Black Women, Writing and Identity, that women should be housewives and nothing else. I was told since birth that

The “new” negro no longer embodied “old” characteristics that defined a black man. Society had always taught a black man how to act; however, now he was adapting to the world. Locke declared that ‘the Old Negro’ had long become more of a myth than a man” (Locke, 1). A furthered and detailed definition of an “Old Negro” was that he “was a creature of moral debating historical controversy” (Locke, 1). The four

The author allows us to infer that he is among those from the African-American heritage by the specific language used to describe the various types of people. The author is careful to use neutral wording; however, when referring to the Negro, the use of oppressive terminology suggests that the listener responding is especially sympathetic to the plight of the blacks. It is phrases such as, "I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars" (20) and "torn from Black Africa's strand I came" (49), which enable us to perceive the speaker's special affinity with the African people. By using a more specific designation when referring to the Negro, it is natural to assume that the speaker is also a Negro. 'The speaker subtly interjects the continuing oppression of the African American and establishes a hierarchy

Richard Wright uses language in his novel, Black Boy, as a source to convey his opinions and ideas. His novel both challenges and defends the claim that language can represent a person and become a peephole into their life and surroundings. Richard Wright uses several rhetorical techniques to convey his own ideas about the uses of language.

Also, there are many black writers that wrote very empowering pieces that did succeed at presenting and demonstrating the black experience like Toni Morrison, Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes. But for those that do subscribe to the idea that being able to speak standard American English makes a person ‘better’, like many Americans, black and white did at that time and still do, by showing the contrast of Chesnutt's extremely harsh dialect of Julius, which “indulges a "scholarly" predilection for the obscure or exotic”, to that of the narrator further enforces and encourages that negative social construct (Bodie). Speaking of Americans that might have subscribed to this idea, let’s take a moment to consider who would be reading this text.

“The Word “Nigga” Is Only for Slaves and Sambos” was written by Rob Nelson and first published in a university newspaper in North Carolina. Later on, the article was so meaningful that it was re-published in the academic journal, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. In the article “The Word “Nigga” is only for Slaves and Sambos”, Rob Nelson uses ethos, logos, and especially skillful pathos appeals based on the history of slavery and the illustration about the future of African American, to prove why he thinks the “N-word” is not acceptable. By using ethical argument and those clever appeals, Rob Nelson definitely persuades his young African American audience.

     Richard Wright's novel Black Boy is not only a story about one man's struggle to find freedom and intellectual happiness, it is a story about his discovery of language's inherent strengths and weaknesses. And the ways in which its power can separate one soul from another and one class from another. Throughout the novel, he moves from fear to respect, to abuse, to fear of language in a cycle of education which might be likened to a tumultuous love affair.

In “What is this ‘black’ in black popular culture?”, Stuart Hall explores the importance of assuming a dialogic approach over an essentialist approach when it comes to examining black popular culture. He believes that essentialism presents racial differences as being natural and universal rather than being a concept constructed by society to create social hierarchies which we coexist in today. Hall felt as if essentialism aided in the creation of imaginary racial boundaries that people would attempt to remain within, resulting in behaviors that they felt were appropriate for their race. Hall believed that the discourse of black popular culture had to be acknowledged in regards to other discourses, such as the influences of black and white cultures