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8/16/2004
So You Say I "Talk White"
 Oreo, Banana, the nicknames, right along with ideologies get old. When Mattel served up Oreo Barbie, I can't help but wonder what on earth they were thinking. Somewhere, there's an entire research and development team that needs to be fired. There is of course, the other, irreverent, and inappropriate side of me that can only chuckle since "Oreo" is a term with which I am closely acquainted (not wanting to assume anything, "Oreo" is the preferred term for a black person who's "white inside"). This Barbie doll was of course, immediately recalled from the market, but it serves as a great reminder of a prevalent ideology we have in our society. It's the idea that a person's behaviors are indicative of the color of their skin. A few weeks back I discussed the notion of "Acting White", within the context of education. Another piece to this complicatedly sick puzzle is speech and diction. The idea of "talking white" has been a lifelong battle for me. I've been accused of it, defended it, refuted it, and now, I shall attempt to explain it.
Standard English Language
Before delving into this complicated topic, I think it's worthwhile to clarify a few terms and ideas. As I understand it, there are three ways in which a person could be accused of the heinous crime of "talking white". The focus of what I refute is the first, since it's more largely recognized. To "talk white" usually means to speak in standardized English (whatever that is). For the sake of discourse, let's just say a working knowledge of the information contained in Strunk & White's Elements of Style should be in order for anyone who presumes to take on the "proper" usage of our great and almighty English language.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where interesting dialect is seriously lacking. Unlike the South, where you can find hicks with worse sentence structure than the average fourth-grader, here in the land of Microsoft, we over-enunciate syllables, and use big dictionary words we don't understand. When I went to college, speech was the first thing I was teased about amongst my black New Yorker friends, who dropped off the ends of words like bad habits. I was told I had an accent and spoke "proper". Proper of course, by default indicates that any other type of language besides standardized Strunk & White English is uncivilized. Just who perpetuated that myth?
I reject the aforementioned definition of "talking white" because standardized English is just that: standard. It's the commonly and widely recognized norm our society has chosen as a means of communication. This doesn't mean it's the best form (although I've had English teachers who would lay their lives down for this cause), or necessarily the "right" form, but it is the form, and a person would be ignorant and lofty to think they could be so flippant as to trounce upon its rich history and respect by walking into a job interview and dropping street slang.
That said, our reverence for the standardized English language as "god" goes borderline gluttony in higher academia as I recall once, I attempted to start flipping through a few doctoral theses for my own reading pleasure. Standard English is one thing -- high-falutin', snotty, over-intellectualized, and self-absorbed writing and talking is quite another. I'm no linguist, but I'm smart enough to know we haven't "arrived" in the current state of the English language. We owe much homage to the rich cultural history from which many of our words derive their origin. Okay, there I said it, moving on.
Rhetoric
The second way a person can be accused of "talking white" is based on rhetoric. Since I reject the notion of using standardized English as being a "white attribute", I will say that I can accept the idea that certain language or words may warrant the title of "white speech" or "black speech" or whatever other culture from which a word or expression may find its root. We've all heard the term "Ebonics" or Standardized Black Vernacular (both terms I reject), but I recently came across a plainly stated and thought-provoking piece by English nerd Avery Tooley on this very topic. Read it, and then pop an Aspirin.
I am brave enough to say that there just might be some "black expressions" and "white words" and everything in between. There are certain words or idiomatic expressions that sprout out from varying cultures. Everyone say it with me now, "This is okay".
Example one: I'm a big fan of Yiddish. The intent, the clean vulgarity of it all, wrapped up in its straight forward nature are just fitting to my personality. I'm not sure why, but there are times I'd like to renounce my Gentile status and take that passage of scripture that speaks to being "grafted in" as literal and assume my position as a full-blown Messianic Jew; and then I woke up. My fantasies of being a Jewish girl aside, Yiddish expressions stand alone as far from standardized English, definitively non-blonde-haired-blue-eyed, yet clear and somewhat accepted in communication interspersed with what we call Standard English.
Example two: When I was a teenager, I did a bit of acting and once landed myself in a Cap'n Crunch Christmas Crunch commercial (I'm going to break my contract by saying don't ever buy the stuff it's wretchedly bad I tell you). In one scene, myself and the other white boy in the commercial were supposed to yell out exclamations of excitement over this very awesome, unique, (and wholesome) cereal set before us as Cap'n Crunch in a Santa Hat (really just a cardboard cut out since he's digitally added in the editing room) pranced around us shouting, "Merry Christmas". My first line in the sequence was to exclaim, "RAD!" Yes, that's right, "rad" r-a-d, rad. Granted it was 1995, but as far as I was concerned, black people did not say "rad". That was a term reserved only for blonde-California-surfer-dude-Saved-by-the-Bell-Zack Morris types, of which I was not one. I marched myself right over to the director and informed him of this blasphemous mistake. There was no way on God's green Earth Ambra was going on national television to declare that anything, let alone a brand of cereal was "Rad". I re-negotiated the word "cool" into the script and all was well with the world. My point, however, being that in order to keep the commercial believable (HA!), we had to remain true to cultural expression.
Vocal Intonation
The third way a person can be accused of "talking white" is solely based on their vocal intonation. God's humanity is so deep and wide, we'd all be fools if we thought every last one of us would come out of the womb sounding the same. I don't think it's racist, inflammatory, or insensitive to suggest that as a whole, black people (like many other races) have a distinct sound to their voice. Even being raised in the same surroundings, two people of different ethnic backgrounds are not guaranteed to sound the same. There are times I can talk to someone on the phone or hear them on the radio and tell they're sure enough "a brotha" based on the sound of their voice alone. This is of course, not always the case. When someone breaks this stereotype *cough* Alan Keyes, we brand them as "white-sounding". In a few cases, I would concur, but it usually has absolutely nothing to do with words, intellect or rhetoric. It's purely based on vocal intonation.
Language is an interesting thing. For whatever reason, as a society we've decided on what is socially acceptable and what is not. This is fine, since that is of course the inherent nature and purpose of a society. However, I think the idea of language is in desperate need of more intelligent discourse. We need to do a little bit of talking about talking.
Based on my above definitions, I don't "talk white".
I speak in proper English most of the time. There is nothing about proper English that equates itself to whiteness. In addition, I tailor the English language to fit me or whatever idea I'm out to express. I like to throw in common slang in the midst of plain old words. I'm one of those people who can change up my language style in a matter of seconds. I have a preferred way of speaking, however being thrown from environment to environment has given me a broad scope of language and its uses. Depending on the situation, certain protocol is in order. When I'm at the office and I answer my phone, I recognize what's appropriate. When I'm addressing a group of young people, I can often get their attention by dropping a loose expression they wouldn't expect me to know (conservative nerd that I am) in the midst of standard English.
I am a firm believer in the prolific nature of the English language. Most people haven't even mastered that. Everyone should have the foundation of standard English and an understanding of its grammatical elements. However, from there on, people should be free to choose the manner in which they choose to express themselves at any given time, yet knowing that there are consequences for their choice of speech in any given situation. Teaching standardized English effectively is the biggest hurdle for our school systems to jump. Even in a perfect world, with a mass of students well-versed in standardized English, black kids will still be accused of "talking white". The bigger picture is human nature's continual attempt to make distinctions. The distinctions are there, but they have less to do with education and intellect, and more to do with environment and expression.
After-Thought
A few weeks ago, I came upon a jewel on the internet called the Urban Dictionary. I was
enthralled for about two hours. It's probably one of the more intelligent things
I've come across in awhile. People were dissecting street slang, and other commonly socially unacceptable expressions with grammatical elements. Not only do you have to be creative to do this, you have to be smart too. The focus on equipping this next generation with an understanding of standardized English will be important. Nevertheless, I caution us that when we do this, we should expect to see even more slang and butchering of our highly revered lexicon as my generation is intent on breaking out of the box in everything. Language will be one of them.
posted by ambra at 8/16/2004 02:14:35 PM | link to this entry |
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