Alisha Starbird

ENG 110 SECTION U

UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND 

PROF. RICHARD OWENS

                                                             A New Race Shines

 

     Leslie Savan, a former columnist for the Village Voice, writes "What's Black, Then White, and Said All Over?" to discuss "Black language" and mainstream media. "Pop talk" is language deriving from African Americans but may not be expressed as "Black English" or "Black dialect" because those terms suggest that all Blacks speak this one type of English. The accepted and correct term is considered to be "spoken soul," a term used to describe the unique actions, styles, and dialect that African Americans created. 

    Times have changed since the late 1800's and early 1900's- for years, the white society mocked black talk. The only acceptable people to use black language were white men in blackface in front of large audiences, often insulting and imitating the language. Back then, black language was viewed as improper and seemed to make one sound uneducated. Besides African Americans, white males also spoke the black language. It was the males rather than the females to speak the language because males seemed to associate "standard speech" with femininity. Males were more worried about being masculine than obtaining social status. 

    Years when by and the black language boomed, taking over mainstream music, fashion, and music. It was finally "cool" to have the hip-hop lifestyle; unfortunately, no matter how much time and effort they put in, white individuals could never become black.