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Retrieved 19 March Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts.
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Geneva Smitherman. Add languages Add topic. As Spears put it, this UM speech became "normalized" and used in "evaluatively neutral" ways, and he notes that folks who "function exclusively or primarily in mainstream settings are not aware of this.
Geneva smitherman biography of alberta
Smitherman first documented the existence of this linguistic phenomenon in Black speech over three decades ago shoutout to Spears for giving the phenomenon a name. In her now-classic Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America , she noted the positive, negative, and neutral meanings of so-called obscenities. In AWB, we discuss the logic and the complex, layered use of what many consider the two most popular words in African American Language: nigga and muthafucka.
Certainly these are in widespread use outside of Black community contexts—at Black comedy shows, on the internet, in Hip Hop , in other areas of the public sphere, and in everyday discourse—much to the consternation of many Blacks who came of age in the "post-Black" generation. That generation also finds itself at linguistic odds with today's younger, Hip Hop Generation, who receive the brunt of linguistic criticism and attack.
Which is not to say that the post-Black generation does not use UM language themselves. In the book we describe the use of nigga by two high profile Blacks, caught wit their linguistic pants on the ground when their UM language was revealed in the public sphere. Soundly criticizing folks for doing in public what you do behind closed doors is never a good idea.
There's an old saying that warns people about spittin up in the air—it just might land on your face! HLG: Since we're in an election year, I have to ask: how do you see Obama's skill as a speaker with the ability to communicate to different audiences playing out in this presidential campaign? Have things changed so much in four years that he would have to change tactics?
In the campaign, conservatives tried to paint Barack Obama as a "militant Black man" because of his connections to Revered Jeremiah Wright.
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In the campaign, they've gone one step further. Here's what we mean by this. Conservatives have jumped all over Barack Obama's speech at Hampton University , claiming that he was using "an accent that he has never used before" to speak to Black preachers. He was framed as dangerous and suspicious—as a threat to America—because, as they told it, Americans just didn't know who this guy was, that he had some kind of secret agenda, and that he couldn't be trusted.
His use of the Black preacher style made folks exclaim, "We just don't know who he is. See the Hampton speech here. Despite this, Barack Obama continues to use the Black preacher style with a great degree of success. One of the most viral campaign videos of the last few weeks has been the "Romnesia" trope from Obama's recent speech in Fairfax, Virginia.
If you watch this clip, most folks simply laugh and rightly so because it's hilarious.
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However, linguists like Angie Kortenhoven, John Rickford, and us, we see the Black preacher style in the way the president moves while he is speaking, his laughter, the way he builds the argument, uses repetition, and especially his use of "the Black preacher stutter," to draw attention to important points. If you notice, in mid-swing, the President has a mostly White audience participating in Black communication's call-and-response mode of discourse.
It's really a phenomenal piece of oratory, and one that will most certainly go down in history as an important linguistic moment in American politics. If we can turn to Romney for a second. While Obama continues to demonstrate his linguistic flexibility, Romney continues to struggle on this front. His manner of speaking is essentially the verbal equivalent of his public persona: flat, one-dimensional, unable to connect.
It is striking that he sounds almost the same in every speech, regardless of the audience. Observers have chronicled the wooden, monotonous nature of his delivery, the lack of tonal variation, the multiple hedges, the forced laughter, the "Leave It to Beaver"-era "gosh"-ness of his speaking. A painfully awkward example: his attempt to interact with Black youngsters, at a parade in Jacksonville, Fla.
Woof, woof. Because language is a primary factor in shaping whether a politician is seen as "likable" or "relatable," the stark differences in speaking styles between President Obama and Governor Romney are probably contributing to the persistently higher marks for "personality" that Obama has gotten in numerous polls. However, if all the pundits are correct, one problem for Obama continues to be White working-class voters.
The campaign seems to know this, as Biden and Clinton seem to be linguistically pinch-hitting on this front. The racialized opposition to Obama is strong enough with this segment of the electorate that it's demonstrating that there might be a limit to what one's styleshifting abilities can accomplish. This is obviously unusual in the academic world , which, to borrow a Chris Rock quote, is "whiter than an albino snowflake.
Was it meant to show authenticity, or perhaps to convey a sort of protest against what you describe as a "hegemony" of so-called "standard" English? Plain and simple, simple and plain. Writing in this style—where we switch in and out of multiple ways of speaking—is not just an aesthetic choice. It is a political one. It is not just stylistic; it is substantive.
If all languages are equal—and they are, in linguistic terms—why must we conform to some dominant so-called standard in order to express our deepest, intellectual thoughts? If we are our language, and our language is us, then why not bring our whole selves up into the text? So-called "standard" English, especially "academic" English, as many know from experience, can be cold, exclusionary.
It can sometimes even obfuscate. For those of us who are multilingual, we appreciate being able to draw on multiple varieties in order to say something—and to say it exactly how we mean it.
Geneva smitherman biography of alberta news: Geneva Smitherman is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita of English and co-founder of the African American and African Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University. [1] [2] Smitherman co-founded the first public African-centered elementary school in the country Malcolm X Academy within the Detroit Public Schools. [3].
This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language. Database provides search and browse capabilities that allow users to refine results and choose to view biographies, subject entries, or images. The prestigious Oxford University Press online reference resource provides access to general reference dictionaries and encyclopedias, language dictionaries and thesauri, quotations and timelines, and subject reference works.
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