The “Becoming Black” article is the one that really caught my focus for this week. As an English Education major, I am still appalled at the fact that “Black English” is still considered a type of English. When I hear Black English or Black Talk, I refer to it as Ebonics. Ibrahim asks “at a time when North American Blackness is governed by how it is negatively located in a race-conscious society, what does it mean for a Black ESL learner to acquire Black English as a second language (BESL)?” But really, what does this mean? Does it mean that learning Black English helps you fit in with the rest of the African Americans who speak this vernacular? Or is how these non-native speakers adapt and conform to the cultural norms that are tied in with Black English such as how you move your body, modes of dress and ritualistic expressions?
I agree with Ibrahim says that being able to speak Black English “does not rely on a full mastery of the language.” It depends on ritual expressions. When African American people call each other “niggers” that is a way of identifying with them and saying “I too am Black” or even “I too am like you”. I didn’t really think of it this way because I have never had a close relationship with an African American individual, however a Caucasian friend of mine who dated an African American gave me some insight. She said that at a function where he was her date, another African American man also attended and she noticed that the men gave each other a look and then a friendly head nod. She asked him what that was about and he said, “To us it means that if something “pops off” that we have each other’s back.” She said, “But you don’t even know him.” He responded with, “That is just how it works.” Now this really opened my eyes because, A) girls would never do that to a stranger they have only said hi to because (from my own personal experience) girls can become catty and defensive when a stranger approaches, and B) I don’t believe that Caucasian men would do this with a guy that they were not introduced to. Obviously I am just making assumptions from what I know as a Caucasian female, but these ideas are pushed onto me from society as a whole.
The article mentions music, which I think is an important part of African American culture as well as any other culture. But there are huge stereotypes attached to this rap music that has been released in the past couple of years. I can quote my parents by saying that all the new rap songs talk about is sex, drugs, alcohol and partying and that’s “not how the music they listened to was back then”. However, it really was but the artists of the 1970’s and 1980’s did a good job of covering up their ideas about men, women, sex, drugs, etc. The first song that comes to mine is “Give It to Me Baby” by Rick James. It’s not explicitly using profanity or derogatory words, but the concept of the rap music today and the music of my parent’s generation is still the same. “The term hip-hop comprises everything from music (especially rap) to clothing choice, attitudes, language and an approach to culture and cultural artifacts, positing and collaging them in an unsentimental fashion.” I think that the majority of people will relate hip-hop to music, but I believe that music is a great audio form of learning. All types of music seem to be connecting with a culture or a group of people. For example, country music is tied with “hillbillies” or “people who live down south” while it is assumed that all African Americans, Puerto Ricans and Mexican people like rap music when that is not always true. Music is not the only way that people can connect to each other in terms of bonding cultural groups together. It is always going to be difficult for people to break the stereotypes of each cultural or racial group, but I think that students who want to teach TESOL or ESL have to realize that in order to begin to break the stereotypes; they have to start doing that with their students in the classroom.
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