Chapter 6: Black on White (209-250)

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Chapter 6Black on White (209-250)

• Black
• On
• White

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The Story of English

• By Don L. F. Nilsen
• Based on The Story of English
• By Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil
• and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)

3
West African Slave Trade (McCrum 198/214)
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The Slave Triangle

• England Bristol Liverpool cheap cotton
  goods, trinkets, and Bibles
• Africa Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast
  Slaves speaking Hausa, Wolof, Bulu, Bamoun,
  Temne, Asante, Twi, etc.) Slaves
• America Charleston, SC the Caribbean
  tobacco, sugar, rum molasses (McCrum 210)

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English Words from Africa
Banana Banjo Juke (as in football, and as in juke box) Tote (carry) Voodoo (McCrum 209) A high five A jam session Nitty gritty Sambo To bad mouth Yum yum (McCrum 210) Coppin a plea (McCrum 227)
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Maritime Pidgin English (McCrum 202/218)
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Pidgins Creoles

• Pidgin is a simplification of the word business.
• Creole comes from Portuguese crioulo meaning
  house slave
• Other pidgin words in black English include
  pickaninny from Portuguese pequiño, and savvy
  from French savez-vous meaning Do you know
• In AAVE He workin means that he is busy right
  now, but He be workin means that he has a
  steady job.
• Pidgin speakers also use dey and de for
  they and the.
• (McCrum 212-216)

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Tense and Aspect in AAVE

• Him go means He goes.
• Him done go means He went.
• Him binna go mans He was going.
• (McCrum 219)

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Language about the Slave Trade

• Blacks
• Dozens
• Negroes
• Slave driver
• Slave labor
• To sell someone down the river (note that in
  Huckleberry Finn, Jim ran away to avoid being
  sold down the river, but ended up going down the
  river on his own, with Huck). (McCrum 228)

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Famous Pidgin Speakers

• Tonto, the Lone Rangers sidekick spoke pidgin.
• Tarzen spoke pidgin.
• Friday in Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe spoke
  pidgin.
• Uncle Tom in Harriett Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms
  Cabin spoke pidgin.
• Uncle Remus in Joel Chandler Harriss Uncle Remus
  Tales spoke pidgin. (McCrum 213 229)

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Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox

• One day atter Brer Rabbit fool im wid dat
  calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got im
  some tar, en mix it wid some turpentine, en fix
  up a contrapshun wat he call a Tar-Baby, en tuck
  dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot er in de big road,
  en den he lay off in de bushes fur ter see wat de
  news wuz gwinter be. (McCrum 229)

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Joel Chandler Harris

• Joel Chandler Harris was not black. Mark Twain
  in fact describes Joel Chandler Harris not only
  as white, but also as undersized, red-haired
  and somewhat freckled.
• This bothers many contemporary blacks.
• However, he did have a good ear for language, as
  he continued (or exploited) the black
  story-telling tradition. (McCrum 229)

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Porgy and Bess

• In 1915, Thomas Heyward and Ira Gershwin wrote
  the opera, Porgy and Bess.
• One of the Gershwin pieces in this opera was
  Rhapsody in Blue.
• In Porgy and Bess, Heyward and Gershwin tried to
  capture the culture and language of the
  Gullah-speaking Blacks.
• For example, the laid-back Black blues rhythms
  can be heard in Summertime. (McCrum 233)

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Summertime

• Summertime an the livin is easy.
• Fish are jumpin an the cotton is high.
• O yo Daddys rich an yo Ma is good lookin
• So hush little baby dont yo cry.
• (McCrum 233)

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The Spread of AAVE, Part 1

• J. L. Dillard says that Southern Whites resent
  the charge that AAVE had a significant influence
  on white Southern English.
• Dillard notes, however, that the Southern Dialect
  coincides perfectly with the Confederate
  Statesthe ones that practiced slavery. (McCrum
  230-231)

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The Spead of AAVE, Part 2

• Black English became the language of
  entertainment
• Sports
• Minstrel Shows
• Vaudeville
• Music Halls
• The Stage
• Night Clubs
• Radios, and even
• The Movies (McCrum 229, 238)

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Black Music
The Blues (esp. in New Orleans)(1870) Jazz Jitterbug Jive (1930s) The Negro Spiritual (1866) Ragtime (Scot Joplin)(1896) Rhythm and Blues (1950s) Rock n roll Soul Music (1960s) Todays Rap and Hip-Hop Music (McCrum 234-235)
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New Orleans from 1870s on

• Double Meanings
• Covert Sexuality
• Black Liberation
• African Rhythms
• Jazz, Scat, and Syncopated Rhythms
• A musician who didnt like to improvise was
  considered up tight
• Jazz was hot and it was also cool.
• (McCrum 236)

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Black Sexual Allusions

• Cookie
• Cake
• Pie
• Angel Food Cake
• Jelly roll (from Mandingo jeli which refers to
  a minstrel who gains popularity with women
  through skill with words and music (McCrum 237)

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Black Words and Street Talk
Break Dancing Cakewalk Cool Doin your own thing Heavy Hepster Talk Hip Jive Talk Man The man Whats up, man? (McCrum 234)
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Coded Messages in Negro Spirituals

• I aint never been to heaben but Ah been told,
• Comin fuh to carry me home,
• Dat de streets in heaben am paved wif gold,
• Comin fuh to carry me home.
• Swing low, sweet Chariot,
• Comin fuh to carry me home.
• Swing low, sweet Chariot,
• Comin fuh to carry me home.
• (McCrum 235)

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In such Spirituals

• Steal away to Jesus was an invitation to a
  gathering of slaves.
• Judgment Day was the day of the slave uprising.
• Home, Canaan was the Promised Land
• Heaven meant Africa, and
• A-gwine to Glory referred to the boarding of a
  repatriation ship bound for Africa. (McCrum 235)

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Inverted Messages

• As with the American Indians known as the
  Contraries, many AAVE words were antonyms of
  themselves.
• Thus ugly meant beautiful,
• And bad (pronounced baa-ad) meant great,
• And both fat and mean meant
  excellent. (McCrum 237)

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Before and After the Age of Six

• Up to the age of about 6, Black White children
  played together and learned together.
• There were more Black children than White
  children.
• All of the nursing was done by Black wet nurses
  so that Southern Belles could be Southern Belles.
• But at the age of six, White boys (but not White
  girls) were sent to Northern boarding schools so
  as not to be influenced by Black speech.
• (McCrum 231-232)

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English, Spanish French in the Caribbean
Central America (McCrum 206/223)
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After the Civil War

• Civil Rights became an issue.
• In 1867 there were more Southern Blacks
  registered to vote than Whites.
• Jim Crow laws were established to abridge the
  rights of blacks.
• These laws led to segregation and a separate
  but equal education. Blacks who didnt believe
  in these laws were considered uppity.
• (McCrum 233-234)

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Civil Rights in 1963

• People started talking about civil rights.
• The word black replaced the words negro,
  nigger, and colored.
• Black history, black studies, black
  theatre, and black power became issues.
• Sit-ins, blood brothers, soul, backlash
  bussing take the rap, the hoodand nitty
  gritty became indispensable English words.

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• The best talker of a gang was known as the
  prince and this gave us the name for the sit
  com, The Fresh Prince of Belle Aire.
• Funky fresh means excellent.
• Crib is your house.
• Maxing (out) means relaxing.
• Chill is a cold shoulder.
• Biting is copying, and
• jonesing something means to want it really
  badly (from the expression keeping up with the
  Jones). (McCrum 248)

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Black Diaspora (McCrum 222/239)
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Jive and Hip Hop Language of Harlem (New York)
Beat (exhausted) Busted (caught) Chick (girl) Dude Groovy/In the Groove (from records) Have a ball (enjoy yourself) Heavy (Profound) Hip (sophisticated) Hype Jam (improvize) Joint (club and marijuana) Kicks Mellow (out) Out of this world Pad (bed) Riff (musical phrase) Rip off Roach Sharp Square (unhip) Stash (to hide away) Too much Yeah, man (Ascent) (McCrum 241)
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Whites Also Adopt Jive and Hip Language

• This same jive and hip black language was also
  supported by white performers such as the Beatles
  in England, and the Beat generation in the United
  States.
• (McCrum 243)

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Martin Luther King (1963) and Black Preacher Talk

• I say to you todaythat in spite of the
  difficulties and frustrations of the moment I
  still have a dream
• I have a dream that one day on the red hills of
  Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of
  former slave owners will be able to sit down
  together at the table of brotherhood...
• I have a dream that my four little children will
  one day live in a nation where they will not be
  judged by the color of their skin

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• !Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of
  New York
• When we let it ring from every village and every
  hamlet, from every state and every city, we will
  be able to speed up that day when all of Gods
  children,
• Black men and White men,
• Jews and Gentiles,
• Protestants and Catholics,
• will be able to join hands and sing in the words
  of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last, Free at
  last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!
• (McCrum 246)

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!!PowerPoints

• African-American Contrastive Analysis
• African-American Humor

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!!!Guest Lecturer if Possible

• Neal Lester is the Chair of the English
  Department. He is excellent in discussing black
  language play, and is an excellent code shifter.
  He is especially good at preacher talk.
• Ill try to get him as a guest lecturer if
  possible.

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Works Cited

• Marckwardt, Albert H, revised by J. L. Dillard.
  American English, Second Edition. New York, NY
  Oxford University Press, 1980.
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil.
  The Story of English. New York, NY Penguin,
  1986. (source of map citations)
• McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil.
  The Story of English Third Revised Edition. New
  York, NY Penguin, 2003. (source of text
  citations)