>>Just what ARE you trying to convey by employing that Amos and Andy dialect, Mr. Pilch?<
Precisely what I intended to convey. Ostensibly you consider the dialect offensive. If so, then it is really your problem. Perhaps it offends you because it has long been associated with White hegemony-- forced ignorance upon Blacks.
Well. To me it symbolizes "makin' do wid whut y' got". The dialect came out of the crucible of slavery, and is something wholly different than English, yet so similar to that language that virtually any English speaking person can understand it. It is economical, and yet terribly expressive. "You crazy!?"
This ignorant sounding dialect is quite effective when attacking an incorrigible opponent's ability to reason. It allows one to naturally deliver an ad hominem obliquely, humorously, and yet with punch.
Standard English: "You are an idiot!"
Old Style Ebonics:"You crazy!"
In the first case, the individual is directly defined as an object, namely, an idiot. In the second case, the individual is merely assigned an attribute, namely, "craziness". In the latter case, the playfulness of the dialect as well as its obliqueness subtly presents an implication of hope. In the former case we see the less subtle implication of hopelessness. Crazy people can possibly change, but an idiot will always be an idiot.
Nevertheless, in its harshest form, Old Style Ebonics can attack just as destructively as standard English: "You jez stOOpid!" Here the attacker has assigned an attribute to his opponent, namely, stupidity, but the attribute seems to have much more permanence than simple craziness, this, despite its obliqueness.
Now of course one can deliver an oblique ad hominem in standard English. Nevertheless with Ebonics it seems the angular attack is typical, perhaps even more natural. I think there are historical reasons for this. All this makes the language remarkably effective in assaulting an enemy.
Another feature of the language is its flexibility. I sometime employ this feature when I feel particularly friendly toward an opponent. With the old style Ebonics, the very same words used in a brutal attack, can be uttered as endearments.
Here is a conversation between two old lovers in the kitchen. They have been married forty years.
Grandfather-(hugging his wife as she washes dishes at the sink):
"Honey, deah ain't nobody like you. I ain' been wid you no forty yeahs fo nuthin. I ain' crazy"
Grandmother (chuckling): "Yes you is"
Grandfather: "Uh uh honey. I ain crazy no how." (snuggling closer)
Grandmother (laughs): Yes you is. You crazy as one o' dem peoples in Happy Acres. You git own 'way fom me crazy man!
Grandfather: (Laughing, and snuggling yet closer to his wife): "Ni c'mown shuga! You kno' I'd be crazy to git 'way fom you."
Grandmother (laughs out loud): Man you jez as crazy as kin be! Ni git own away, shoo, git, shoo! Uhm trine ta git dees dishes done!
When I typed this for you, I smiled, and loved this couple. Are not they extraordinarily noble? Why is this? Their language had the same ignorant sound as is typical in Ebonics. They obtain their nobility from their character, and such excellence conveyed by simple Ebonics is disarming, it brings us in, it all be down home, warm, no pretendin, comftable like--- you jez likes dees peoples, an you don' be carin' how dey talks.
Now here is the same conversation in standard English
Grandfather-(hugging his wife as she washes dishes at the sink):
"Sweetheart, there is no one like you, and that is the reason I have remained with you these forty years. I am no idiot."
Grandmother (chuckling): "Yes you are."
Grandfather: "No dear. I am not at all an idiot." (snuggling closer)
Grandmother (laughs): Yes you are. You are as much an idiot as a patient in Happy Acres. Now please get away from me, you idiot!
Grandfather: (Laughing, and snuggling closer to his wife): "Be reasonable, sweetness. You no doubt are aware that I would be an idiot were I to get away from you."
Grandmother (laughs out loud): Husband, you are just as much an idiot as one can possibly be! Now get away, shoo, get, shoo! I am trying to finish these dishes!
Surely couples endearingly ridicule one another in standard English, but in Ebonics one can almost literally call someone an idiot, and yet have complemented them in the most extraordinary way. Similarly, in Ebonics one can compliment someone and yet insult them.
"Dang man! Whus wrong widchu!!?? You ain't got no kinda sense!"
The statements certainly constitute an insult, but by use of double negatives, they technically tell the person he has sense.
I do not think Ebonics should be taught in our schools, but I reserve the right to explore it and use it with impunity. If some racist here thinks it belittles Blacks, then this thought itself reveals him to be an illogical twit. The same applies to the well meaning, but utterly misguided liberal (who possibly is quite a racist himself). |
