In my last post, I summed up information on the appropriation of AAVE (and a little bit of the discussion of it), on facebook.com. Now something very interesting about analyzing facebook, is that almost all of the users provide pictures of themselves that represent them in posts and if their pages are visited. Therefore, it seems to take away a lot of the annouminity of the internet, at least if one is willing to assume that most people put up actual pictures of themselves.
Adam J. Banks, in his writing "Taking Black Technology Seriously", talks about the appropriation of AAVE on the internet. He wrote this in 2005, so the concepts and examples he gives are relatively current, and so can be considered applicable even today. A main point in his writing is that the internet's language is almost entirely oriented to the persona of a typical white male user. Facebook provides perfect examples of this, since almost all of the ads and interface are in SE, and address issues that would be of concern to middle to upper-middle class people. They are about sporting events, video games, and dating sites, at least on my account. I do know that they also change depending on the information you provide about yourself, however it is important to note that there is nothing in one's profile that identifies their race. Therefore, the ads will not specifically target one based on race, which is probably a good thing, as the types of ads that come up could easily be very stereotypical and controversial.
What I found to be very interesting though, is that AAVE seems to actually be portrayed in a more correct format on facebook, when it is used. Some of the examples that Banks gives involve just simple phrases like "Hit me up", which actually don't even sound too much like AAVE at all (perhaps the expression is believed to be originated from it). His examples of tonal semantics pretty much say that when a word is completely capitalized or put in parenthesis to show an action (e.g. (((hugs)))), it portrays usage of AAVE. To be quite honest, this almost seems untrue to me, simply because I also portray actions when I chat with friends (although like *hugs* instead), and all capital letters in a word always imply a tone of excitement of anger, regardless of the dialect used. On the other hand, my examples included double negatives, ommission of -g's on the endings of words, and slang like "phat". These examples are much more useful if one is trying to show how AAVE is appropriated on the internet, and it actually seems to me that Banks' examples are more useful in supporting my theme that when AAVE is used, it is almost always used in bits and pieces.
If Banks' was trying to specifically target black users who use AAVE, a site like Blackplanet is probably a good place to look. I did not specify such a thing when I started searching, so on facebook, I actually found that a lot of the appropriation of AAVE was done by non African Americans. Also, sometimes the person using AAVE had a profile picture that did not actually show somebody (usually a drawing of some sort instead). They very well could simply be a non-African American who's incorrect usage of AAVE could very well be a form of stereotyping. Regardless, the appropriation can be found on both sites, but I would argue that the fact that it is on facebook stands against Banks' supposed assumption that AAVE is appropriated mainly in "underground" websites.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
DW2a
After a bit of research, I have decided to look at facebook as a popular culture site, simply because it has a very large user-base, which is frequently on and updating their profiles. As for where to look on the site, I think it is most likely best to look at the walls of many different people (not necessarily African American), and see if some different aspects or forms of AAVE are discussed or appropriated. However I also think I might want to look outside my own "circle" of friends, so I might also want to search for certain groups that may be related to AAVE, and see what I can come up with. Chances are, it will not be discussed to often, but there should be a good amount of appropriation.
A good point and an interesting thing to analyze, would probably be that although some forms of AAVE are used on facebook, it most likely is never used completely on such a public site, which is not exclusive or largely composed of AAVE speakers/writers. Most likely, many of the posts or walls will simply have comments mixed with some AAVE concepts, and then other forms of SE or computer jargon/lingo.
For example, I found a wall posting that read, "love deezz nuts you aint gettin no money niggaaa, hahaha jk". Now this setence does involve the use of a double negative (ain't, no), and uses "deezz" in place of "these", but it ends with "jk". Now obviously this posting was between two black friends, as the posting ends with "niggaaa", which is commonly not used by whites or most other races. I also found another posting by searching for a group called "homies" and found a post that read, "yo yo yo lookin for a dj to do some hip hoppin, performin, recordin.. anyone feelin da west coast smooth n phat beatz, lets hook up." Now this one doesn't use a ton of AAVE elements (omittion of -g's, "da", etc...), but the thing that is important about it, is that it is not a post from an African American. Rather, it is actually a post from a white user (at least going off of his profile picture).
The examples I provided above were all pretty informal greetings between friends, however I did also find an interesting quotation on a facebook group's homepage. The quotation is a conversation with Paul Mooney, and covers why he believes it is OK to call other black people "nigga". There are some points in the quote that have some elements of AAVE, but a large majority of the quote is in SE. It could be because the quote was given under an interview situation, but it does seem strange that such a topic that does actually discuss a word used commonly in AAVE, would not be written in any form of AAVE (perhaps it was to convey the point to a wider audience?).
To make my point that AAVE is not used often in a full conversation (or never used throughout a whole sentence even), it is important that I take samples from all over. At the same time, I think it is also important that I use examples from not just African American speakers, because that would be ignoring a large part of the facebook population that uses certain elements. Some people may just use the terminology though (bling, golddigger, etc...), so most likely those kind of posts should be avoided, since they more represent a connection to pop culture, in which those words are commonly used.
A good point and an interesting thing to analyze, would probably be that although some forms of AAVE are used on facebook, it most likely is never used completely on such a public site, which is not exclusive or largely composed of AAVE speakers/writers. Most likely, many of the posts or walls will simply have comments mixed with some AAVE concepts, and then other forms of SE or computer jargon/lingo.
For example, I found a wall posting that read, "love deezz nuts you aint gettin no money niggaaa, hahaha jk". Now this setence does involve the use of a double negative (ain't, no), and uses "deezz" in place of "these", but it ends with "jk". Now obviously this posting was between two black friends, as the posting ends with "niggaaa", which is commonly not used by whites or most other races. I also found another posting by searching for a group called "homies" and found a post that read, "yo yo yo lookin for a dj to do some hip hoppin, performin, recordin.. anyone feelin da west coast smooth n phat beatz, lets hook up." Now this one doesn't use a ton of AAVE elements (omittion of -g's, "da", etc...), but the thing that is important about it, is that it is not a post from an African American. Rather, it is actually a post from a white user (at least going off of his profile picture).
The examples I provided above were all pretty informal greetings between friends, however I did also find an interesting quotation on a facebook group's homepage. The quotation is a conversation with Paul Mooney, and covers why he believes it is OK to call other black people "nigga". There are some points in the quote that have some elements of AAVE, but a large majority of the quote is in SE. It could be because the quote was given under an interview situation, but it does seem strange that such a topic that does actually discuss a word used commonly in AAVE, would not be written in any form of AAVE (perhaps it was to convey the point to a wider audience?).
To make my point that AAVE is not used often in a full conversation (or never used throughout a whole sentence even), it is important that I take samples from all over. At the same time, I think it is also important that I use examples from not just African American speakers, because that would be ignoring a large part of the facebook population that uses certain elements. Some people may just use the terminology though (bling, golddigger, etc...), so most likely those kind of posts should be avoided, since they more represent a connection to pop culture, in which those words are commonly used.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
DW1b
The passage I am choosing to analyze is that from First Lessons, by Keith Gilyard. It is the passage from when his mother beats him for being home late from school, and I think it shows an interesting contradiction between my life and practices in comparison to Keith Gilyard's. The passage reads, "Haven't I told you about not coming straight home from school?" "Ma we had a substitute. We had a substitute Ma and she didn't know what time to let us out. I ran all the way home." "Boy don't tell me that barefaced lie. I'll take the skin off your backside for lyin to me." "But I ain't lyin Ma. I ain't." "Shut up boy! Ain't no teacher can keep no class late like that."
In this passage, Keith arrives home late from school, which his mother has warned him plenty of times about doing. However, the reason he is late is not because he was goofing off, but because a substitute teacher let the class out later than she was supposed to. Still, his mother refuses to believe this story that he tells her, so she proceeds to beat him anyway. The interesting thing that someone can notice about this passage, is that Keith and his mother both begin their dialogue using Standard English, but by the end of it, the tension and fear built up in the two of them cause them to use their more comfortable dialect of Black English. For example, Keith's mother at first says, "Boy don't tell me that barefaced lie" when he explains himself, but then uses a double negative and "ain't" when she says, "Ain't no teacher can keep no class late like that." Arguments are a particular situation in which most people are not so much thinking about how they convery a point, but rather that they convey the point strongly and confidently, so they often do so in the dialect or way of speech most comfortable to themselves.
The reason I chose the quote, is really because in my literary narrative, I also use a dialogue between my mother and I that is a type of argument. Besides the argument being between a little kid and his mother in comparison to a young adult and his mother, there are some other more interesting differences. Although changing dialects to Black English may only apply to some African American families, it is very common that people would change their dialects during arguments as I said earlier. However, the change that I exihibit while arguing with my mother is actually the exact opposite of Keith's situation. I instead begin to use a diction far above what I normally use, and have a more serious and flat tone. In my opinion, arguments are won by the person who remains calm and consistently brings the most supporting evidence to his or her side. My mother argues in the exact same way, so throughout our argument, we are just trying to one up the other without losing our tempers, lest the other retort with, "Well you're the one getting all worked up over this. Why don't you calm down?" I may not argue this way with my friends, however since my mother raised me to rely on logic and wits, as well as to always try to keep my temper, around her I follow these values (as does she).
Even though this may seem to be completely different than Keith's dialogue, it actually isn't exactly. I do use Standard English even during the argument, however I use a diction that is very uncommon for my everyday dialect. Therefore, we both still undergo a change in our dialects when we are in stressful situations. A lot of how our dialects change though, really has to do with who we are arguing with. For example, I'm pretty sure Keith and I argue in completely different ways with our friends. Keith would most likely begin the argument in Black English if it was an African American friend of his, and I might possibly swear or make jokes if I were to get into an argument with my friends. It really is interesting to see how a dramatic change in one's emotions can really affect how he speaks and presents himself.
In this passage, Keith arrives home late from school, which his mother has warned him plenty of times about doing. However, the reason he is late is not because he was goofing off, but because a substitute teacher let the class out later than she was supposed to. Still, his mother refuses to believe this story that he tells her, so she proceeds to beat him anyway. The interesting thing that someone can notice about this passage, is that Keith and his mother both begin their dialogue using Standard English, but by the end of it, the tension and fear built up in the two of them cause them to use their more comfortable dialect of Black English. For example, Keith's mother at first says, "Boy don't tell me that barefaced lie" when he explains himself, but then uses a double negative and "ain't" when she says, "Ain't no teacher can keep no class late like that." Arguments are a particular situation in which most people are not so much thinking about how they convery a point, but rather that they convey the point strongly and confidently, so they often do so in the dialect or way of speech most comfortable to themselves.
The reason I chose the quote, is really because in my literary narrative, I also use a dialogue between my mother and I that is a type of argument. Besides the argument being between a little kid and his mother in comparison to a young adult and his mother, there are some other more interesting differences. Although changing dialects to Black English may only apply to some African American families, it is very common that people would change their dialects during arguments as I said earlier. However, the change that I exihibit while arguing with my mother is actually the exact opposite of Keith's situation. I instead begin to use a diction far above what I normally use, and have a more serious and flat tone. In my opinion, arguments are won by the person who remains calm and consistently brings the most supporting evidence to his or her side. My mother argues in the exact same way, so throughout our argument, we are just trying to one up the other without losing our tempers, lest the other retort with, "Well you're the one getting all worked up over this. Why don't you calm down?" I may not argue this way with my friends, however since my mother raised me to rely on logic and wits, as well as to always try to keep my temper, around her I follow these values (as does she).
Even though this may seem to be completely different than Keith's dialogue, it actually isn't exactly. I do use Standard English even during the argument, however I use a diction that is very uncommon for my everyday dialect. Therefore, we both still undergo a change in our dialects when we are in stressful situations. A lot of how our dialects change though, really has to do with who we are arguing with. For example, I'm pretty sure Keith and I argue in completely different ways with our friends. Keith would most likely begin the argument in Black English if it was an African American friend of his, and I might possibly swear or make jokes if I were to get into an argument with my friends. It really is interesting to see how a dramatic change in one's emotions can really affect how he speaks and presents himself.
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