So, just like before, I would be looking for misappropriation and misuse, but this time it is not tathered to the internet, and also includes another part, in which I claim that the African American culture is stereotyped by these things. Like before, I would still rely on some sources that discuss AAVE and its history online. For example, I would most likely like to bring in some of Lisa Nakamura's work, and her talk of a "Digital Divide" on the internet. She says that, "...lack of access to the internet...cut particular bodies out of the various histories in the making..." (397). Even though this specifically talks about the internet, the second part makes a very strong connection with my point, in that by not producing and being a part of AAVE's introduction to this form of media and communication, the African American community could not develop their own image as they wished. A similarily helpful source would be Punday, who states that, "...online discourse is woven of stereotypical cultural narratives that reinstall precisely those conditions" (199). This quote would most likely only be helpful in talking about an online genre source that I was giving an example of, but it is still powerful none the less.
In a more general sense, I will also need sources that describe what the misappropriation and misuse of AAVE looks like exactly. Such a source would be Maggie Ronkin, who defines it as, "...asystmatic graphemic representations of phonetic segments, the hyper-use of be, semantic and pragmatic derogation, and the use of vulgar expressions" (363). This is very helpful in providing some guidelines by which I can produce my genres, so that they fully protray the case I am trying to make. When talking about how the language is misappropriated, I will also want to consider some of the things I learned from project three. For example, we discussed in preparation for that paper, how the way in which AAVE is addressed (either as Black English, Ebonics, AAVE, etc...), makes an indication as to how it is being received by society. On that line of exceptance and legitimacy, I will also want to sight some more recent sources like Andrew Billings, who talks about how, "...numerous studies have convincingly shown that BE speakers are rated as "less credible" than speakers of Standard American English" (68). He goes on later to also bring up the Oakland Ebonics Resolution, talking about the general wave on unacceptance that spread after it. With this source as a guide, I could work towards presenting a new article or advertisment pertaining to the legitimacy of AAVE, or perhaps even a social service announcement that denouces the stereotypes associated with AAVE users. These are just some basic areas that I could cover, and most likely I would need some more specific sources for each genre that I hit later on.
Works Cited
*I do not know why it copied like this, but it underlined everything and would not let me change it. Sorry about that.*
Billings, Andrew C. “Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about Black and Standard English.” Journal of Black Studies 36.1 (2005): 68-81.
Nakamura, Lisa. “Cybertyping and the Work of Race…” A Reader for Writers. Ed. Collin Craig, Staci Perryman-Clark, and Nancy C. DeJoy. Michigan: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008. 396-432.
Punday, David. “The Narrative Construction of Cyberspace: Reading Neuromancer, Reading Cyberspace Debates.” College English 63.2 (2000): 194-213.
Ronkin, Maggie, and Helen E. Karn. “Mock Ebonics: Linguistic racism in parodies of Ebonics on the Internet.” Journal of Sociolinguists 3.3 (1999): 360-380.
