"The Negroes’ Relaxed Tongue: Language and The African Diaspora"–Guest Commentary From "KP"
I was telling a friend about Cornel West’s “santa clausification” of Dr. MLK Jr. (which should be a topic of a future post) and she said West was her “main man”, meaning one of her favorite intellectuals of our time. She has a good close white riend of hers who doesn’t understand how she can use the word “main, yet still have more than one, or refer to others in different contexts as her “main man.” She called it a “European precision way of thiniking.”
When a black person uses proper English in all settings, without fail, they are accused of “sounding white” by some of their peers, and often asked to embrace their “real” self instead of trying to be like a white person. My friend’s comment made me wonder if the negroes’ relaxed tongue, abundance of slang, and creative vocabulary is a rejection of white culture? Is this reality beneficial or harmful to African Americans today? Should we embrace our creativity and relaxed language or does it more times than not hinder the majority of African Americans from developing strong communication skills and progressing as professionals?
