Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872-1906, pictured.
“Because that’s what a widespread mode of expression can be. I ran the two classroom phrases past some of the serious students of hip-hopese. “Rapper Ahmad had a hip-hop song,” reports Dr. H. Samy Alim, U.C.L.A. assistant professor of anthropology, “that was made classic in part by its use of the African-American refrain, ‘back in the day.’ His rap began, ‘Back in the days when I was young, I’m not a kid anymore, but some days I sit and wish I was a kid again.’ For Ahmad, ‘back in the day’ was the period of his youth, not any specific historical period. . . . It’s not just used in the temporal sense, like ‘back in the days of Ronald Reagan, blacks was catchin’ hell!’ It can also be used to index a particular cultural value, such as modesty, integrity, as in ‘back in the day, we ain’t have no $150 Air Jordans — we wore whatever we got our hands on.’ It’s used to move us back in time (technically speaking) but also to help us make sense of the present and future (culturally speaking).”
“In borrowing, as speakers of Standard English do, cool words and phrases from hip-hop and rap (“You the man!” “You go, girl!”), we should recognize the savvy sociopolitical methods behind its dialectical formulations. We need not borrow its slurs or trash talk any more than its users need borrow our own. There’s no denying its impact; comes the holiday season, we’re not likely to hear the familiar representation of Santa Claus’s hearty laugh.”
TheStateOf . . . Country Grammar. Sounds like DV found company with Bill Saffire? Black English is amazing. Sometimes I turn on the radio or I go down South, and I (J) get a little lost as to what somebody is talking about. Like, I had no idea a “loosey” was a cigarette sold separately. (smile)
Filed under: Culture
