Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1992)
Black English lives as language Brim-ring! This is your wake up call. Classes are now in session. From my recent experience in having to co-tcach my En glishclassfocusingon James Baldwin, a bfack literature writer, I found that the class discussion began a conversa tion with not enough time to com plete. Baldwin’s essay, “If Black En glish Isn’ta Language,Then Tell Me, What Is?” seemed to evoke a deep conversation that made a lot of stu dents go “hmmmm.” - It’s come to my atten tion that some majority students don’t under stand how Black English can be a language and not a dialect. Baldwin says in his essay that people create a language in an attempt - tocontrollhcircnviron ment or in an effort not to be con trolled by a reality that is not their own. - When Africans were brought to the United Stales chained together, they were separated from their tribe, or ethnic group, so that they could not speak their language. Slave owners knew that by sepa rating the tribes, they would cl iminatc the slaves’ ability to communicate with one another. This would help slave owners limit rebellion from the slaves, as well as group efforts to escape. When it was beneficial to them, slave owners attempted to teach the African slaves English. Even by using the English lan guage, the slaves created their own words and phrases, incorporating their African language, thus creating a se cret language that only slaves could understand. According to Baldwin, there were times in his life when he could be standing in front of a while man and his family could relay a message to him in a language that the while man could not understand. Black people still speak a language that is difficult for some and impos sible for other white people to under stand. Some examples of phrases and words: * Treeing: to stare; Hood: home; > Rollin’ up on the set: com ing home; Stepoffoflhattip:youdon’tknow what you’re talking about; Thought you knew (accompanied by emphatic rolls of the neck): you didn’t know; Hook me up: help me out; That’sphfat (or dope): the equiva lent of a white person saying, “rad;” Squash that: I’m tired of hearing that; Naw dog, you’re foul: you’re wrong; And, give me some skins: give me five. These are just a few of the many words used in Black English. I can’t tell you all of them, or some of my brothers and sisters may call me a sell out (giving in to white people or as similating). Just as in slavery, we don’t want to let white people know our entire game plan, or in this instance, our whole language. Language is a form of power, and if white people were taught Black English, then we would lose the lim ited power that we now have. But we know there won’t be no Black English in the schools even though words such asdiss, crib and ill, which were originally a part of Black English, now arc used by white people. These words arc also being adopted by standard (white) English dictio naries. It’s funny how the language of a black person is deemed illiterate until it is put into a dictionary. And nowit’s part of the English language — be cause white people use it. This goes along with music. Elvis is the king of everything . . . right? Where do you think he got—or stole — his music from? Rap isn’t rap until House of Pain or Vanilla Icecame to the stage... right? I mean, Das Efx, Ice Cube or A Tribe Cal led Quest weren ’ t e ven close, were they? Thinking about rap, Sister Souljah comes to mind, and I laugh. When this sister came to UNL last spring, white rap lovers couldn’t wait. They wanted to hear the sister speak. After all, she is part of the rap group Public Enemy, and P.E. is just ... radical. White students heard Sis ter Souljah speak and the majority, if not all of them, were upset, haled her and even hated the black students who were rolling (dying of laughter). But my question is a logical one. Why weren’twhitcstudcntsmad when they bought P.E., Ice Cube, Niggas W ith Attitudes and Ice-T, some of the hardest rappers today, who by the way, don’t play? Most of their raps aredissin’ those same white students who erratically dance and try to bc-bop to the music. The beat is not all that is important. The words must be heard. The words tell a story of black life. The words describe “the man” or who many blacks call “the enemy.” Black English is a language in and of itself. We choose not to use what Ameri cans call proper English, not because we don’t have the intellectual capac ity to take it in. We choose not to do so because it would seem to us that we were be coming that much closer to assimilat ing the values and experiences of a society and a people who have been historically proven to tell and live in lies. Ya’ll be trippin’ if ya’ll think that I’ma git wit dat. Translation: I don’t believe that I would be interested in being involved in such pursuits. Spurlock is a junior broadcasting and ncws-cd itorial journal ism major, and a Daily Nebraskan night-news editor and cofimnist. Conservative on a liberal campus Writing a conservative col umn for a college newspa per is a difficult task. Many college students fit into the liberal mold and don’t agree with conservative ideas, which is OK. The problem is that many students don’t even understand the political ideas they disagree with. In college life, conservatism seems to be the road less traveled. Just like toddlers who opt for pudding rather than vegetables, many students choose liberalism over conser vatism. Writing a convincing conservative column on a liberal campus is not easily done. It is similar to leaching calculus to preschoolers who have trouble counting to 10. The effectiveness of the argument is irrelevant if the readers don’t understand the basic mechan ics. When the conservative message is presented, liberals arc rarely capable of a substantive rebuttal. They oftpn resort to personal attacks and name calling. Another common response involves the use of fabricated statis tics, which the media never seem to question. The facts that conservatives arc a majority in the United Slates and arc winning support in the underclasses don’t seem to sit well with many liberals. Rather than deal with this reality, skeptics claim that Republi cans arc out of touch with middle class America. Nothing could be fur ther from the truth. Liberalism has proven to be a failed policy — in the United Slates and around the world. No one knows this better than the underclasses. The poverty class in United Slates has been victimized by its liberal ad vocacy. The welfare system has cre ated a permanent underclass. For years, the poor have awaited the prom - ises of economic fairness that have never been delivered. The safely net has failed to provide incentives to lead people out of pov erty. Welfare recipients arc penalized for saving money, owning homes and cars, and investing in themselves. Welfare mothers arc best served by having more babies. In many in stances, the poor are better of I stay i ng on welfare than accepting job oppor tunities. Liberals arc the only people out of touch with reality in middle-class America. Democrats measure com passion by how many people the gov ernment can subsidize. They spend most of their time devising ways to redistribute the wealth. This massive social experiment has failed, and the underclasses arc the first to agree. It would be easy, and somewhat pleasurable, to dwell on the failures of liberalism, but what the United Stales needs most is solutions. The conser vative domestic agenda holds the an swers. Conservatives are oftonHblamed for not caring about the uhdcrc lasses. This myth is kept alive by the media, who fail to explain the truth and only promote the misconceptions of the Republican party. The fact is that conservatives do care about the underclasses and arc in touch with America. We measure compassion not by the number of citizens who get gov ernment aid but by the number who no longer need it. If the liberal policy is called a safely net, the conservative agenda is a rescue ladder. Its goal is to pul people back to work and help them realize their full individual po tential. It is wonderful when liberals cry with outrage that conservatives want to destroy the underclass. You’re ab solutely right. We want to eliminate it completely. How cruel. —The poor in the U nited S tales don ’ l need an endless supply of handouts. These people don’t want a never ending life of welfare, where the gov ernment buffers the pain rather than fighting the disease. What they want is to have the power to run their own lives and support themselves. The conservative agenda consists of creating economic growth and changing the current welfare system to decrease the reliance on govern ment. The policy that concentrates on urban economic problems is Enter prise Zones. This consists of provid ing incentives for business develop ment, private ownership of housing and creating advancement opportuni ties for residents. Economic growth is the key to reducing poverty. Growth is achieved by reducing government barriers to businesses. Such barriers include regu lation, tort laws, high tax rates and capital-gains taxes. Conservatives have many ideas to reform the welfare system. These in clude asset ownership, savings poli cies, employment and education in centives and school choice. The sys tem should focus on turning tax-tak ers into taxpayers. Liberals oppose conservative poli cies because they eliminate the need for bigger government. Congress re fuses to pass Republican proposals, such as Enterprise Zones that have been in the works since the early 1980s. The onlybillslhaldogct passed have so much pork attached that they are not signable. Conservatives arc not out of touch with America. Liberals only getaway with such a claim because our message lends it self to shallow, rhetorical criticism. In reality, conservatives arc a ma jority in America, and are appealing to more and more of the underclasses. Liberals can choose to ignore this fact if they so desire. Hankins is a senior business student ma joring In nnance management and economics und is a Daily Nebraskan columnist . . I The Computing Resource Center is offering free' microcomputer seminars to UNL students. The seminars will feature an introduction to Microsoft Wad for the Macin tosh and WordPerfect for IBM machines. No reservations are required. Lab Location Dates Times Introduction to Microsoft Word for Macintosh p.mT p.m. Burr-Fedde Tuesday. September 22 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. 2:30- 3:30 p.m. Advanced WordPerfect 5.1 for IBM Sandoz(IBM) Thursday. September 24 3:00-4:30 p.m. Use Your hoodie! Spaghetti Recovery * Sunday through Thursday evenings * Al the spaghetti you can eat smothered with our Original, Thick ttaian sauce /Qiabout^ * Piping hot garlc bread & Sated Bar cur party al for $2.99 «=* 228 n. i2tMhcofr Just 2 Blocks From Campus! Get A Pair And A Spare! Duling's special offer on quality eyewear gives you savings to spare for a handy second pair! Buy one pair of eyeglasses at our regular low retail price, and we II include a spare pair of clear, single-vision eyeglasses - frame of equal value up to $100. Or if you prefer contacts, you can select a pair of Neoflex Thin daily-wear soft contact lenses at no extra charge. Come in to Duling today and take advantage of our savings! Duling also provides eye exams by an Independent, licensed optometrist We offer same-day service on many contact and single-vision eyeglass prescriptions. Bifocals, trifocals and progressives at competitive prices. Sunglasses, tinting ana other lens treatment extra Duling Optical East Park Plaza 466-1924 3923 S. 48th St. 488-3106 The Atrium 476-9652 "20% STUDENT DISCOUNT AVAILABLE" Pair And A Spare • Eyeglasses Purchase any complete prescription eyeglasses at our regular bw retail price, and well include a spare pair of glasses with dear single-vision plastic lenses and frames. And you can choose your spare pair from a wide selectbn of our most popular frames of equal value up to $100! Duling Optical Eye exam not Inducted. Spare pair must be tame lent praacrpHon. Second Iram* of equal value up to $100. Plaatfc lenaea only; Mocala and ooetlnga extra. Sunglaataa tinting and other lent treatment extra. No other cteoounta apply.Qoodalpartx*>*ing location* only. See xiur* for cxxjpivtu owuHa. » Pair And A Spare Contacts Purchase any complete prescription eyeglasses at our regular low retail price, and well include a pair of Neoflex Thin daily-wear soft contact lenses I \ DuUng Optical Eye warn not Included. Contact* to power* of -10O; Contact len* prescription required. Other brand* available. No other discount* or third-party plane apply. Good m partldpalng locations only. See store lor corrplatf details. 17 ...