January 12, 2010

• What exactly is a “Negro Dialect”?

  Recently Harry Reid has been under a lot of scrutiny for his comments about Barack Obama.  His comments were talking about the reasons why Barack Obama could win the Whithehouse because he was a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

   So lets analyze this: in 2 parts. 

  Lets first take the “light skinned” remark.

  1. Harry Reid is pointing out that Barack Obama’s chance of winning the whitehouse is dependant on the shade of his skin. His statement inately shows that he believes the society will only vote for a black person if their skin tone is lighter.   Lighter skinned = better chances.  Darker skin = Less chances.

  Harry Reid could be racist himself, but he’s making a commentary on the racism that still exists in America.  It’s an opinion that he says here.  If he were to say “The only reason why Barack Obama won my vote is because he’s light – skinned” then that would be a racist comment. But that is not the case.

  2. Harry Reid says Barack Obama could win the Whitehouse because he speaks “with no Negro Dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”  Here Harry Reid is saying that Barack Obama can speak standard American English when he wants to.  And with a Negro dialect when he wants to.

  I don’t have a problem with the first part of this.  The problem I have is the 2nd.  “Negro Dialect”.  What is a Negro Dialect???

  Define Negro: a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose anscestors came from Africa)

  Define Dialect: The usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people; “the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English”

  So based on these definitions a Negro dialect is the vocabulary use of those who come from Africa.

  So what’s wrong with this?

  1. Since when is Urban language a Negro Dialect?  There are several groups of people including those of European descent who use urban language.

  2.  The fact that Harry Reid associates this Urban language with African Americans is racist.

  For example: I hate when someone will tell me that I act too “white” or that I act “black”.  In their minds what they are saying is that I act “educated” or I act “Urban or Ghetto”, but instead of saying that, it is replaced with an ethnicity.

  I always tell people “No, I’m not a banana, (yellow on the outside white on the inside) I’m American!” Since when did we associate American with white?

  So, a message to everyone… Consider how you associate a behavior with an ethnicity and STOP doing it!

  If you still don’t understand:

  Imagine if in this imaginary world that I’m about to create: that White people are all like Ned Flanders.  Now consider if I went up to you and said “man you act so white!”  That exposes the idea that you believe white people all act a certain way.  Or what if Chinese people were stereotyped into always driving caravans and you pull up in your caravan and I say, “man you’re so Chinese!” What would that mean?

  The statement then becomes a show of your ignorance.  Yes.  I’m afraid Harry Reid in this instance is showing off his ignorance.  Does that mean he can’t learn from it?  No, I’m sure he’s sorry for using the terms and he has already said sorry.

  So is this where the story ends?  No, lets say, through someone pointing it out to you, you found that there was some ignorance within you.  Lets say You’ve made a comment like this and you feel bad about it.  Well stop feeling bad about it and get over it.  Ask for forgiveness and then decide that you don’t want to be that way anymore.  Everyone’s got stereotypes they need to overcome.  And once someone points it out to you, you can move on and be better.  For those of us who have been the one to point it out, show some forgiveness and grace to that person.  If they aren’t mean spirited, then there is a hope that they can change.  Most people are willing to change so help be a part of the change and help that person.

  • 5:11 pm
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