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"Superb." -- Steven Pinker "An explanation, a defense, and, most heartening, a celebration. . . . McWhorter demonstrates the 'legitimacy' of Black English by uncovering its complexity and sophistication, as well as the still unfolding journey that has led to its creation. . . . [His] intelligent breeziness is the source of the book's considerable charm." -- New Yorker " Talking Back, Talking Black is [McWhorter's] case for the acceptance of black English as a legitimate American dialect. . . . He ably and enthusiastically breaks down the mechanics." -- New York Times Book Review Linguists have been studying Black English as a speech variety for years, arguing to the public that it is different from Standard English, not a degradation of it. Yet false assumptions and controversies still swirl around what it means to speak and sound "black." In his first book devoted solely to the form, structure, and development of Black English, John McWhorter clearly explains its fundamentals and rich history while carefully examining the cultural, educational, and political issues that have undermined recognition of this transformative, empowering dialect. Talking Back, Talking Black takes us on a fascinating tour of a nuanced and complex language that has moved beyond America's borders to become a dynamic force for today's youth culture around the world.
John McWhorter teaches linguistics, Western civilization, music history, and American studies at Columbia University. A New York Times best-selling author and TED speaker, he is a columnist for CNN.com, a regular contributor to the Atlantic , a frequent guest on CNN and MSNBC, and the host of Slate 's language podcast, Lexicon Valley . His books on language include The Power of Babel ; Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ; Words on the Move ; Talking Back, Talking Black ; and The Creole Debate .
Reviews (4)
Kirkus Review
A compact, lively defense of the grammatical legitimacy of "Black English."McWhorter (Linguistics, Music History, American Studies/Columbia Univ.; Words on the Move: Why English Won'tand Can'tSit Still, 2016, etc.) has been involved in the controversies surrounding African-American Vernacular English for 20 years, when the news of Oakland, California's schools' consideration of an Ebonics curriculum provided him "fifteen minutes of modest media notoriety [as a] black linguist." Although the debate on Ebonics faded, McWhorter concluded, "racism is hardly the only thing standing between how linguists see Black English and how the public sees it." Thus, his approach focuses equally on discerning intricate grammatical principles within AAVE and on the larger mysteries of how shared culture affects seemingly individualized traits like speech patterns. He gradually expands his perspective over the book's five essays, first defusing the question of whether African-Americans can be said to "sound black." He notes that the issue's sensitivity may be "because Black English is so often associated with stupidity that one can't help wanting to disidentify from it." Meanwhile, even well-meaning white people are reluctant to explore their own assumptions for fear of appearing racist. Similarly, many black and white Americans cannot accept the legitimacy of Black English due to its apparent inappropriateness for certain social or professional situations, despite the fact that "no Black English advocate is calling for Black English to be allowed in [job] interviews." McWhorter notes that black Americans today are necessarily experts in code-switching, or utilizing both Standard and Black English in different contexts. "The two things do not cancel each other out: They coexist," he argues. Still, the enduring taint of minstrel culture continues to quash intellectual inquiry into black linguistics, as many are convinced "that a black way to talk has something to do with white racist caricature." The author confidently untangles these issues, writing in an accessible and wry yet precise style. A vibrant separation of an African-American vernacular tradition from the thickets of contemporary racial debate. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In the late 1990s, racial politics drove controversial debates about Ebonics, or black English, in schools. Linguist McWhorter (Winning the Race, 1986) now offers a broader historical context in which to consider how people of different cultures around the world and across time have spoken in different dialects. The perception persists that black English is standard English spoken badly. McWhorter argues that it is far more than that. Drawing on research, popular culture, and his own expertise as a linguist and black American, McWhorter conveys the roots and richness of the dialect that has come out of the experiences of black Americans. He examines particular differences in verb conjugations that demonstrate a more complex notion of when actions occur, defying the myth that black English is simplistic. McWhorter debunks other notions, such as the assumption that the black accent is simply a southern accent. This is an engaging look at the English language as spoken by many black Americans as well as the long history of stereotyping that has prevented an objective analysis of a rich language tradition.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
ON DEC. 18, 1996, the members of the Oakland school board passed an unconventional and short-lived resolution aimed at helping their African-American students. The school board proposed to have Ebonics, a crude hybrid of "ebony" and "phonics," recognized as its own "African" language. Employing this vernacular in the classroom, they theorized, could boost sagging black academic performance throughout the district. If these students had their dialect formally acknowledged, it could aid their understanding of the more standard American English and possibly make them eligible for bilingualeducation funds from the Department of Education. The suggestion was met with strident opposition from critics of all colors. "The very idea that African-American language is a language separate and apart can be very threatening, because it can encourage young men and women not to learn standard English," the poet Maya Angelou said. Before reversing his position on the school board's proposal, the Rev. Jesse Jackson dismissed Ebonics as "slang talk." John McWhorter was also weighing in. When Oakland's resolution passed, McWhorter was a 31-year-old linguistics and African-American studies professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Cable news was just becoming ubiquitous, and so, soon, he was as well, opining on Ebonics almost daily. In a journal article two months into the controversy, McWhorter escaped the fetters of the 30-second sound bite and made his position clear. "My feeling, in a nutshell," he wrote, "is simply that the Oakland school board misidentifies the reason for black students' failure in attributing it, in any significant way, to the difference between the dialects," instead offering that poor teaching and lack of school funding were more likely culprits. Teaching with Ebonics "would make black kids look stupid," he wrote; he did not specify to whom. But he also made clear that the Oakland educators did get something right: Black English, as he called it, was its own language. Shocked at the public ignorance of this fact, McWhorter wrote that it is the responsibility of academics to educate the masses. "The question, of course, is how?" he asked. Twenty years hence, McWhorter has made his most complete attempt yet. His latest book, "Talking Back, Talking Black," is his case for the acceptance of black English as a legitimate American dialect. McWhorter, now at Columbia University, constructs his argument defensively, offering that those who dismiss black English as gutter speak miss that it differentiates itself by using grammar and specific sounds and intonations. It really is a language, he seems to be screaming on virtually every page, somewhere beneath his own polished diction. While he breaks down the dropped possessive s's and omitted verbs of black English, McWhorter encourages the reader to view the dialect in the context of others throughout the world. Why are Americans so dismissive of black English when it is plain that it obeys the rules heeded by so many other recognized dialects and vernaculars? No stranger to inflammatory opinions on race, McWhorter recognizes how identity bias and discrimination against African-American speakers have played a part. Alas, he doesn't truly confront that prejudice. Instead, he lectures an intended audience that he clearly imagines to be mostly white and mostly academic. An argument for the legitimacy of any aspect of African-American culture should be able to stand on its own. But McWhorter's relatively slim volume reads as if he's making a lengthy PowerPoint presentation, aiming to persuade fellow scholars to buy his 20-year-old argument. The title hints at a challenge to both the intellectual stagnation plaguing the study of black English and to those who perpetuate its undeserved stigma. But McWhorter's work isn't an invitation to critical thinking about how language norms require upheaval. Instead, he limits himself to proving that black vernacular fits within an already established linguistic paradigm. While he ably and enthusiastically breaks down the mechanics of black English throughout the book, McWhorter squanders many opportunities to forcefully challenge the racist norms and structures that encouraged a hated people to take what they could of the king's English and make their own tongue. He saves one particularly sharp chapter for an excoriation of the "They can't talk that way at a job interview!" counterargument against black English. McWhorter always seems to stop short, though, of identifying more systemic problems. He explains how distinct dialects can form among people living in insular communities, but then doesn't explore the effect of housing segregation on how this came to be. There's plenty of useful history in this book, including a look at how minstrel performance perverted the public perception of black English. But a bolder, more contextual argument could have filled the spaces where McWhorter indulges in anecdotal tales of cocktail parties and memories of the Philadelphia neighborhood of his youth. Black scholars have often embarked on largely explanatory projects like this while targeting a primarily white audience. For many, that's simply the reality of getting published. But McWhorter misses a rare opportunity. Racism is perhaps the reason black English exists, yet he does not fully hold to account those who continue to feed that racism through their inaction or indifference. McWhorter's aim, as he states in his conclusion, is to have readers understand that black English is "worthy of celebration, study and certainly acceptance." He accomplishes that, especially for those seeking to sound smarter on cable news. But two decades after the furor over Oakland's Ebonics, it's fair to have expected something more revolutionary. JAMIL SMITH is senior national correspondent for MTV News.
Library Journal Review
In a series of essays, McWhorter (English & comparative literature, Columbia Univ.; Words on the Move; The Language Hoax) asserts that Black English is more than just Ebonics and "bad" English. Instead, he considers it to be a normal, systematic language that has changed and evolved as all languages have, historically. The author frames the negative connotation of Black English against the cultural perception of the speaker as opposed to the idiosyncrasies of the language itself. Written within a mainstream approach to linguistics, Black English is explained as an evolution of grammar, no different from the evolution of Old English into Modern English. McWhorter questions whether it's possible to tell if someone is black by the sound of their voice, analyzes what causes people to switch situationally from Black English to Standard English, and discusses the use of the n-word. Verdict This analysis of Black English is well suited for those who have an interest in black studies, education, history, language, or cultural studies.-Tiffeni Fontno, Boston Coll. Educational Resource Ctr. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.