Who Gets To Use Black English?
John McWhorter, teaches linguistics at Columbia University and author of many books including Talking Back, Talking Black (Bellevue Literary Press, 2017), digs into why a white poet using African American Vernacular English outraged so many readers in his most recent essay in The Atlantic, and asks if there is away to imitate Black English without offending people of color.
Thank you so much for this episode! My love of language adores you!
— assiduous resistance (@assiduousrabbit) August 20, 2018
We label it black English due to the fact that we black people represent a lot of the low income urban struggle which this speech comes from go to Detroit poor whites speak very similar
— clickclick718 (@AAGMONEY1) August 20, 2018
@JohnHMcWhorter Coming across your work for the first time via @BrianLehrer Thank you, sir, for your sensible stance on the fuzzy concept of cultural appropriation.
— Sarosh Syed (@saroshsyed) August 20, 2018
@BrianLehrer Oh, language! Let’s face it: Bottom line is that Americans do not speak English. White People an speak American dialect of English depending on where they live. Black Americans (and I agree with your guest re Black vs the homogeneous African-American!) speak theirs.
— Gregory M. Bruce (@greggoreo) August 20, 2018
