Wuz Up Wit Dat?: Exploring the Colonizing Properties of the Standard English Language and its Implications for the Denudation and Denigration of Black Survivalist and Stylistic Language, Syntax and Phonology

Abstract

Black linguistics and ethnolect in America, as a survivalist tool, has existed for over 400 years as a hybridized version of the English and other ethnic languages. This was especially so since Blacks were shackled and forcibly removed from Africa to work the plantation fields of the Americas. Since then its use has metamorphosed into a myriad of languages and sociolets, including lexicon that have been standardized into variants of Pidgin, Creole and others, by Black cultures and communities in America and all over the world. Using theories of racism and anti-oppression resiliency, the study explored the Colonizing properties of the Standard English language and how what is termed Black English language or African American Vernacular English-AAVE in the United States has been used over the millennia to promote esprit de corps and sustain the homeostasis of Blacks and their communities. It also showed how Black English as a survivalist language has suffered a targeted and sustained rejection and threat of extinction from within and without in educational and business institutions, while simultaneously having an ambivalent relationship in music, entertainment and popular culture with mainstream American society. The study presents deconstructionist ramifications for the integration or the lack thereof into mainstream American society of Blacks who use this language at home, in education, work, and civil society, especially due, to the perception that Black English language is ghetto, therefore has no place in or application for upward mobility and mainstream society.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n1p135