ARE WHITE PEOPLE USING BLACK ENGLISH WORDS BEING LIKE ELVIS STEALING ROCK AND ROLL?
People think so, but they should consider the larger picture.
https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/ar ... ck-english
The issue here is an idea that white and black Americans can interact as richly as they do without coming to share aspects of their way of speaking.
That proposition itself requires two questions.
1) Is there a historical precedent where people interact richly but keep their speech varieties completely separate?
The answer there – I venture as a specialist on language contact – is no. There is no language that is not bedecked with words, sounds, and grammatical elements picked up from other languages and dialects spoken nearby (or even far away) over time. White and black Americans interact, date, marry, have kids together, partake of much of the same culture, and even come together enjoying a form of music deeply ensconced in Black English. The chance that this situation will contravene the hitherto universal nature of language hybridity is nil. To put it coarsely, languages fuck, as do dialects of a language. You can’t stop it.
2) Is there a case that even if this is the way it has been, that it would be a moral advancement if we tried to put a stop to it now?
That is, because this is about black Americans and the injustices we have suffered, we might try that banning the “appropriation” of Black English words and expressions is a New Idea, a new “right,” as it were, possibly to be applied to other groups as well.