I was just watching some videos on You Tube of Dave Chapelle doing a comedy routine. He's a pretty funny guy. In the middle of one bit, he says that white people didn't realize that there was a problem with police brutality until they read about it in Newsweek. He changes from his normal voice to what I'll call a 'whitebread' voice to deliver the line "Honey, did you see this? Apparently, the police have been beating up Negroes like hotcakes! It's in the May issue!"
At first, I thought it was just another funny bit. Then I thought a bit about how he can casually say 'Niggers know this kind of thing all the time, but white folks don't'. The classic 'N-word', reserved to black people -- though now there's apparently a minor groundswell advocating non-use by them, either. I've seen both sides of that argument: one side saying 'If we use it, we're demeaning ourselves, and just perpetuating the Stephin Fetchit stereotype', and the other side saying 'its a uniquely black humor; to abandon it is to abandon part of our culture'. I can't speak to either side. .
But what got me after a moment was that 'white' voice. It was obviously intended to be a parody, and was obviously artificial (no one's sounded like that since, perhaps, the HAL 9000), but it still sounded 'more right ' to me than his normal voice. I wondered: why is this? After all, I'm white, and I don't sound like that. So why did it sound right? And I realized that it was because he was speaking very clearly, very articulately. No slurring. It wasn't the classic 'black' voice; ie, no drawl, y'all. It didn't sound like me, but it did sound more like me than his usual voice. But I didn't notice anything odd about his usual voice until he changed it. What's going on here?
You may recall that a number of people were irritated when Barack Obama was described as 'articulate', because that was seen as being condescending, implying superiority on the part of the person making the observation. I got an interesting response to a post I wrote about that, saying that I didn't think Joe Biden, who'd made the comment, intended to disparage Obama by saying it. Here's the response:
Saying a person is articulate because you (not you but a general "you") had already formed an image, preconceived and full of assumptions mostly of negative expectations of that person (or people that look like them) is not a compliment.
If I leave my car at the dealer for a tune-up, should I say when picking up my car thanks for not stealing any items from the car? Am I praising their honesty and integrity? No, rather I'm saying you look like a thief, I expected you to steal, and the fact that you didn't surprises me because I am so self-assured of my own preconceived opinions and prejudices that I had low expectations of you.
To which I responded:
I think you're right about the source of the unhappiness about the idea, but its sad when you have to judge what someone's assumptions are before you can know whether to accept their words.
This routine made me think about the question of accent and elocution again. When Chappelle wanted to sound 'white', he spoke in a staccato, hyper-precise style. What does that say about the perception of accent in this country? Would it be okay for me to tell a joke with a black person in it, and deliberately exaggerate the drawl for their part? My guess would be, no, it'd be offensive. If thats true, then why is his 'white voice' okay? Is it somehow mixed in with the idea that its okay for him to say nigger, but not for me?
Man, I bet you could do a whole sociology paper -- heck, a book -- on that question, and still not have an answer.
4 comments:
I have actually thought about this before while watching Dave Chapelle. I remember taking notice the first time he used his "white" voice. In my opinion, I think a lot of this ties into the association people have formed with these kinds of speaking. Since Blacks are stereotypically portrayed with a drawl (uneducated) and whites speaking articulately (educated) it is assumed to be an insult if you took on that voice. Obviously, some of these stereotypes are grounded in historical fact but, I would argue that is not just a racial thing rather it has to do with socio-economic status. Poor people (of all races) tend to speak in an uneducated manner and people that have money to go to good schools speak articulately. As happens to be the case in America's history the majority of poor people have been minorities and therefore the association has been made. Of course if you imitated the voice I'm sure you would be accused of being racist for stereotyping the way Blacks speak. So to answer your question I'm not so sure if it ties directly back to the n-word or not haha. Although they both can be seen as representations of a time when Blacks were oppressed through derogatory language(nigger)and denying them access to an education (leading to Black talk).
I had to reread your comments a couple of times to get all of what you said -- very well put, and very detailed. I liked it.
Did you notice that you said Blacks and whites? Not Blacks and Whites, or blacks and whites.
I hadn't thought about the drawl meaning uneducated, but you're right. I am sure thats the way it is in the North. Don't know what the perception is in the west, though. IS there a 'western' accent? I'm thinking 'not really', but I don't know that. I suppose everyone has some kind of accent. Except me. After living in California, South Dakota, Texas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York, I pretty much blended out. Of course, I counterbalance Henry Kissinger, who once said that he spoke EVERY language with an accent -- even his German had a Swiss accent.
I think that poor people used to speak in an uneducated manner, but I'm not sure thats restricted to them any more. Blame mass media for that one.
As for the origin of 'black talk', I'm assuming you mean the drawl, and not, literally, slave talk, about which I know almost nothing, other than that it did exist.
Interesting stuff. Thanks.
About the capitalizing I was trying to catch myself on that because I usually forget to capitalize whites. It is kind of weird, it is probably because it has been made clear to me there is a difference when you capitalize the "b" but, no one really points out capitalizing the "w" in whites. Too many rules to keep straight in writing heh.
Well, speaking for my people, I forgive you.
(g)
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