If there is one thing I love bitching about, especially this semester, it's linguistics, "race," and power structures within society. In regards to these subjects, there is a lot of bitching to go around. And yes, I am going to continue to put "race" in quotes because it is one of the stupidest categories known to man. That, perhaps, is a rant for another day.
More specifically, the subject I am choosing to bitch about for my first post is "crossing," or "the use of language varieties associated with social or ethnic groups that the speaker does not normally 'belong' to" (mad props to Ben Rampton and Carmen Fought for that definition). What that refers to, in layman's terms, is all of the wangstas in the suburbs who listen to hard core rap, talk about dealing drugs and smacking up their bitches, and try to emulate the speech patterns of the likes of Lil Jon, Lil Wayne, or any rapper with the pejorative "Lil" in front of their names.
Figure 1: Lil Jon
You might ask yourself, "Well, what's wrong with that? Perhaps these youngsters are simply searching for their own identity by borrowing from the culture of others." To that, I have this response: There is something very wrong with it. While these kids may think that they are respecting other cultures, they are in fact appropriating what can only be described as stereotypes. Because listen, I am pretty sure that not every African-American walks around screaming "YEEEEEEAAAAAH-YUH!" like Lil Jon. Okay, that was an extreme example, but you get the picture; the only exposure that suburban white kids have to African American culture is what they hear on KISS-FM or see on BET. Meanwhile, African American culture (which I understand is a GIANT umbrella term, but bear with me) is rich and diverse, and doesn't glorify drugs, beating women, or yelling "WHHHHAT?" or "OOOKAAAAAAYYYY!!!"
Also consider the fact that these kids are adopting bits and pieces of other cultures, completely ignoring other relevant bits like the oppression that continues to this very day. Nope, suburban white kids are happy to keep their societal privilege while appropriating certain aspects of another culture that are "hip." And then there is also the fact that crossing just increases prejudice because of the stereotypes that white kids choose to adopt.
I'm going to have to stop here before I work myself into too much of a lather. And yes, I might be privileged white person myself, bitching about racial issues. But dammit, I took Soc/Anth 100, so I am clearly an authority on such matters.
-The humble opinions of a cunning linguist
Thank you for laying out how stupid the concept of "race" is. It was a concept introduced in the 1600's to justify slavery (among other things), so I always get a little enraged about it too.
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