Dowdy’s interview with educator Christina McVay is a fresh perspective on the teaching of Black women in Pan-African Studies. What strikes me as unique is that the study of Black women and Black literature is discussed in this piece through the eyes of a White professor, one who praises Black oral and written language despite her ethnic background or previous formal education.
One of the ideas that McVay presented is that of mistrust. Black students enter the Pan-African Department disliking language and English because of the way earlier school systems have presented the two. Why must we look at language as a fixed thing with rules we must follow? Although McVay understands the Black community to possess the greatest oral dexterity with a flow and creativity unlike others, I believe that the Whites who constructed our English programs dismissed this truth only to reduce Black language to an inadequate subject of study. To untangle her students of this untruth, McVay works hard to create assignments that make her students more comfortable with their language ability.McVay mentions one of her students’ assignments to create a slang dictionary. To do the assignment, one must simulate an actual dictionary by including the part of speech and definition. Another option to this project is to write dialogue in slang with an accompanying translation in what McVay calls “consensus English”. Both tasks are designed to help her students relax and apply a part of themselves to the class. As we tried the assignment ourselves on Monday of this week, I actually gained another insight other than the one that McVay tries to convey. I understand that Black slang is actually another language, a derivative of American English with its own tradition and background.
One of the ideas that McVay presented is that of mistrust. Black students enter the Pan-African Department disliking language and English because of the way earlier school systems have presented the two. Why must we look at language as a fixed thing with rules we must follow? Although McVay understands the Black community to possess the greatest oral dexterity with a flow and creativity unlike others, I believe that the Whites who constructed our English programs dismissed this truth only to reduce Black language to an inadequate subject of study. To untangle her students of this untruth, McVay works hard to create assignments that make her students more comfortable with their language ability.McVay mentions one of her students’ assignments to create a slang dictionary. To do the assignment, one must simulate an actual dictionary by including the part of speech and definition. Another option to this project is to write dialogue in slang with an accompanying translation in what McVay calls “consensus English”. Both tasks are designed to help her students relax and apply a part of themselves to the class. As we tried the assignment ourselves on Monday of this week, I actually gained another insight other than the one that McVay tries to convey. I understand that Black slang is actually another language, a derivative of American English with its own tradition and background.
The thing that stood out to me the most as well was the fact that she was white. I thought she was black the entire time by the way she gave the interview, especially when she talked about the conversation she had with a black professor at the bar, and when she talked about a conversation she had with a girl in her office that lasted a long time about black men.
ReplyDeleteAs a group we relate to the blog. The key factors pointed out in this blog include the blogger's perspective on the way in which McVay teaches her students. It is encouraging to know that soemthing that is so vital in the Black community can be looked at as its own entity.
ReplyDelete-Aminta Parker, Erica Paige, Candice Frazier
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ReplyDeleteEven though I did not read the selection I agree that the slang dictionary assignment brought about a sense of comfortability. I was unaware that black english was respected or could be respected in a formal english setting.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought of black english or "ebonics" as a dialect of american english but never a legitimate language. I found it interesting that a white professor would deem "ebonics" as proper. Ebonics has always had a negative connotation, it was very enlightening to discover that black english is not bad but a form of self expression.
Morgan Mckenzie and Maya