In this celebration of Black English, Smitherman examines its
strengths and urges its use in beginning reading programs for young
children. Following Dillard's lead, she defends black speech
patterns and styles, too often dismissed by whites as substandard
or unsystematic, and uses the works of Langston Hughes, Richard
Wright, and others to document the richness and vitality of black
dialect. She finds in the Dozens and other modes of discourse
logical extensions of African oral traditions and sees in the early
attraction to and acceptance of the church an adaptation of the
African world view. Writing in standard white English, using black
English for emphasis, Smitherman (Speech Communication, Wayne
State) cites a wide variety of sources ("I mean, really, it seem
like everybody and they momma done had something to say on the
subject!") and then introduces her own recommendations in a final
chapter on educational practices. Charging that the imposition of
white English on black children makes excessive demands ("they must
learn to be switch hitters"), she suggests a reading/language
program which accommodates not "deficiencies" but actualities,
ultimately aiming for fluency in both dialects. Her solution is
wholly reasonable to anyone who's seen a black six-year-old (or
sixteen-year-old) struggle with white English inflections but it
overlooks several important problems (non-blacks in the class,
variations in black dialect) and rather naively looks to the
individual teacher as "an agent of social change." A jivey, feisty
text, with evidence drawn from Chinua Achebe, Aretha Franklin, and
streetcorner conversations. (Kirkus Reviews)
In her book, Geneva Smitherman makes a substantial contribution to
an understanding of Black English by setting it in the larger
context of Black culture and life style. In addition to defining
Black English, by its distinctive structure and special lexicon,
Smitherman argues that the Black dialect is set apart from
traditional English by a rhetorical style which reflects its
African origins. Smitherman also tackles the issue of Black and
White attitudes toward Black English, particularly as they affect
educational policy. Documenting her insights with quotes from
notable Black historical, literary and popular figures, Smitherman
makes clear that Black English is as legitimate a form of speech as
British, American, or Australian English.
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