Summary Part II

Spoken Soul: Summary of pgs.50-100

In this section of the book the authors explain the broad use of the Black Vernacular by preachers, actors, comedians, singers, and rappers in their occupations to inspire, entertain, and express their cultural identities.

Black preachers use the vernacular to show their congregrants that they can relate to their struggles, and cultural experiences. This is important because a preacher must be intimately aware of their congregrants ways and weaknesses in order to be taken seriously, and to guide them spiritually. For example, a black preacher will often translate the biblical text to plain talk to make it current, as though it were happening today: “And on the third baby, she said, ‘This time I got him. He can’t go nowhere. Now he is joined to me. He’s mine.’ Ya’ll know Leah, don’t you?”

The authors also mention that the Black Vernacular is marked by the use of double negatives or the deletion of the verb (is, are). For example, “we gon tear the roof off the suka tonight.” They also assert that the vernacular of African Americans is an empowering element of a Black preacher’s craft, however they are also expected to be capable of wielding “the prestige language” standard English if they seek to broaden their audience.

African American comedians, actors and musicians use the vernacular basically to humor, delight, and entertain audiences. Some will often use the vernacular in their routines, acts to show the stark cultural and lifestyle differences of African Americans versus other ethnicities. For instance, in a comedic routine a black comedian may exploit the vernacular for humorous effect. An example of this is when a White person is worried they might “Oh father God”, while a Black person in a similar situation might say “Oh Shit.” This becomes humorous because the audience’ recognizes the cultural contrast or stereotypes and are able to in reality laugh at themselves.

Another interesting point the author exposes is the difficulty sometimes for African Americans to switch effortlessly from the vernacular to Standard English. This touches on my initial blog about my language story, where growing up I had to be able to switch in and out of the vernacular.