Date:  Sun, 2 Nov 1997 17:35:07 +0000
From:  Al Futrell <al[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject: Re: "it's all good"

> At 04:27 PM 11/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
> >Why does everything have to originate from AAVE or "Black Talk?"
> >Some phrases or sayings are just that, not because they originated from
> >black people, but just sayings. Damn!, why cant it come from "White
> >talk" and what exactly would white talk be? I'm not trying to offend
> >anybody its just that this "black talk" issue is kind of touchy for me.

Well, everything doesn't come from "Black Talk" but generally a term
becomes "interesting" when we have never heard it before or don't
understand the metaphor which informs it.  This is what some
ethnographers would call a 'breakdown' - that is, when the
researcher's culture and some other culture don't seem to jibe. On
this list most of the people are white, so it is logical that
"white talk" would be more familiar to them and thus less
interesting. Fewer breakdowns and thus the tendency to notice terms
foreign to their worldview.



--Al Futrell, Dept of Comm, Univ of Louisville
--al[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]louisville.edu
--http://www.louisville.edu/~awfutr01