Another rant

Ok, as I could not find anything to respond to, I want to talk about the Black Planet article and the blog on AIDS in the AA community. What is the most interesting to me about both sites is their use—that is, that they are being used without the use of coercion. I don’t mean that in regard to African Americans—that someone must coerce them to write or they won’t. I mean that ANYONE write without coercion is interesting. So again how people actually use the technologies without being assigned is fascinating. Apparently we all have a need to signify—to create community—to share our humanity and ideas. Again, how do we tap into this to make our writing assignments less artificial?
And when considering speaking patterns or writing patterns as “black,” what does that mean to us in writing classrooms? Is standard written English “white” or is it English? How can we capitalize on the richness of vernacular uses of language in the writing classroom?

If what we want is to help students develop strong writing—and believe this is linked to voice---how do we justify silencing their primary voices? How do we get to the places of hearing what students are saying in writing if we have to censure their language? In my experience, black students have some of the strongest voices—because they have been engaged in the kinds of social conflict that evokes strong responses. Their identity seems to be more sure, their personal history more alive, their convictions less superficial than many—dare I say most—white students’. But then I run into the conundrum: what do I do with the vernacular without destroying them as writers? And often when they strain to use Standard English, I want to encourage them to shake off that stilted voice. WE want student to show up in their writing—that is what I want most of all: writing sans the generic voice. But how can we get to it? This is not exclusive to African American writing, but how can I say this? I have a sense that my African American students have simply lived more, simply have more to say that is not licensed by “the man.” It is this rich underground voice that I covet from them. It is that place—recognized, I believe as a “standpoint” of oppression that allows them access to knowledge whites do not have—indeed cannot have because they are excluded from Black reality. Marx argued that those who are subjugated are in an advantaged position of interpretation—and consequently of answers to how to eliminate that subjugation—if critical conscious and pedagogy is what we are about, then we should encourage voices and not repress them.