Black Culture

2007-02-22T03:06:41Z

I really do not like the words black talk, its very stereotypical; Ebonics is a better word to describe black slang. Everywhere in the media these days you see companies using black vernacular to make a profit. From car commercials, ads on TV, to promoting movies. These companies are using the black vernacular to make their product appeal to Americans, to make their product look cool. So many words and phrases that are used today come from blacks; Leslie Savan the author of “Slam Dunks and No-Brainers” argues that people have not come to realize how much Ebonics has impacted the English language. People do not credit the black people for these words and these catchy phrases we now use. Like so many other car commercials I have found one from Nissan. Nissan is using aspects derived from the black culture to make their product more appealing. Its so crazy how people catch on and just forget where everything came from. MTV a very popular show followed along with the hegemony years ago that it was not cool to play black music on television, until they realized that it could make them a lot of money. . Savan brings up a great example…. “It may be difficult to believe me now, but for years MTV wouldn’t tough black music videos….In 1989 with the appearance of the successful Yo! MTV Raps, the rationale was turned inside out, and—ka-ching--!—black videos began to appear regularly” (Savan 49). Its not only these companies that are using the black culture, many people are as well. There are so many white people who are using black talk because they believe it is cool. By using this black talk and all the slang words such as “Yo” these white kids are feeling like they are apart of the black culture.

Savan, Leslie. “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?”. Slam Dunks and No- Brainers Language In Your Life, The Media, Business, Politics, And, Like, Whatever. New York. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 45-83.

jshea9 @ 2007-01-18T03:28:00

2007-01-18T03:28:00Z

David Kline’s “I Blog, Therefore I Am” discusses the growth of blogging and how it allows the common person to voice their opinions. I believe Kline is smart with his choice of writing because he does not just say what he believes, but give his view on what other people have said about blogs. After looking up some blogs, from health topics to politics to religion to the recent news, there are blogs about anything you can think of. It gives people an outlet that they normally may not be able to have. Freedom of speech is supposed to be a given, but that isn’t always the case. Kline says “..everyone has a voice and the change to get a hearing for his or her views. Not that every voice would be smart, or right or even polite. Not that every voice would be truthful of used for positive purposes. Just that we would all have a voice” (Kline 251-252). That statement allows me to conclude that blogs confirm Kline’s ideas. A blog can be a good thing, if it allows some one to voice themselves, and may be helpful to another person reading. Or it can be a bad thing where a person is making false claims, or that what a person has said was biased about something but people follow those claims. I went on autoblog.com and just clicked on a random story, after looking through the comments left by people it further verifies Kline’s argument, especially the statement I quoted from his essay. The blog is about the new Cadillac CTS, and people discussed what they thought about it, being good or bad everyone had different opinions and the great thing is everyone is entitled to that. In the words of David Kline, “you can thank blogging for that.”
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/08/detroit-auto-show-2008-cadillac-cts-revealed/