Leslie Savan’s Essay
Eng. 102
Analysis Essay
October 25, 2010
Stolen Treasure In Leslie Savan’s essay, “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?,” Savan talks about the “hidden costs”(381) and benefits of the black language in America. When observing this economic and psychological boundary its clear that African American people went through lots of pain and suffering when creating trendy words and sayings. This is important to African Americans because most people do not understand that these words have now been adopted by white people “who reap the profits without paying [their] dues”(Savan 382). Through out Savan's essay she talks about the originality and roots of where and how the black language was created. Savan explains that allot of black words we hear now days came from times around and within American slavery. Many African American slaves used words that would mean the opposite of the actual meaning of the word. African American slaves came up with these words to talk in front of their “Massa”(Savan 373) without him knowing what they were saying. “Most of this language was never recorded”(Savan 377), but allot of these words would emerge in American media one way or another. It is very important to realize that these words were a way of communicating for slaves without being whipped, beat or even killed. Slaves never used such words to become famous or rich. As slaves became free their words became owned by white people. Many white people would tell “jokes using [a] variety of black language” (Savan 377) to insult the education level of black people. These same white people would also misspell letters in words to make fun of uneducated (black) people. Soon after “white society [stopped] mocking black talk [as much]”(Savan 365) and began marketing black talk. This marketing ranges from misspelling words such as xtreme, kidz, and newz, to using black language for government elections, Mcdonald's commercials, and even a Mercedes Benz commercial. Many of
Analysis Essay
October 25, 2010
Stolen Treasure In Leslie Savan’s essay, “What’s Black, Then White, and Said All Over?,” Savan talks about the “hidden costs”(381) and benefits of the black language in America. When observing this economic and psychological boundary its clear that African American people went through lots of pain and suffering when creating trendy words and sayings. This is important to African Americans because most people do not understand that these words have now been adopted by white people “who reap the profits without paying [their] dues”(Savan 382). Through out Savan's essay she talks about the originality and roots of where and how the black language was created. Savan explains that allot of black words we hear now days came from times around and within American slavery. Many African American slaves used words that would mean the opposite of the actual meaning of the word. African American slaves came up with these words to talk in front of their “Massa”(Savan 373) without him knowing what they were saying. “Most of this language was never recorded”(Savan 377), but allot of these words would emerge in American media one way or another. It is very important to realize that these words were a way of communicating for slaves without being whipped, beat or even killed. Slaves never used such words to become famous or rich. As slaves became free their words became owned by white people. Many white people would tell “jokes using [a] variety of black language” (Savan 377) to insult the education level of black people. These same white people would also misspell letters in words to make fun of uneducated (black) people. Soon after “white society [stopped] mocking black talk [as much]”(Savan 365) and began marketing black talk. This marketing ranges from misspelling words such as xtreme, kidz, and newz, to using black language for government elections, Mcdonald's commercials, and even a Mercedes Benz commercial. Many of