Kanye West on race and slang

[Chris Waigl]

Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
>Subject:      Kanye West on race and slang
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>-----
>http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/west%20reveals%20racial%20lines%20in%20slang%20use
>
>WEST REVEALS RACIAL LINES IN SLANG USE
>
>Hip-hop star KANYE WEST is advising his white counterparts that they can
>only use certain slang terms when they're out of style for black people.
>[...]
>
>He says, "I think white people are allowed to say 'bling'. They are
>allowed to say old-school black slang, like 'hottie' and 'homie'.
>
>
Well, I'm sure all those kids of a variety of skin colors that I heard
interviewed in the BBC "Word 4 Word" program will be glad to hear that.

In one of the episodes they had a (black) writer (or journalist) in the
studio who said that he and his wife had learned "bling" on BBC Radio 4.
And then there was this group of west Yorkshire youngsters who briefly
debated if the word "brethren" (pronounced [brEvwIn]) might have
anything to do with "breadwinner" (but quickly decided that this was not
the case).

("Hottie" and "homie" were cited as well.)

Chris Waigl