US: The Racial Politics of Speaking Well

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the NYTimes,  February 4, 2007
Definitions

The Racial Politics of Speaking Well

By LYNETTE CLEMETSON WASHINGTON

SENATOR JOSEPH R. BIDENS characterization of his fellow Democratic
presidential contender Senator Barack Obama as the first mainstream
African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking
guy was so painfully clumsy that it nearly warranted pity. There are not
enough column inches on this page to parse interpretations of each of Mr.
Bidens chosen adjectives. But among his string of loaded words, one is so
pervasive and is generally used and viewed so differently by blacks and
whites that it calls out for a national chat, perhaps a national therapy
session. It is amazing that this still requires clarification, but here it
is.  Black people get a little testy when white people call them
articulate.

Though it was little noted, on Wednesday President Bush on the Fox News
Channel also described Mr. Obama as articulate. On any given day, in any
number of settings, it is likely to be one of the first things white
people warmly remark about Oprah Winfrey; Richard Parsons, chief executive
of Time Warner; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Deval Patrick, the
newly elected governor of Massachusetts; or a recently promoted black
colleague at work. A series of conversations about the word with a number
of black public figures last week elicited the kind of frustrated
responses often uttered between blacks, but seldom shared with whites. You
hear it and you just think, Damn, this again?  said Michael Eric Dyson, a
professor of humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anna Perez, the former communications counselor for Ms. Rice when she was
national security adviser, said, You just stand and wonder, When will this
foolishness end? Said Reginald Hudlin, president of entertainment for
Black Entertainment Television: It makes me weary, literally tired, like,
Do I really want to spend my time right now educating this person? So what
is the problem with the word? Whites do not normally object when it is
used to describe them. And it is not as if articulate black people do not
wish to be thought of as that. The characterization is most often meant as
a form of praise. Look, what I was attempting to be, but not very
artfully, is complimentary, Mr. Biden explained to Jon Stewart on
Wednesday on The Daily Show. This is an incredible guy. This is a
phenomenon.

What faint praise, indeed. Being articulate must surely be a baseline
requirement for a former president of The Harvard Law Review. After all,
Websters definitions of the word include able to speak and expressing
oneself easily and clearly. It would be more incredible, more of a
phenomenon, to borrow two more of the senators puzzling words, if Mr.
Obama were inarticulate. That is the core of the issue. When whites use
the word in reference to blacks, it often carries a subtext of amazement,
even bewilderment. It is similar to praising a female executive or
politician by calling her tough or a rational decision-maker. When people
say it, what they are really saying is that someone is articulate ... for
a black person, Ms. Perez said.

Such a subtext is inherently offensive because it suggests that the
recipient of the compliment is notably different from other black people.
Historically, it was meant to signal the exceptional Negro, Mr. Dyson
said. The implication is that most black people do not have the capacity
to engage in articulate speech, when white people are automatically
assumed to be articulate. And such distinctions discount as inarticulate
historically black patterns of speech. Al Sharpton is incredibly
articulate, said Tricia Rose, professor of Africana Studies at Brown
University. But because he speaks with a cadence and style that is firmly
rooted in black rhetorical tradition you will rarely hear white people
refer to him as articulate.

While many white people do not automatically recognize how, and how often,
the word is applied, many black people can recall with clarity the
numerous times it has stopped them in their tracks. Melissa
Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at
Princeton University, said her first notable encounter with the word was
back in high school in Chester, Va., when she was dating the schools star
football player. In post-game interviews and news stories she started to
notice that he was always referred to as articulate.

They never said that about the white quarterback, she said, yet they
couldnt help but say it about my boyfriend. William E. Kennard, a managing
director of the Carlyle Group and a former chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, recalled that in his days as partner at a
Washington law firm in the early 1990s written reviews of prospective
black hires almost always included the words, articulate and poised. The
characterization was so consistent and in such stark contrast to the notes
taken on white job applicants that he mentioned it to his fellow partners.

It was a law firm; all of the people interviewing for jobs were
articulate, said Mr. Kennard, 50, who is also on the board of The New York
Times Company. And yet my colleagues seemed struck by that quality in
black applicants. The comedian and actor D. L. Hughley, a frequent guest
on HBOs Real Time With Bill Maher, says that every time he appears on the
show, where he riffs on the political and social issues of the day, people
walk up to him afterward and tell him how smart and articulate his
comments were. Everyone was up in arms about Michael Richards using the
N-word, but subtle words like this are more insidious, Mr. Hughley said.
Its like weight loss. The last few pounds are the hardest to get rid of.
Its the last vestiges of racism that are hard to get rid of.

Sometimes the articulate moniker is merely implied. My colleague Rachel
Swarns and I chuckle wearily about the number of times we have finished
interviews or casual conversations with people always white, more often
male only to have the person end the meeting with some version of the
statement, something about you reminds me of Condoleezza Rice. Neither
Rachel nor I look anything like Ms. Rice, or each other for that matter,
so the comparison is clearly not physical. The comment seems more a
vocalized reach by the speaker for some sort of reference point, a context
in which to understand us. It is unlikely that whites will quickly or
easily erase articulate and other damning forms of praise from the ways in
which they discuss blacks.  Listen for it in post-Super Bowl chatter,
after the Academy Awards, at the next school board meeting or corporate
retreat.

But here is a pointer. Do not use it as the primary attribute of note for
a black person if you would not use it for a similarly talented, skilled
or eloquent white person. Do not make it an outsized distinction for Brown
Universitys president, Ruth Simmons, if you would not for the University
of Michigans president, Mary Sue Coleman. Do not make it the sole basis
for your praise of the actor Forest Whitaker if it would never cross your
mind to utter it about the expressive Peter OToole. With the ballooning
size of the black middle and upper class, qualities in blacks like
intelligence, eloquence the mere ability to string sentences together with
tenses intact must at some point become as unremarkable to whites as they
are to blacks. How many flukes simply constitute reality? Mr. Hudlin
asked, with amused dismay.

Well said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/weekinreview/04clemetson.html?ex=1171429200&en=65b3b244516bf749&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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