Jan 21, 2010

Geoffrey Nunberg Analyzes Harry Reid's Language on Race

From Fresh Air from WHYY, National Public Radio

A Sensitive Subject: Harry Reid's Language On Race

by Geoff Nunberg

Once word got out about Sen. Harry Reid's recently reported 2008 remarks about then-candidate Barack Obama's skin color and speech, just about everybody thought he needed to apologize — not least Reid himself. But people had different stories about why.

You couldn't fault the actual content of the remark: that an African-American presidential candidate has a better chance of being elected if he doesn't look or sound "too black." That may be a deplorable reality, but it's not a controversial thing to say....

It's striking how many of the things people say in public about black English are the same things they'd no longer allow themselves to say about the people who speak it — it's "slovenly," "lazy," "ignorant," "stupid," "broken." Those stereotypes haven't really disappeared from public life; they've just been repurposed as attitudes about language....

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Last updated:

October 4, 2016