Light Skin and That "Negro Dialect"

Hey, who needs Obama when you got "the real thing"?

Harry Reid's silly comments about President Obama could and should stimulate some serious and respectful discussion about black English vernacular (a more appropriate term than "Negro dialect") and light-skin. Let's take the light-skin business first. It is undeniable that not just among blacks but around the world the question of skin shade is an issue among non-white peoples. African-Americans will tell you that within black America, there has long been a distinction made among themselves between light-skinned and dark-skinned people-with the preference going toward the lighter skin. It is an issue that dates back to slavery and a regrettable one.

But it is not just black people that place emphasis on skin tone. You see it among Latin people, who are a mix of Europe and Indian peoples. Who do you find at the lowest socio-economic scale in Latin-American countries? The indigenous people who are generally darker. You will also note that those of the ruling elite in most Latin American countries are fair-skinned with more European background. Is that fair? Hardly.

Even in Asia, you find varying shades of skin color among certain nationalities. I lived in Thailand for three years. The lighter-skinned were generally the economic, professional and political elite. The darker-skinned Thais tended to be the villagers and farmers. One interesting exception was when the Prime Minister in the late seventies was Kriengsak Chomanan. He was very dark. One evening in Chiang Mai, he was present at a party hosted by the American consulate and also attended by our ambassador. My previous DEA supervisor (God rest his soul) was an African-American, and he was pretty much in his cups when Kriengsak arrived. Approaching the Prime Minister, the DEA agent remarked that he (Kriengsak) was blacker than he was.

It went over like a lead balloon. The ambassador nearly had a heart attack.

You see, it's a very sad situation, but one found in many parts of the world.

Yet Harry Reid's comment was still ridiculous in that he seemed to say that American voters would not vote for a dark-skinned black, but a light-skinned black had a chance.

But what about the "Negro dialect"?

There are other terms for this like black English vernacular or the politically correct and ridiculous term Ebonics. I prefer the former which is used by many linguists.

There is an old adage that "you are judged by how you speak". To that I would add -your native language". It is true and there is nothing wrong with that. While linguists will say that all forms of vernaculars are legitimate (to which I agree), a person must be able to function in the standard variant of their native language. In that respect, Reid is correct if he is implying that if Obama were not able to speak standard English, his candidacy would have no chance. Standard English is the language of education, the marketplace and any other professional endeavor. We all switch back and forth between standard and non-standard English as the situation changes.

It is also fascinating because when I was growing up and first being exposed to other black kids my age (in high school), I-like other white kids-was clueless on how to talk with them. What happened was that we resorted to trying to use their vernacular. It was silly, but we were young, inexperienced, and still developing our own ability to be articulate in English. In effect, we were patronizing them. (see Hillary Clinton video above) As we became older and racial attitudes changed during the Civil Rights era, we learned to speak with other races in a more natural manner. We also learned to keep up with the changing rules of language as it pertained to race.

Somewhere along the line, Harry Reid got lost or simply hibernated for 40 years.