Journal #2

Daniil Tatsenko

3/24/2020

Professor Matyakubova

ENG 201

Journal #2, Question #16

In the film The Great Debaters, the character Tolson says the quote “Black is always equated with failure. Well, write your own dictionary.” which is an interesting perspective coming from a  black man. This perspective was so deeply integrated into American society at the time, that even a black professor echoed the denigration of his people, to get across to his point. The point is, that the denigration one brings upon themselves is ultimately decided by them. If Black is equated to failure it is because that notion is accepted from within oneself. The characters in the movie had to remove that notion within themselves, and start redefining who they want to be. They had to manifest their true identity through hard work and dedication, the identity of a winner. Their thoughts shaped their ideas, and their ideas had to shape their thoughts. They had to break the wheel and start redefining what it meant to be black, they had to write their own dictionary. 

Tolson is trying to teach his class that even everyday language can impact how they see themselves and the world around them. Tolson is attempting to demonstrate that even language can be disadvantageous to the speaker, that the language can expect failure from African-Africans— in turn manifesting that failure. Tolson is trying to tell the class that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and that it needs to be stopped by each and everyone, individually, in order for the collective to rise above. He tells the class that they need to make their dictionary, this is so that their new dictionary’s start with a clean slate, with no negative preconceptions of their own self worth. In order for the students to be successful they need to be educated, and  play by their own rules and definitions. 

Marginalized communities have slang in their respective sub-cultures that reflects their everyday life and struggles. Slang is a form of language that is used to describe life and its objects more comprehensively for the in-group, by avoiding the traditional language barrier of being all too formal in its definition. Slang allows marginalized groups to set themselves apart from others, and create their own shared sense of identity. A sense of identity beyond the physical features, an identity that unites the community through human language. The communities assign words to actions and phenomena that happen most often in their day-to-day lives that do not have a single go-to meaning in the traditional language.

Marginalized communities redefine words fluidly, but not expeditiously. It takes time for a community to shift a word in its meaning although, it is most certainly possible, the process takes time and a level of agreement from the members. Language has to be of use to the users in order to be effective, the slang and its definition therefore have to make sense and have an efficiency to using it. 

I think the newer generations have invented slang and redefined old slang. However I think that traditional words can be taken and redefined in a way that strays from the definition, yet is heavily used with the slang connotation. For example the words gay, and racism. The word gay, for the longest time has been used as slang to describe something that is considered to be  lame. The word racism and its relatives, now include not only the discrimination of a race and the feeling of superiority, but has come to use whenever any microagression is suspected.