1. Today Plan Office Hours Visit Communication in Practice Quiz
Smitherman, “If I’m Lyin’, I’m Flyin’: The Game of Insult in Black Lanugage”
Expert rounds
Discussion
Media example
Recap and preview

2. Office Hours Visit
Come to my office hours to consult about Fieldnotes 2 due 11/17
I’ll hold extended office hours tomorrow and for the next two weeks
Sign up for a 10-minute time slot during those hours. me. If you can’t make any of them, see me after class to schedule a different time
Plan to have at least finished your recording by the meeting so that we can work together to hammer down the social business

3. Communication in Practice Quiz
“Wassup with this game?” Why does Smitherman say that people play the dozens?
What is one of the rules for signifyin/playin the dozens?
Have you had any experiences with dissing as a game/joke? If so, give an example.

4. “If I’m Lyin, I’m Flyin”: The Game of Insult in Black Language
Geneva Smitherman
“If I’m Lyin, I’m Flyin”: The Game of Insult in Black Language

5. Can a room of mostly white people talk about black culture?
Dangers of overgeneralizing, contributing to stereotypes
The one or two black students in each classroom must not be singled out, expected to speak for all those of their race.
Are these language genres genetically inherent?
No – culturally learned through communication socialization.
You can’t turn a blind eye to other groups’ speech communities. It’s a style everyone can learn from and should appreciate.

6. Yo Mama Jokes Catalogue
Create a catalog of yo mama jokes
List the rules and/or stylistic features of signifyin/playin the dozens

7. The Social Business of Insults
Why do people do this, as she says, for fun? (what’s the social business?)
A form of release
Taught you how to chill
Taught discipline and self-control
A lesson to survive by verbal wit
A safe, nonviolent method of venting hostility and suppressed rage within acceptable confines
Vehicle for social commentary

8. Writing Style What did you notice in Smitherman’s writing style. ?
What is her social business for writing in dialect?
When does she codeswitch into more academic English?
What’s the social business for the switch?

9. Playing with Words Write/share: Speech play
Literally play (stepping outside the norms and rules of convention) with words
Write/share:
What are some other forms of speech play besides dissing?
What are some reasons we engage in speech play?
To test and expand social boundaries
To display competence
To save face

11. Appropriation
Increasingly, the dominant culture appropriates, or takes over, creative forms of verbal art developed by minority groups.
What specific examples can you think of where musicians, filmmakers, or others have “borrowed” forms of urban street art.
Do you think appropriation by the dominant culture is a bad thing or a good thing? Explain.
Where is the line between respect and stealing?
“The dozens” appropriated by Hollywood to sell films, TV
Cleans it up, sanitizes it, allows us to comfortably watch it without ever having to know about the conditions of discrimination that helped to produce it
At the same time it produces awareness of minority group culture

12. Recap
The point of dissing is not actually to insult but to play with words
Speech play can be a way of dealing with difficulties in life by creating and maintaining social bonds
There are many forms of speech play; play is one way that people can challenge or change social norms
Often, minority culture is eventually appropriated by the dominant group
This can be negative because it’s exploitative
It can also mean exposure and respect for a previously disrespected form of culture

13. Preview Kiesling, “Power and the Language of Men”
Key terms: power, ideology, all seven types of power
This article tends to be very useful for understanding the power aspect of social business. Many people use it in their Fieldnotes, so read carefully
This is an example of a good ethnographic essay, especially of using quotations from a transcript and clearly explaining the argument