Several of those conversations were about how Weird Al's new song might have been a bit out of touch or insensitive by using name calling to demean people who don't speak or write correctly.
There was this piece at Slate on how several of the examples of poor grammar that Weird Al sang about are actually completely acceptable. And there was the Facebook comment that spawned this post, in which a friend suggested that calling people "uneducated" because they use non-standard grammar leads to the kind of argument that systematizes racism in schools and universities.
I understand that point of view, but let me repeat (and bold) the first line of this post: Today and yesterday I have seen conversations about grammar and syntax on every social network in which I participate.
That's kind of crazy.
And I think Weird Al's decision (or tendancy) to be a bit crass and insensitive is part of that.
Demeaning people and calling them names is bound to cause discomfort. It may even offend or disturb.
But I'm still happy Weird Al wrote "Word Crimes," because it's a goof. And people will talk about a goof. People will have a discussion about something presented as lighthearted.
Today, I've seen a few exchanges like this one:
"Oh, come on. Relax. Everyone knows what I mean when I say 'I could care less'""Sure, they know, but the words don't mean what you mean. Shouldn't words mean what they mean?"
That's an interesting conversation that normally only happens when I'm around comp/rhet people. It's a conversation that could lead a person to see the ways we construct language socially. But people need to have the conversation.
One way to shut down constructive conversation about sensitive issues is to bring harsh judgement into the mix.
Discussions revolving around race or class equality send people to their respective corners where they shield themselves in the armor of the political and cultural norms held by their communities.
If I tell a person that their emphasis on correctness can be linked to racism (even if that's true), that person is going to end the conversation. That person is going to go tell like-minded people that I think they're all racist.
Comedians poke and prod at sensitive issues and allow people to indirectly examine things that they would normally simply avoid. It's easy to name some who do this: Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bill Hicks... But even lighthearted Weird Al has songs that push buttons.
If teachers play "Word Crimes" to their students, it should not be treated like the latest incarnation of Strunk and White. The song should start a discussion: What attitudes towards grammar have you experienced at school, online, at home, with your friends...?
6 comments:
Hogan--You raise many good points. And admittedly I did not nuance my argument as I would have liked considering the "genre" of the FB post.
First, my FB post was in response to two dominant comments that I was seeing to Yankovic's Word Crimes. One was those pleased with how Yankovic parodied the misogynistic Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." And the other was English instructors empathizing with Yankovic's "frustration." For the former, I was wondering why certain audiences were comfortable trading misogyny for racism and classism. I DON'T even want to have a debate about which is worse, living as a rape victim for one's life or suffering the socioeconomic fallout because of the ways one is marked by one's language. They are both awful and unjustified. For the latter, I see the current traditional tenets that are still prevalent in many writing programs. Both of these positions concern me, and I used FB to articulate this concern as a dissent to the posts I was seeing.
I do see your point about not being so sensitive about humor; it can be a way of starting a productive conversation. Some comedians are quite smart and intentional and want their audience to think about their articulations, especially those that make them uncomfortable. Others want to push the envelope just to make a buck. But does authorial intention really matter if some of the audience choses to have a productive discussion about humorous text or just accepts the text as gospel? In short, nobody, including theorists and the law, agrees on who controls a text or whether anyone has (or should have) any responsibility over any articulation.
While I see the humor of Weird Al's Word Crimes, I, as a teacher of writing teachers, watch it with a heavy heart knowing that texts like this only make my work more difficult. Yes, it can be used as a great starting point for a conversation with these pre-service instructors, but like the woman who wants a guy to understand that NO means NO, you sometimes get tired of working against so many cultural texts that proclaim (or suggest) ignorant messages.
This topic has been difficult for me to grapple with because I agree that demeaning a person based on their language and/or dialect is offensive.
And in my position as a researcher and as a teacher, it is completely inappropriate for me to express such a sentiment. As Keven suggests, it would be counter productive for me to bring that kind of attitude into my classroom or my research.
The same is true of most people who hold positions of authority. Just like educators, employers, policy makers, and civic leaders would alienate important voices if they insulted people based on backgrounds.
But it happens. It happens because of systemic racism and classism.
So, I wrote this post to express, not support for Weird Al's name calling, but support for social actors who are supposed to offend us. Weird Al called people names and wrote that he wants to literally hit someone with a crowbar.
If we have to tell teachers that it is not okay to call people names (or worse), then the problem is not the parody artist. The parody artist is exposing the problem.
I wasn't writing to say "lighten up." I was writing to say that we need to be offended and laugh at being offended because that is the only way to deal with the extent to which these ugly truths make us uncomfortable.
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