Black Picket Fences (by Mary Pattillo-McCoy)
이 책을 읽었다고 할 수는 없지만, 유명한 책이고, 이 분야에서는 많이 알려진 책인데다, 최근에 Qualitative Research를 하면서 내가 겪은 것과 비슷한 내용을 닮고 있는 부분이 있다. 실은 Communities and Crime이라는 수업 시간, 어제 수업시간에 사용한 책이다.
흑인들의 언어와 관련한 부분인데, 시카고의 한 중산층 흑인 거주 지역에서 인터뷰 등을 통해 정리한 내용을 담은 책이고, 그 책의 앞부분에 바로 그 흑인들이 사용하는 영어 (Black English) 문제를 거론하고 있다. 그러면서, 언어는 언어만의 문제가 아니라, 그 언어를 사용하는 사람들의 문화나 환경 등의 문제를 담고 있다고 주장한다. 특히, 블랙 잉글리시만을 사용한다고 볼 수 있는 빈곤층 흑인들이 아니라, 어느 정도 사회적, 경제적 기반을 갖춘 중산층의 흑인들의 경우에는 어떤 장소에서는 블랙 잉글리시를 사용하고, 직장 등에서는 표준 잉글리시를 사용하는 등, 언어 사용 환경이 달라지는 점을 보여주고 있다.
그러면서, 흑인들에게 블랙 잉글리시는 그들이 서로 응집하는 효과를 갖고 있지만, 그들의 언어로 인해 좀 더 나은 사회적, 경제적 구조에 진입하기 어려운 장벽이 되기도 하는 이중성도 나타낸다. 즉, 표준 언어를 사용하지 않음으로 인해, 고용 등에서 불이익을 받는 경우도 생기고 있다는 것이다.
사실은, 흑인들과 인터뷰를 하면서, 어떤때는 아무리 영어를 모국어로 사용하는 원어민이라도 어떻게 저런 말을 알아 들을 수 있을까 생각한 적도 있었다. 우리가 아무리 심한 충청도, 경상도, 전라도, 강원도 사투리를 사용하는 사람과 대화한다고 하더라도, 적어도 무슨 단어를 사용하는지 알 수 있다는 점을 감안한다면, 짧은 생각이다.
어쨌든, 과거 흑인들에 대한 가시적, 비가시적 차별정책은, 흑인 사회의 빈곤이나 교육 등 구조적인 문제는 물론, 언어나 문화 등에도 큰 영향을 미쳤고, 그 영향은 지금도 이어지고 있는 것 같다.
One of the most salient issues in re-presenting the words of others is the issue of language itself. In the informal settings in which much of this research took place—such as the neighborhood park, people's homes, the church basement, or the grocery store checkout—many residents, if not most, used Black English, as did I. My practice in rendering field notes or interview quotes is to delete some of the verbal fillers (e.g., "um," "you know"), as well as false sentence starts that are common in speech. I do try to re-create the pronunciation of words through the use of contractions and notations that signal when the speaker dropped a syllable or sound (e.g., "sayin'" for "saying," "gon'" for "going to"). But I do not translate Black English into Standard English, a decision that requires some elaboration.
It seems obvious that an ethnographer who sets out to capture indigenous experiences would not significantly tamper with the way people talk. But concern for verity is only a partial motivation. The Black English so readily used in Groveland illuminates an empirical point that this book seeks to emphasize. Even though the African American bank receptionist may answer the phone in perfect Standard English, he or she may have a much different linguistic style when in the company of other African Americans. This concept of "code-switching"—i.e., speaking differently to different populations, one in Standard English and the other in the vernacular—can be broadened to characterize the black middle class more generally because it emphasizes the different worlds that whites and blacks inhabit, even African Americans with well-paying jobs or a college degree.
Black English was commonplace in the neighborhood setting, and innovative modifications of its basic rules were even valued among some groups. Speaking Black English while sitting around the kitchen table makes a Groveland teacher no less middle class, but it does illustrate the near completeness of racial segregation. It highlights the importance of race for cultural practices, connecting black middle-class people to the black poor, and differentiating them from whites. As many field excerpts will illustrate, Groveland residents use Black English when talking about the most middle-class of topics—going to college, planning for marriage and the future, working downtown, or owning a home. This might seem discordant to those who view Black English as an inferior language. It might even, perhaps, support a prejudice that middle-class African Americans are not equal to middle-class whites precisely because they do not possess the proper intellectual and behavioral dispositions.
The prevalence of Black English in Groveland has both pluses and drawbacks. As an innovative cultural construction shared among African Americans across class lines, Black English has unifying potential and performative value. It solidifies the cultural bonds between members of a heterogeneous African American population. However, Black English can also be an impediment to advancement in the predominantly white mainstream. Segregation produces an incubator within which Black English flourishes, but it does not always foster the sophisticated development of Standard English. Black middle-class youth have fewer opportunities to practice and master Standard English in such an environment. The use of Black English by Groveland residents is emblematic of the particular handicaps with which black middle-class youth grow up because of their neighborhood context. In essence, the practice of code-switching represents the linguistic negotiation of two worlds, just as the black middle-class individuals similarly maneuver both their racially marginal and their socioeconomically mainstream statuses in other realms.