B.A.
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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The students devised a test to measure vocabulary mastery in street language. They sent ten copies to McGraw-Hill, where eight employees took the test, only to score C’s and D’s. One of the test’s questions…is an example of the most familiar mode of Signifyin(g). The question reads, “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” The proper response to this question is, “Your mama.”…”Your mama” jokes about in black discourse, all the way from the field and the street to Langston Hughes’s highly accomplished volume of poems, Ask Your Mama…The presence in the students’ test of this centuries-old black joke represents an inscription of the test’s Signifyin(g) nature, because it serves as an echo o…
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THE YOUTH
QUESTION EVERYTHING
Photo by konradfoerstner
WHAT IS BLACK?
WHAT IS BLACKNESS?
ESU ELEGBARA
Way, way down in the jungle deep
The badass lion stepped on the signifying monkey's feet.
The monkey said, "Motherfucka, can't you see?
You're standing on my god damn feet!"
The lion said, "I ain't heard a word you said."
Said, "If you say three more I'll be steppin on yo muthafuckin head!"
Photo by Arno Meintjes Wildlife
Now, the monkey lived in the jungle in an old oak tree
Bullshittin' a line every day of the week.
Everyday before the sun go down,
That lion would kick his ass all through the jungle town.
But the monkey got wise and started using his wit.
Photo by ROSS HONG KONG
LANGUAGE
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Photo by Dave Edens
