theme unitsPull up in the park and then pop the trunk |
“Word is Bond” sets the context for how we define Black rhetoric in this class. The usual definition of rhetoric goes something like this: the available means of persuasion for the time and place in which we live. Rhetoric is essentially about communication. Some classes want to teach you to do it better and to get more costumers. Other classes ask you to think about what’s at stake in the world. When we talk about Black rhetoric, we are talking about communication and persuasion in the standard ways, but we are also thinking about justice, freedom, and joy against all odds. Black rhetoric is more than just speeches, advertisements, and public presentations by Black people, though it includes all of that. Black rhetoric is about freedom imaginations and the ways that all forms of language and communication work towards those freedoms. Rhetoric for freedom is a different kind of flavor and urgency and that’s why we say “word is bond.”
Though the expression “word is bond” was certainly popularized by Old Skool Hip Hop, it did not begin there. The Old and New Testaments (Book of Numbers and the Gospel of Matthew) both represent The Word as sacred and unbreakable. Before the Christian Bible, Ancient Kemet (Egypt) also treated The Word as sacred this way. The Dogon of Mali (West Africa) also believe in what is called Nommo (you will hear about this throughout the semester) where the power of The Word carries a sustaining energy that generates life, sets one’s destiny, and invokes spiritual power. |
When Old Skool Hip Hoppers like Rakim, later-generation crews like Wu Tang Clan, and more contemporary artists like Joey Bada$$ bless their lyrics with chant-like phrases of “Word is Bond,” they are not saying something new. They are re-mixing what they have heard from their own elders, who have heard this expression from their elders and so on and so on, reaching all the way back to slavery. After all, for whom was everything so stripped from their human dignity that all they had was their word other than enslaved Africans? Enslaved Africans were, of course, reaching back too: to their B.C. origins in Africa. So “Word is Bond” is more than just being truthful. It is about taking language and communication very seriously. For the purposes of this class, we will call that seriousness Black Rhetoric.
Our study of Black Rhetoric will also include the study of Black Language and literacy. Many will be tempted to hear a popular phrase like “Word is Bond” from African Americans and call it “slang.” What might it mean that a 100+ years-old expression deeply rooted in age-old spirituality is dismissed as informal language? You will be challenged in this course to think critically about the problematic origins of whose language is pejoratively called “slang,” “improper,” “informal,” “incorrect,” or “inarticulate” like this. What many Gen Z Language is, in fact, a cultural appropriation of Black Language. For many of us, we must challenge how we relate to Black Language and re-see the deep roots of Black expression.
Our study of Black Rhetoric requires us to be part historian, part communication theorist, part designer, part poet, part artist, and part curator. We will examine the histories and specific times and places in which a Black rhetor is attempting to intervene. We will also look closely at communication styles to hear, see, and feel how a person is doing what they do with language and meaning. And last, but not least, we are also part curator/designer/ artist/poet because we are always working with real-life artifacts and primary materials, whether that be speech transcripts, comedy routines, letters, or tweets. We are never just asking what these texts mean; we ask: what do these texts do… especially for imagining and achieving new freedoms?
Our study of Black Rhetoric will also include the study of Black Language and literacy. Many will be tempted to hear a popular phrase like “Word is Bond” from African Americans and call it “slang.” What might it mean that a 100+ years-old expression deeply rooted in age-old spirituality is dismissed as informal language? You will be challenged in this course to think critically about the problematic origins of whose language is pejoratively called “slang,” “improper,” “informal,” “incorrect,” or “inarticulate” like this. What many Gen Z Language is, in fact, a cultural appropriation of Black Language. For many of us, we must challenge how we relate to Black Language and re-see the deep roots of Black expression.
Our study of Black Rhetoric requires us to be part historian, part communication theorist, part designer, part poet, part artist, and part curator. We will examine the histories and specific times and places in which a Black rhetor is attempting to intervene. We will also look closely at communication styles to hear, see, and feel how a person is doing what they do with language and meaning. And last, but not least, we are also part curator/designer/ artist/poet because we are always working with real-life artifacts and primary materials, whether that be speech transcripts, comedy routines, letters, or tweets. We are never just asking what these texts mean; we ask: what do these texts do… especially for imagining and achieving new freedoms?
