In the film Crash (2004), there's a scene in which the black TV director, Cameron (Terrence Dashon Howard) is told by his white producer that the script needs to be changed because the lines of a black character in the scene do not sound "black enough". He's supposed to be "stupid" and doesn't "talk ebonics" enough to sound stupid. Cameron thinks the man is joking but it is made clear they have to re-shoot the scene.
We have been talking in class about modes of oppression constructed at the institutional, symbolic, and individual levels of society. This scene in the film is a clear representation of how language can create stereotypes for certain ethnicities and races of people. The way we attach definitions and expectations of what a certain person (with a certain skin color) should act like and speak like is a form of symbolic oppression constructed by society and perpetuated by itself. Why should a black person "sound" black? What does that even mean? Why do we have to separate "black" speech from "white" speech? Isn't it all just talking?
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