Is Communication the Currency of Credibility?

 

The times are too many to count when an English teacher drilled in me the importance of taking care of words, whether written or spoken, like a BFF. The teacher under whose spell I fell was my mother and her ultimate respect for language I’ve since inherited. That communication mastery offered advantages that communication dysfunction didn’t amounted to a ‘duh Dora.’

Truth is, communication value isn’t up for automatic adoption by every household in America. Although the Zimmerman trial has granted an up close with one, carbon copies of Rachel Jenteal exist across the country’s multi-hued social spectrum of white, black, yellow and brown. Here’s the bombshell if you’ve concluded communication collapse is endemic to urban and rural youth: According to the WSJ, the epidemic has spread its ugly wings to cover MBA candidates.  

From where I come, command of the English language is considered an asset that buys favor. Treat it as less and your deposit registers disfavor. Call me a snob but I have a hard time lending credibility to a writer of a grammatical train wreck just as others dismiss language that fails to fit the box marked 'standard.'  Yet, the latter neatly unravels the tie to credibility class consciousness has sewn: In the great education divide, language superiority will always be preferable to the inferior’s debauchery.  

Like grammatical correctness in writing, there’s no denouncing the weight enunciation and articulation carry in the real world. However, aside from the misrepresentation of established fact in the court of law and the leak of too much information via Social Media, canceling 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel’s credibility solely on the basis of communication skill is just plain wrong.         

Drumroll, Please, and the NYT's Words of 2012 Are...

 

Show me a book reader who isn’t fond of words and I’ll expose a fashionista who isn’t prematurely clamoring for Black Friday 2013. Fat chance, right? However, what separates the writer from the reader is an intense dependency and like most writers, I consider myself a logophile. Don’t get it twisted; a logophile isn’t a (designer) label queen or king but one in love with words.  

So, looking back on the year which we’ll soon bid farewell, you’re invited to take a sip of the  NYT's Words of 2012, politically stirred and pop culture shaken.

Autoantonyms: When 'Ridiculous' Isn't So Plain

OMG, the past 72 hours of NBA free agency is starting to rival a Niagara Falls high wire act. As the final landing of the Harvard-educated point guard intensifies, the Rockets are either on track for a Linsanity blastoff or New York will plunge to a Linless low. Media, both mainstream and social, are bursting its opinion seams and Carmelo Anthony isn’t alone in tossing the word ‘ridiculous’ like a Chris Paul/Blake Griffin alley-oop.  

In fact, it was Anthony, Jeremy Lin’s Knicks teammate, who set off the commentary blaze and with gunfire rapidity, his intended meaning was assumed to be less than complimentary. Conversely, in slanguage, ‘ridiculous’ conveys a positive slant, characterizing something so extreme that it is worthy of rousing applause.

If you’re a b-ball fan, familiar with the invented term ‘ridunkulous,’ you realize the stamp signifies homage to a monstrous dunk. Of course, I don’t claim to know what Anthony meant, but an accomplished writer would’ve pried context’s door wide open. Anthony’s ‘ridiculous’ reference when used as an autoantonym, a word opposite of its conventional meaning, was a strong possibility.

And if you’re still shaky, try this on for size: Shoe freaks bearing beer budgets hyped by champagne tastes would classify Christian Louboutin’s coveted red –soled pumps as ridiculously priced but yet ridiculously artistic in design. Just ask Oprah if you’re not ‘in the know.’      

Furthermore, to be perfectly clear, did you really think Michael Jackson was confessing a character flaw when he pronounced himself ‘Bad’? For those confined to the constraints of unimaginative language, the King of Pop meant good. Luckily, his multitude of fans worldwide recognized his ‘badness’ as pop culture perfecto even if you didn’t.        

Hip Hop Language: Function and Dysfunction

Via You Tube, an illustrative panel of perspective opposites chopped and diced Hip Hop, dissecting its contributory core to a societal enhancement or erosion. In the end, London’s “Weighing Hip Hop on Trial Debate” confirmed the genre’s limited strength in striking a harmonic chord between old and new school. Sure, Hip Hop has scored that very success musically, with its occasional merger of classic chart topping samplings, but the day when the spoken or spat word is granted old school’s fat stamp of approval is futuristic. Reality is, it may never come because that’s the way rebellion music typically plays, spinning a generational divide.    

BLING BOOM

As a writer, what piqued my interest was the banter surrounding the language, a consistent sticking point that dominated the discussion. Although a far cry from your grandfather’s genre, Hip Hop deserves major credit for language innovation. Take ‘Bling,’ for instance. The coinage caught mainstream fire when “Bling, Bling,” the brainchild of New Orleans rapper B.G. and the Cash Money Millionaires cracked Billboard’s Top 40 in 1999.  

‘Bling’ reigns as my all time fave and its universal flair swiftly boarded big-brand advertisers like Sprint and Cadillac to name a few. Sure, a handful of other terms are fitting for the enhancement category, but ‘bling’ to describe the art of ostentation or over-the-top fabulosity is unquestionably brilliant. Still, folks aspire to bring bling in some shape, form or fashion over a decade after the word gained pop culture traction.   

DEROGATORYBOMB.COM

On the flip side, the impaneled brainiacs seemed to be fixated on three words which weren’t Hip Hop-invented: The B-word, the N-word and the H-word (slang for ‘whore’). Demeaning and derogatory, these words, by design, are vile and signal societal erosion based on massive consumption. Frankly, I suspect more youth and young adults are capable of rattling these politically incorrect lyrics with a precision that’s not applied to constructing a crafty sentence. Yet, lips blaring opposition to vulgarity’s invasion of reality TV and other entertainment mediums are largely zipped. Where’s the national outcry? If we’re going to call out Hip Hop for its non-innocuous language, the least we can do is spread the dysfunctional jam evenly.           

Baby Got 'Back'? Back Not Required

I conniption-fit cringed when I read this sentence in a major newspaper admonishing a NFL player’s performance: ‘(Jacoby) Jones seemed to revert back last season…’ Defined by Merriam Webster, the verb ‘revert’ means "to come or go back (as to a former condition, period or subject)." Thus, the attachment of ‘back’ to revert is redundant and wasteful like a discarded crab cake sandwich for which you just forked over $18.00.     

If this example registers a mild grammatical error, consider another violation frequently peppered in workplace emails: Although ‘Read receipts’ serves a limited acknowledgement function, I take offense to a writer’s ‘respond back’ directive. Are you kidding me, since ‘respond’ suggests a reply should be returned?! In this instance, ‘please respond’ is sufficient.  

And if that’s not illustrative enough of a communication F-game, check this out: A prospective candidate casually mentioned that she’d recently ‘relocated back’ to Texas during an interview. Since command of the English language is my professional expectation, it would’ve been more palatable had she said she’d ‘returned to Texas’ instead of ‘relocated back.’ After all, the prefix ‘re’ is synonymous with the original place.

The more back baby has, the better, some say. This preference rings a lyrical bell for another Kanye West ode to Kim Kardashian, his current flavorite who is packing plenty ‘back.’ For those unhip, ‘back’ is equivalent to ‘junk in the trunk’ or a plump derriere.  

Getting back in the language saddle requires language liposuction and although throngs may find ‘back’ attractive, the word has no rightful place in the examples above.   

Researchers Embark on a Quest for Cool's Meaning

When I heard that a University of Rochester psychologist was heading a team of researchers tasked with exploring what cool means, some breezy cats out of the Bay area immediately appeared in a musical flashback. Right on if you are a true R&B aficionado who guessed Tower of Power. Back in the day, I had the in-person pleasure of hearing frontman Lenny Williams blast the lyrics “What is Hip?” over a powerful horn section. A concert of epic proportions, hip permeated each and every note the vocalist sang and musicians played.

Of course, with the reference to ‘hip,’ Williams wasn’t inquiring about a body part but more about a state of mind. From where I come, hip and cool have always shared that unique commonality. Like everything else, language evolves over time to take on different meanings but what remains unchanged is my personal popular culture opinion: If one must ask, then one truly doesn’t know.   

Roland Martin’s Tweet-sanity: Mantalk or Malice?

Not since Janet Jackson’s “Boob Bowl” has the super sport of football been upstaged by controversy until now. It wasn’t the politically-charged Chrysler ad or the post-game tirade launched by Tom Brady’s supermodel wife. Instead, it was CNN commentator Roland Martin’s salty tweets that unleashed a cyber Katrina.

Who knew David Beckham’s itty bitty tighty whiteys would surge such strong reactions? Some say the resulting suspension by CNN was justified and others cry foul. I think a dissection of Martin’s tweets on the basis of (1) context and (2) perception might lend a greater understanding.    

CONTEXT:

No matter how you dice it, context matters. Here context refers to the circumstances in which an event occurs. Behind closed doors, Martin’s testosterone-packed tweets amount to mere mantalk. It’s a fact that conversations far removed from political correctness take place in venues where men congregate daily.

The award-winning journalist erred, however, when he committed his thoughts to public record. Yes, Twitter is as public as it gets and some private conversations are unsuitable for mass consumption. Based on reactions I’ve read, some in the public expect Martin to wear the reporting hat 24/7. Is the expectation extreme? For a journalist, whose profession is erected on an unbiased foundation, I think not.  

PERCEPTION:

Few eyes blinked when Brady vowed to kick some New York butt in the 2012 Super Bowl. Why? Because the bravado he expressed is a sports culture commonality. Conversely, Martin’s language, “smack the ‘ish’ out of him” and “Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass” inflamed, because to some, it implied any man gone gaga over Beckham’s buffed bod in H&M’s underwear and the preference for pink might be dissuaded through violence.  

It’s no secret the color pink has endured a historical bashing by heterosexual men who cite it unmanly. Plus, we can’t ignore gay men are fashion’s fiercest from head to toe. Hello!

Although I remain unconvinced that malicious intent lurked behind Martin’s words, it’s been said “as a man thinketh, so is he.” Perception - how one processes messages - is a powerful thing and this Martin, a trained communicator, should know.  

        

      

The OE is Not My Grandfather's Dictionary

With the latest additions of retweet, sexting and cyberbullying, the Oxford English Dictionary continues to rock its technology roll. Widely recognized as household words, the entries were spurred by the communication modernity of mobile phones and Social Media. If you hadn't noticed, words coined for behaviors once non-existent are speedily seeping into mainstream.  The correlation between usage and validation is simply amazing.     

Back in the day, my grandfather constantly admonished me for my frequent use of “oof” to express displeasure at anything and everything. He’d always say “that’s not a word.” Looking back, the sentiment I expressed was probably more grunt than word, but I doubt that he would’ve fathomed entries like “oof” or “sexting” gracing any dictionary’s page.       

If here today, I’d revel in sharing with him how the word game has drastically changed. I can’t help but ponder what his reaction might have been had he lived to see the landline’s decline in the new communication era. Had he been a contemporary, perhaps he’d relax the traditional English rules long enough to utter ‘OMG.’ Yes, gramps, OMG has also gained acceptance as a word.             

 Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/oed-now-includes-retweet-sexting-and-cyberbullying/2011/08/19/gIQAFAXXQJ_blog.html

Hip Hop Spins New Language

Beyond the braggadocio and lascivious lyrics, the Hip Hop genre deserves credit for launching new language. According to David Crystal, a British language writer, “all living languages change.”

Never static, the trajectory of language is catapulted by the adoption of new social norms. An article in today’s NYT defines social norms as the “often-unspoken rules of a group” that drive behavior and attitudes.             

Coined to connote the conspicuous consumption of ostentatious jewelry in the 90s, bling-bling remains my all-time favorite. Given its traction, bling-bling has since blown Cash Money’s hip hop coup in its travels to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  

In citing the need for language change to accompany something invented, Crystal nails the origin of “crunk.”  ‘Lil Jon, the self-professed southern King of Crunk, spawned the hip hop classification, however, “crunk” is also the modern day equivalent to what Pop Papa Prince called crazy. Though fading from the fringes of cool, a Memphis-based marketing CEO tweeted this week: “BBQ gonna be crunk.”    

Fast forward to 2010 and what has emerged in frequent rotation is the word “convo,” an abbreviation for conversation. Although the word has yet to meet a Merriam-Webster page, Trey Songz’ “Say Ahh” prompted my introduction: “I got a table waiting, what you think about a convo? If you like it baby, we can take it to the condo.”  Earlier, that same marketing executive blared "social" amplifies convos…” in Twitterdom.  

Repetition is contagious and ahh, how language continues to transcend the demographic from which it was derived.  

Sources: http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/dogeared/2829/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704436004576298962165925364.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6

Barkley’s Black Eye on Sports Broadcasting

Before steroid and sex scandals and the overrun of legal infractions, I was a ride or die sports fan. Thanks to my Dad, I’m still basking in the glory of having seen my first and only Super Bowl. But since that particular sports spectacular, the myriad of athletic impurities have altered my pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, whether NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA or NCAA, when the championship bells ring, I’m there.

But this isn’t about me; it’s about the pained observations of a former journalist. I was scholastically trained to report the news utilizing a strong command of the English language.  However, whenever there’s a media mockery, I can’t help but cringe.

Having watched the latest NBA playoffs, the hardwood court action has taken a backseat to the color commentary. “Commentainers” like Charles Barkley have suddenly ascended in the commentator ranks. It’s bad enough that the no-ringed retired NBA player slammed New York Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni’s head on the chomping block based on opinion rather than fact. But when he barked “you better ax somebody,” I’m sure every English teacher who noted his spelling error wanted to howl.

At that moment, Charles’ celebrity nosedived to “celebitty” for his small-minded faux pas. If he can spell D-E-F-E-N-S-E in the T-Mobile ad, certainly he can spell A-S-K correctly. Please spare us the ebonic references, Barkley. Instead of laughing with you, many are laughing at you and frankly, there’s no humor in ignorance.