Language Socialization Theory and "once upon a Time When We Were Colored

Language Socialization Theory

Robert Purple

HMD 306:

Language Narrative and Self

Professor Welles-Nystrцm

Due October 11th

Robert Purple

Language Socialization Theory and "Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored"

The language socialization theory can be defined as the perspective that socio-cultural information is generally encoded in the organization of conversational discourse and this encoded information aids in the gain of tacit knowledge of principles of social order and systems of belief. In other words, part of the meaning of grammatical and conversational structures is socio-cultural and can affect others being introduced to that culture. Language socialization research has traditionally focused on how young children and outsiders of a culture are socialized into the norms and patterns of their culture by and through language. To understand what language socialization is, the word language must first be defined. The dictionary gives many definitions of what language is but the one that pertains most to the language socialization theory is this, "any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures, or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion, etc." By this definition language can be anything that a person does to communicate a thought or feeling. Body language, facial expressions, hand gestures and speech are all forms of language. So in this paper when language is refer to it include all types of language, both spoken and non-spoken.

When language is looked at from a cultural perspective, many people have said that language is what shapes the person we become. It is obvious that all cultures have there own form of language as well as there own ways of socializing the members of that specific culture. Culture is defined as "the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group" Culture is the most important factor involved in how language and moral-persona develops in an individuals life. Culture defines who we are entirely. There are many different kinds of cultures and levels of cultures, meaning that within a culture another one can exist. For example, within the American Culture there exist hundreds of different types of cultures: the teen culture, the sports culture, the drug culture, the business culture, the working class culture.

These cultures exist in many places and can change the language used by the individual when introduced to them. When a student goes to school, they are entering a different culture than they are at while at home and while in school they may interact with there friends which again is a totally different type of culture. Among these different cultures exists different ways of language use. At home you may speak one way to your parents and another to your siblings, at school you may talk similarly to your teachers and headmaster as you would to your parents but maybe with more reservation. In addition to those cultural differences, when talking to friends there may be an inside language that only your friends understand, like a handshake or greeting. From this it can be said that children and other new comers to a cultures society gain tacit knowledge of principles of social order and systems of belief through being introduced to and participation in language-mediated interaction of that specific culture.

Reid's "Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored" brings the viewer back to the world of a black community in the rural South during the years 1946 to 1962, as hard-line segregation gradually fell to the civil rights movement. It is a depiction of the close bonds of family, friends and church that grew up to sustain such a culture, in a society where an American version of apartheid was the way of life most thought they had to accept.

The key word in the movie is "culture," and rarely has a film more movingly shown how people who work, live and pray together can find a common strength and self-respect through there culture. The movie depicts stories both happy, like the Sunday church socials, as well as the cruel pain of a young boy learning how to spell his first words "white" and "colored". The movie depicts many different types of cultures but mainly focuses in on two, white and black. The black people in the movie are portrayed as honest, hard-working, poor, religious and for the most part uneducated. The white people in the town, with the exception of a few, are depicted as racist, ignorant and wealthy. The movie, although not the main plot, depicts the socio-cultural interaction of the whites and the blacks in this high tension, segregated environment. There is undoubtedly tension between the whites and the blacks in this movie, the difference between the two tensions is that the whites can be much more vocal in public about there hatred for the blacks. The blacks, forced to take a more silent approach in there retaliations against the whites. They do so by relying on the few black heroes' they have like Joe Lewis to do the talking for them. The black culture all shares the same grief with one another and this becomes apparent when Joe Lewis loses in the 8th round and everyone is extremely depressed by the loss because it would have been viewed as at least one victory for the black culture.

A scene in the movie that stood out to me was from the cotton field when Cliff had been picking cotton incorrectly. The interaction between Cliff and the Field Boss was very interesting. Cliff who had been picking cotton with the scraps still attached to it was caught by one of the other older field workers who had been looking out for him. The field worker told Cliff that if the Boss catches him picking cotton the wrong way, he will be in a world of trouble. Just as this is taking place the Field Boss checks on Cliffs bag and see's that it is filled with scraps. If the behavior is observed of the other field hand when the Field Boss is near, it becomes clear that everything about his language changes to fit the mold of how the white culture views