RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

I wonder how many more people our President was able to connect with because of his code switching ability? Just think about it. He is able to address those aristocratic type people as well as the ordinary folks. How many presidents have we had that are capable of connecting with anybody, especially the people that are quite humble and far from aristocratic? I think it is a talent and is wonderful that he can do that with such ease. I was like you in the fact that I too was shocked to know he used slang. It really changed my whole view of him. I started to see that maybe there is a humble side to this man. Then I started thinking that maybe if he is humble he might also be understanding. So then I thought well if he is understanding then he is just what we need in a leader. And it was all a little use of slang that got me to think about all of this. So there are benefits to using slang.

Natalie,

I found it a little humorous to hear President Obama say, "Naw, we straight." The main reason for my reaction was that I had never heard him speak that way. I have always heard it said that he was a very eloquent speaker and those three words did not seem to mesh with my idea of what an eloquent speaker would sound like. However, I do think this was an honest representation of him in that he felt comfortable saying this in public, unlike many of the scripted and polished comments politicians have to make which sound nothing like what the individual would sound like otherwise.

Your comments made me wonder about the role Obama's upbringing had in the way he speaks around different people. He had a lot of influences from different cultures as a part of his life during his formative years. I wonder if this gave him a level of comfort in speaking to diverse groups of people, no matter who they were, or if it made him even more conscious of how he spoke around various groups, thereby causing him to check himself to make sure his words were "fitting in" with the group he was speaking to at the moment.

Clyde Rice

I thought that hearing President Obama use this slang saying made him seem a little more real. It made it seem like he wasn't just the President, sitting in the White House, doing official political things, but a real human being interacting with someone the way the rest of us do. I think that so often we only see the formal side of people, that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that they are human just like us, going through some of the same issues we are. It is interesting that something as simple as the way we speak, or maybe it isn't so simple afterall, could make you think such things about a person.
-Elizabeth

After listening to the “Obama clip,” I thought to myself that I understand why he is speaking the way he is now, but why now, and not when the presidential race was going on? Why did he use proper grammar and no slang, in his many speeches? Instead he would make gestures many could relate to, to get attention. People are going to speak the way they want and act the way they want, but like we all do, the Obama’s have a tendency to code switch depending on the importance of a speech, appearance, place, event, audience. It’s natural for all people to act different depending on the circumstances, to get their way and their point across.

Meredith

Based on my own bias, I don't like my president speaking slang. I don't want my president to be one of the guys. I want him to represent the USA in the most professional way possible. I want him to be better than me. I want the rest of the world to see him with great respect and I worry that they won't if they hear him speaking slang. Just my personal bias.