Articulate While Black: Booksigning and Talk on Barack Obama

The Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity is hosting a talk by H. Samy Alim, director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Language (CREAL), and associate professor of education and, by courtesy, anthropology and linguistics, on his recent book Articulate While Black: Barack Obama, Language, and Race in the U.S. (Oxford University Press, 2012; co-authored with Geneva Smitherman). Professor Alim will be joined by panelists John Rickford, professor of linguistics, and Gary Segura, professor of political science. He will sign copies of his book following the discussion.

Articulate While Black addresses language and racial politics in the U.S. through an examination of President Barack Obama's language use--and America's response to it. Using their analysis of Barack Obama as a point of departure, Alim and Smitherman reveal how major debates about language, race, and educational inequality erupt into moments of racial crisis in America. In challenging American ideas about language, race, education, and power, they help take the national dialogue on race to the next level. In much the same way that Cornel West revealed nearly two decades ago that "race matters," Alim and Smitherman show how deeply "language matters" to the national conversation on race--and in our daily lives.