responsibility (“If she had been Black, I might have seen this more
easily”). His youthful AAVE speaking self relies on denial of the basic
truth about language; his mature and reasonable self (the one who is like
his readers) knows the truth of the matter. Thus, by linking the last logical
proposition (questions of right and wrong move beyond race) to the first
two (there is a good and a bad language, and it is appropriate to censure
users of bad language), he coerces a certain degree of acceptance of his
language ideology.
Steele relates this conversation with the mother of a friend as a kind of
epiphany, in which he becomes aware of truths not just about himself, but
about people in general. In this way Steele himself and this woman
function as imaginary formations (Haidar and Rodríguez 1995). Imaginary
formations are understood as the way the subject (Steele), his interlocutor
(the readers), and the object of their discourse (the woman who corrected
him, and her motivations) are represented not as individuals, but as
symbols of larger groups or types. In this analytical approach, a person
perceives and projects him or herself primarily as a representative of their
specific place in the social structure. Thus, Steele represents himself as a
successful African American who has moved beyond denial and racism to
take responsibility for his own life.
More interesting, perhaps, is the imaginary formation of the white
woman who leads him to accept the necessity of rejecting his home
language. This woman is by her own account (and one he obviously does
not disagree with) someone with little to recommend her: she has never
finished high school and will never achieve a great deal of economic
success; she even looks clownish. She has not accepted or recognized
sources of authority or knowledge, beyond a history of personal difficulty
and sacrifice. But because she is an SAE speaker, she feels authorized to
correct his language because if she does not do so, he is doomed to a life
“in a steel mill.” She tells him these things not because she has any
investment in him (she denies such a motivation), but out of some greater
urge to do good, an urge which is sufficient authority for Steele. This
woman represents the hard-working, well-meaning middle American
SAE speaker who knows best, and whose authority is not to be
questioned. She was the mother of a friend, but she has transcended that
role to become an imaginary formation.
ff
(ff)
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