Claire Thee Stallion's African American Literature Blog

“Down by the Riverside” is a horrific tale of death and suffering during a hurricane in the Jim Crow South. Although it takes place well after the abolition of slavery, the brutal racism and backward ways of thinking make one think that it is a reconstruction-era story. The story centers around Mann, a husband and father, and his fight for safety. His wife, Lulu, begins the story at the end of her life. Throughout the story, Mann stays strong and completes the impressive feat of rowing his entire family miles against a current to the hospital. The natural disaster, though, is not what kills or injures any of the characters. They are only hurt by the racism around them.  Every white person in “Down by the Riverside” treated Mann and his family like dogs. Most called him the n-word, even when he was saving their lives, and the nicest ones only referred to him as “boy.” A line that spoke to me most especially came when Mann and his family were finally arriving at the hospital. “‘His b...

African American Vernacular English, usually abbreviated to AAVE, is a common dialect among African Americans. AAVE is the natural accent of many Americans, so it has unsurprisingly been represented countless times in the media. It is even common in different written forms, with some authors writing in predominantly AAVE. Zora Neale Hurston is a prominent example of an author who uses AAVE to bring her readers into her writing. She writes in different styles to represent the region from which her characters originate, but most of her writing takes place in the Southern United States. Charles Chesnutt also used AAVE in some of his stories, including The Wife of His Youth . AAVE has been appropriated in racist ways by White people, beginning during slavery. Minstrel shows involving blackface, racist dances and impressions, and the imitation of AAVE was at one point a staple of American culture. Because of this terrible history with the racist mockery of AAVE and Black culture, using AAVE...