Linguistic script choices in People v OJ
Have been watchingĀ āThe People vs. OJ Simpsonā on FX and itās so good! Really entertaining television.
Tonightās installment (episode 2: āThe Run of His Lifeā) was all about the white Ford Bronco chase. What struck me was the conversation prosecutorĀ Christopher Darden has with some of his neighbors. Darden is claiming that OJ never gave back to the black community, and that once he made his money, āhe became white.ā
And one of the neighbors replies āWell, he got the cops chasing him. Heās black now!ā
Itās a great line, but it seemed a little off to me thatĀ āheās black nowā is said with an overt copula (āisā). I know that all the characters in this scene are comfortable using SAE and wouldnāt necessarily use AAVE in any given situation. Itās just that the particular sentiment expressed - that OJ may have felt himselfĀ āaboveā race before, but now heās just like everyone else - would seem to my mind to be more powerfully expressed in AAVE (i.e.Ā āHe black nowā)
Am I wrong? Perhaps I have misunderstood the rules for copula deletion - Iām not a speaker of AAVE myself, so this is an outsiderās perspective for sure. Just curious.
