KINO SLANG

By way of an explanation, KINO SLANG, I ought to recall the words of Stokely C. on one particularly grand tradition of resistance by way of language:

"Now then, we have to understand what is going on, not only in this country, but the world, especially in Africa. Because we are an African people, nothing else. We have ALWAYS been an African people. We have ALWAYS maintained our own value system, and I will prove that to you. As much as he has tried, our people have resisted for 413 years in this wilderness, and they resisted for this generation to carry out what must be done. We cannot fail our ancestors [applause]...cannot fail our ancestors...cannot fail our ancestors. We resisted in every way you can point to.

"Take the English language. There are cats who come here from Italy, from Germany, from Poland, from France. In two generations they speak English perfectly. We have NEVER spoken English correctly! [applause] Never have we spoken English correctly. Never! Never! Never! And that is because our people consciously resisted a language that did not belong to us--never did, never will. Anyhow they try to run it down our throats, we ain't going to have it! We ain't going to have it! You must understand that as a level of resistance. Anybody can speak that simple honky's language correctly. Anybody can do it. We have not done it because we have resisted...resisted. "

(Feb 1968)