African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Foreword

Foreword Jacqueline Jones Royster AFRICAN AMERICAN RHETORIC(S) IS A COLLECTION THAT RESPONDS to the question: What parameters can we use to begin a more thoughtful and useful consideration of African Americans in rhetorical space? Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson II frame their views as “the study of culturally and discursively developed knowledge-forms, communicative practices and persuasive strategies rooted in freedom struggles by people of African ancestry in America.” This viewpoint is quite provocative in the sense that they bring into focus several points that are actually quite contentious in scholarly endeavors. They centralize the use of cultural frameworks in rhetorical analysis as they emphasize the importance of the practices that they are showcasing having emerged from people with a particular ancestry—African. They focus on discursive forms, which underscores the importance of verbality and rationality, rather than just orality and literacy. They acknowledge persuasion as the abiding purpose of interactive engagement within and across communities , and they make clear that the mandate that is quite compelling in these discursive forms is tied unequivocally to struggles for freedom among this group. What’s more, they present this view as part of knowledge-making processes, rather than as simply expressive traditions, suggesting that there are consequences for language use in terms of the ways that we think, act, and consider ourselves in the world. All of these points help to make a place for this collection amid some of the most intellectually challenging spaces of our times in interdisciplinary fields of rhetoric. Richardson and Jackson divide the essays into three sections, highlighting the range of work that researchers and scholars are currently doing in response to the rising tide of interests in underrepresented communities in dominant scholarly areas. The focus of part one is “Historicizing and Analyzing African American Rhetoric(s)”; part two, “Visions for Pedagogy of African American Rhetoric”; and part three, “Visions for ix Research in African American Rhetoric(s).” These divisions indicate the considerable variety of work from which the collection draws and signal critical points of concern specifically relevant to African American rhetorical practices. Clearly, there is a call in this collection for a recovery of achievements and legacies, a call to pull forth for contemporary critical inquiry the practices and performances that constitute the contours of a rhetorical landscape that remains relatively unknown in mainstream scholarly discourses. There is also a call for us to address directly and specifically complex pedagogical problems and to use a more richly endowed and inclusive knowledge base to help contemporary students use their literate resources more effectively. Most certainly, there is the challenge of generating more powerful interpretive frames within an interdisciplinary discipline. The call is for analytical and interpretive models capable of helping us to incorporate well into theories and practices what we are coming to know about these rhetorical legacies and ongoing achievements, in terms of sites for engagement; the media by which rhetors are meeting their persuasive mandates; and the focal points that allow us to understand their contexts, purposes, and actions. In order to appreciate this perspective more fully, it follows that as readers we should pay attention to some striking concepts. Among such ideas, I find compelling the notions listed below: 1. a view of culture, as influenced by African ancestral traditions, as an appropriate factor in analyzing performance. 2. a critical exploration of the ways in which strategies and practices participate dynamically in knowledge-making enterprises. 3. closer attention to the specific material conditions out of which practices come—in this case, the activist agenda of a historically and consistently oppressed people who continue to struggle for freedom, as evidenced by their rhetorical performances. So, why is this approach important, and particularly, why is it important now? As we enter a new century of scholarship in interdisciplinary fields, many of us have finally come to appreciate and to understand critical advantages in having theoretical frames that take into account achievements that may and may not resonate with European cultural traditions. In broadening our horizons with experiences and information from different geographical and cultural spaces, we extend our horizons and enrich our understanding, not just of peripheral people in knowledgemaking arenas but of human potential. The challenge, however, remains one of actually building a base that is indeed capable of informing us, x Jacqueline Jones Royster and also one of finding productive ways to use that newly formed information base...