In McHenry and Heath’s article, “The Literate and the Literary,” they counter the misconception that sermons are evidence of African Americans’ disposition to oral culture. They describe how, contrary to researchers’ assumptions, sermons are largely influenced by written text, especially authoritative texts like the Bible, and are further developed by the minister’s own notes and outlines (422). McHenry and Heath mention that ministers “[store]…in memory literary phrases and chunks of text” that they must be able to recall during momentary pauses in their speech (422). After reading about the complexities of delivering a sermon, I was rather impressed–not because I ever believed it was easy, but because I didn’t realize just how difficult a task it could be.
Knowing now how much reading, writing, and memorization goes into delivering a motivating sermon, I am more insulted by the labeling of African Americans as an “oral people” in a way that discredits intelligence (422). There is a common trend among literate people: we often write much better than we can speak and can more gracefully articulate our thoughts and ideas. How insulting is it then for literacy researchers to interpret sermons as oral performance rather than elaborate recitation that combines the best of oral and written traditions?
For my Classical Political Theory class, we had to MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham,” because he referenced Plato’s cave allegory. MLK had a Ph.D. and was highly educated, but most people don’t really talk about that. There were a lot of black colleges and the like back then, but, again, people do not really talk about. Even today, there is an assumption that non-whites are not going to be college-educated and, while there are definitely disparages in education that disproportionately affect non-white communities, there are non-white doctors, lawyers, accountants, and everything else. However, the idea of a black lawyer or doctor is not a prevalent idea in our society and the idea is that black people can only become rich through the music industry. Of course, this is false, but I do believe that there is that assumption.