Date:  Sun, 2 Nov 1997 16:39:07 -0500
From:  Gregory {Greg} Downing <downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: "it's all good"

At 04:27 PM 11/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Why does everything have to originate from AAVE or "Black Talk?"
>Some phrases or sayings are just that, not because they originated from
>black people, but just sayings. Damn!, why cant it come from "White
>talk" and what exactly would white talk be? I'm not trying to offend
>anybody its just that this "black talk" issue is kind of touchy for me.
>

I'd be sympathetic in a general way with these sentiments. The issue at hand
is what the actual origin and usage-history of "it's all good" is, and
that's an open question absent empirical research into the early usage
(which someone out there may yet produce). I suspect that when a locution
sounds authentic it might seem tempting to say "urban vernacular," i.e.,
cool, new, with-it, etc. But one could argue (just prima facie, without the
empirical evidence that is the only crucial thing) that "it's all good"
sounds as much like a new-agey or pop-buddhist phrase (or something like
that) as it does like an AAVE phrase. People of African and of European
descent are probably more or less equally likely to come up with
authentic-sounding vernacular locutions.... Nobody has a monopoly on one
type of linguistic innovation or another....

Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu