THE BLACK SIDE OF THE RIVER Race, Language, and Belonging in Washington, DC

In The Black Side of the River, sociolinguist Jessi Grieser draws  on ten years of interviews with dozens of residents of Anacostia, a  historically Black neighborhood in Washington, DC, to explore these  ideas through the lens of language use. Grieser finds that residents use  certain speech features to create connections among racial, place, and  class identities; reject negative characterizations of place from those  outside the community; and negotiate ideas of belonging. In a  neighborhood undergoing substantial class gentrification while remaining  decisively Black, Grieser finds that Anacostians use language to assert  a positive, hopeful place identity that is inextricably intertwined  with their racial one.

About the Author:

Jessi Grieser is an assistant professor of rhetoric, writing, and  linguistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a  sociolinguist who specializes in discourse analysis, geosemiotics, and  sociophonetics.