{"id":682,"date":"2018-09-19T03:55:42","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T03:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/?p=682"},"modified":"2018-09-19T03:55:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T03:55:42","slug":"the-sonic-color-line-and-slave-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/blog-09\/the-sonic-color-line-and-slave-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sonic Color Line and Slave Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In <\/span><\/span>Stoever\u2019s<\/span><\/span> piece \u201cThe Sonic Color Line,\u201d she <\/span><\/span>addresses<\/span><\/span> the idea of a \u201clistening ear\u201d and the \u201csonic color line.\u201d The sonic color line can be explained as \u201cthe process of racializing sound\u201d based on how people thing things should sound. With this idea comes the listening ear; it explains how society and culture teaches one how to listen. When we look at in <\/span><\/span>the Narrative and the life of Fredrick Douglass\u2019s<\/span><\/span>, the slave songs can be <\/span><\/span>interpreted<\/span><\/span> using this idea of the sonic color line and the listening ear. The slave songs, \u201c<\/span><\/span>revealing at once the high joy and the deepest sadness<\/span><\/span>,\u201d were sang without any preparation or attention to timing for tune (Douglass 13). However, while fellow slaves could interpret <\/span><\/span>the songs<\/span><\/span> as songs of <\/span><\/span>sadness<\/span><\/span>, the white plantation owners did not. The sonic color line divides the society between blacks and white, causing meaning to shift on either side of the line. Douglass, a black slave, says,\u00a0\u201cI have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of <\/span><\/span>slavery<\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>than<\/span><\/span> reading of whole volumes of <\/span><\/span>philosophy<\/span><\/span> on the subject could <\/span><\/span>do\u201d (<\/span><\/span>Douglass 13-14). He believes that these songs have more emotion and can <\/span><\/span>portray<\/span><\/span> more meaning to people than reading any book on slavery. While today, the sonic color line as progressed to allow many whites to hear the <\/span><\/span>treachery<\/span><\/span> of slavery in the songs, when they were <\/span><\/span>singing<\/span><\/span>, few whites could hear the true pain in the songs. Douglass explains how \u201cevery tone was a testimony against <\/span><\/span>slavery,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and<\/span><\/span> a prayer to God for deliverance from chains\u201d and how \u201c[he] ha[s] frequently found [him]self in tears while hearing them\u201d (Douglass 14). The songs hold more meaning for Douglass and his fellow <\/span><\/span>Africain<\/span><\/span> Americans<\/span><\/span> who can more fully understand the <\/span><\/span>struggle<\/span><\/span>, having a listening ear that has been <\/span><\/span>attuned<\/span><\/span> to the hardships and <\/span><\/span>oppression<\/span><\/span> from whites. However, even <\/span><\/span>despite<\/span><\/span> progress, whites have still not developed a listening ear that is fully capable of understanding the <\/span><\/span>slave\u00a0<\/span><\/span>songs. Will the sonic color line ever disappear and allow whites to understand the hardships of slavery?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Stoever\u2019s piece \u201cThe Sonic Color Line,\u201d she addresses the idea of a \u201clistening ear\u201d and the \u201csonic color line.\u201d The sonic color line can be explained as \u201cthe process of racializing sound\u201d based on how people thing things should sound. With this idea comes the listening ear; it explains how society and culture teaches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog-09","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wri-101c-f18.andrewrippeon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}