Tracey L. Weldon’s Middle-Class African American English takes on the task of exploring the nuances and variability of middle-class African Americans’ historically excluded language, and it addresses the under-explored linguistic behaviors of middle-class African Americans, a demographic group often overlooked in previous research. Weldon is a sociolinguist specializing in African American Language varieties while working as a Professor and Interim Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education at the University of South Carolina, located in Columbia, South Carolina, where she was born and raised. With areas of specialization in quantitative sociolinguistics, language variation and African American English (AAE)/Gullah, the work under review incorporates all elements of her specialization and cites and/or summarizes various studies that she performed over her research career. While acknowledging some regional and contextual limitations, this work significantly contributes to sociolinguistics by examining the intersection of race, class and language. Middle-Class African American English aims to offer a broad overview of the usage and perception of AAE from the vantage point of middle-class African American speakers to understand the varieties in that demographic.

In the first chapter (pp. 1–24), Weldon introduces the concept of Black American English (BAE) and AAE, providing a brief yet rich overview of its origins and contemporary significance. Since Labov’s (Reference Labov1972) seminal work on AAE, most research has focused on the working-class population, often disregarding middle-class speakers. These individuals were historically labeled as linguistic ‘lames’, seen as unreliable subjects for vernacular studies. Weldon addresses this gap by focusing on the linguistic practices of the middle class, a demographic that has received little attention since Walt Wolfram’s (Reference Wolfram1969) study. Throughout the rest of chapter 1, she talks about the sociohistorical and sociocultural origins and subsequent development of the Black middle class and the paradox of trying to construct class-based and race-based identities through the use of language. Weldon masterfully explains this complex history, offering a concise and accessible introduction to the intersection of language and social class among African Americans.

Chapter 2 expands on the rationale for studying middle-class AAE (pp. 25–45). Weldon critiques the traditional focus on working-class AAE in sociolinguistics, particularly in Labov’s work, which often dismissed middle-class speakers as irrelevant to the study of vernacular language. Weldon argues that middle-class AAE warrants deeper investigation, as it provides valuable insights into linguistic variation across socioeconomic strata. Weldon outlines the structure of the book, which adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on media discourse analysis (chapter 3), autoethnography (chapter 4), survey analysis (chapter 5) and social psychology (chapter 6), and also contains a broader discussion on the implications and the findings in her research (chapter 7). This combination of methods allows her to examine the complexity of middle-class AAE from multiple angles, enhancing the depth of her analysis.

Chapter 3, ‘“Talking Black” as public performance: Not so lame’ (pp. 46–99), features African American public speakers’ linguistic agility and oratorical talents. Other works pursue celebrating public speakers in the African American middle class (see Alim & Smitherman Reference Alim and Smitherman2012). Still, this work is unique in that it highlights specifically how these speakers navigate ‘the linguistic push-pull’ and the construction of both ‘race-based and class-based identities’ on the public stage, while looking at the role that vernacular and other AAE features (grammatical, phonological, lexical and rhetorical) play in them through quantitative analytical methods. She demonstrates that little attention has been paid to the tension between the stigma of African American Vernacular English and the appeal of the Black rhetorical tradition. Therefore, her critical considerations for this media-discourse-analytical study were what kinds of AAE features get employed in public performances and what role awareness, salience and control play in selecting and using such features.

The chapter centers on the 2004 State of the Black Union (SOBU), an annual event organized by Tavis Smiley. By analyzing the language of six panelists, Weldon illustrates how middle-class African Americans employ AAE strategically to assert both racial and class identity. Her findings show that these speakers use vernacular features to maintain their connection to Black culture, while also navigating the expectations of a broader, often white, audience. This chapter is a key contribution to understanding how middle-class African Americans perform and negotiate their identities in public discourse. She calls on the reader and future researchers to consider how the stylized performances of the SOBU participants inform our understanding of intraspeaker variation. Her findings were that the salient vernacular features present (phonological, lexical, rhetorical) were strategic for the speakers to accomplish talking or sounding Black. It follows that African Americans from higher socioeconomic statuses tend to draw on vernacular to demonstrate that they are not out of touch with the broader Black culture to straddle the lines of in-group and out-group membership.

In chapter 4, ‘Language and double consciousness: A personal account’ (pp. 100–39), Weldon shifts to a more personal, autoethnographic narrative. She reflects on her own experiences with AAE and the concept of double consciousness, as articulated by W. E. B. Du Bois (Reference Du Bois1903, Reference Du Bois1967). Weldon introduces the characters of ‘Babs’ and ‘Biggie’ to represent her public and private personas, respectively. Babs is mainstream-oriented and often conforms to white cultural norms, while Biggie reflects her African American identity and the use of AAE in more intimate settings. Where Babs and Biggie collide is Weldon’s understanding of double consciousness, following W. E. B. Du Bois, and the ‘linguistic push-pull’, following Geneva Smitherman. This chapter offers a candid exploration of how Weldon navigates the tension between mainstream American English (MAE) and AAE. Using a risk-and-reward framework, she analyzes her speech from two perspectives: the risks associated with using vernacular in front of MAE speakers and the rewards of using AAE within the African American community. The author’s ability to incorporate QR codes linking to audio excerpts of her speech adds an innovative layer to her analysis, allowing readers to engage more deeply with the material. In this chapter, Weldon expertly speaks about her experiences casually and plainly so that the reader gains unique insight into her personal linguistic experiences; she thus offers an accessible and personal perspective on linguistic identity, as it is analogous to the double consciousness experience.

Chapter 5, ‘Race, class, and camouflaged divergence’ (pp. 140–78), addresses the divergence hypothesis, which suggests that AAE has evolved independently of MAE due to social isolation. Weldon contends that middle-class African Americans have largely been excluded from this debate; she argues that studying middle-class speakers is crucial for understanding linguistic divergence, as they are less socially isolated and more integrated into mainstream American culture. Studying this social stratification could provide a more complete picture of the ‘diachronic trajectory of AAE’ (p. 143).

To examine this, Weldon analyzed the use and interpretation of remote past, or stressed, BEEN and read, which are an aspectual marker and a particular discursive act, respectively, understood almost exclusively in the context of AAE as camouflaged forms. Remote past BEEN or stressed BIN marks events that occurred long ago or states that have existed for a long time. Whereas mainstream varieties tend to use an adverbial expression to communicate the remote past, AAE uses prosodic information, namely stress, to convey the same aspect. This is just one example of how the AAE tense, aspect and mood system significantly departs from mainstream varieties. Researchers like Arthur Spears (Reference Spears2017) even attest that because mainstream varieties do not historically use stress in this way, it would be unlikely that AAE developed this out of language change from MAE. The term read refers to the discursive act of chastising or verbally unmasking someone, somewhat comparable to ‘telling someone off’ in mainstream varieties. However, in AAE, it is done chiefly through indirect discourse.

Weldon takes these two camouflaged forms and performs a snowball sampling survey of participants listening to sound clips and selecting the meaning of the camouflaged form used in the audio clip. The results of this study showed divergent patterns of linguistic behavior between African Americans and European Americans, which can be observed at higher levels of the socioeconomic spectrum. European Americans remained largely unfamiliar with the remote past interpretation of BEEN, but can glean its meaning if given sufficient acoustic and contextual cues. African Americans seemed to be familiar with both of the interpretations.

An interesting finding was that African Americans with a Bachelor’s (BA) degree or higher seem to demonstrate a greater familiarity with AAE usage of BEEN and read than those without a degree. Weldon makes the important point that this could mean that African American participants with less than a BA took a more conservative approach to the study. She speculates that they may have been less inclined to demonstrate familiarity with these constructions deemed racially marked or non-mainstream (i.e. overt prestige). In contrast, those with a BA or higher might have felt more inclined to mark their Blackness by being familiar with these forms (i.e. covert prestige). Her findings reveal that African Americans with a BA degree or higher are more familiar with these linguistic forms than those with less formal education, suggesting that education level influences linguistic behavior within the African American community. Weldon’s analysis highlights the complexity of linguistic convergence and divergence among middle-class African Americans. She argues that both processes can coexist, and further research is needed to explore these dynamics in greater detail.

In chapter 6, Weldon turns to the perception of AAE and the attitudes associated with ‘Sounding Black’ (pp. 179–210). She conducts a language perception study with African American college students from South Carolina and Georgia, focusing on three varieties: Proper, Standard AAE and Gullah. The chapter includes audio samples accessible via QR codes, allowing readers to hear the different varieties under discussion. The study reveals that ‘sounding Black’ is a complex phenomenon, shaped by regional and social factors. While Weldon acknowledges that the findings may not be generalizable beyond the specific region studied, she argues that the study offers valuable insights into how African Americans perceive and evaluate different forms of speech within their community.

In the final chapter, ‘Looking ahead’ (pp. 211–29), Weldon reflects on the broader implications of her research and outlines potential areas for future study. She argues that class differences among African Americans have deepened the linguistic divide between working-class and middle-class speakers, creating a ‘linguistic push-pull’ that continues to shape AAE. Weldon explores how factors such as housing segregation, racial tensions and movements like Black Lives Matter may influence the future trajectory of middle-class AAE. She also suggests several areas for further research, including standard African American English, the notion of ‘sounding Black’, media representations of AAE and longitudinal studies of language use in African American communities. Weldon’s call for more research highlights the need for continued exploration of AAE in all its diversity, particularly among the middle class.

Tracey L. Weldon’s Middle-Class African American English is groundbreaking research that sheds light on a neglected area of sociolinguistic research. Her interdisciplinary approach, combining media discourse analysis, autoethnography and quantitative methods, provides a comprehensive overview of AAE use among middle-class African Americans. It challenges longstanding assumptions about AAE and demonstrates the importance of studying linguistic variation across socioeconomic strata. While some of her studies have limitations in terms of generalizability, Weldon consistently acknowledges these issues and provides thoughtful reflections on how they might be addressed in future research. Her work serves as a valuable starting point for scholars interested in exploring the intersection of race, class and language, and it opens up new avenues for understanding the linguistic behaviors of middle-class African Americans.

In sum, Middle-Class African American English is an essential contribution to the field of sociolinguistics, offering a nuanced and insightful analysis of a group that has long been overlooked, and her work will undoubtedly inspire further research and help reshape our understanding of AAE in the context of class and identity.