The Black Side of the River

Reviews
"In The Black Side of the River, Jessi Grieser combines careful sociolinguistic analysis with impressive argumentation about the nature of race and place in urban America, all conveyed in a vivid, accessible style. The book is bursting at the seams with telling details from the linguistic practices of Black residents in Washington, DC's Anacostia neighborhood, creating a richly rendered portrait of lived experiences in a rapidly shifting cityscape."—Ben Zimmer, language columnist for the Wall Street Journal



"Grieser's The Black Side of the River is one of the most thoroughly socio-linguistic books I've seen. The perspectives of community members are generously represented, and the author's theorizing about social factors is unusually rich. This book may well establish place identity, and its intersections with race and class, as the most promising perspective from which to understand sociolinguistic variation in many communities. I can think of several to which it would very well apply."—John R. Rickford, Stanford University, coauthor of Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English, and author of Variation, Versatility and Change in Sociolinguistics and Creole Studies



"The Black Side of the River presents a much-needed Black-centered approach to linguistic discourses about race and place. The book deftly illustrates the impact of gentrification on identity and language. Grieser expands our knowledge about the linguistic expression of gentrification and introduces a fresh perspective on the sociolinguistic concept of displacement as expressed through linguistic style."—Anne H. Charity Hudley, professor of education, African and African American studies, and linguistics, Stanford University



"Jessica Grieser weaves a vivid intersectional tapestry of language and life among residents in DC's Anacostia neighborhood, drawing upon historical evidence, extensive interviews, and a keen sense of place in sociological and geographic terms where rivers frame literal and metaphorical dividing lines in a city built by slaves that is now occupied by their proud descendants."—John Baugh, professor of linguistics and African and African American studies, Washington University