It has been known that Blacks who reside in predominantly whiteareas tend to pick up the local language, or “talkwhite,” in other words, pronounce every letter in aword. According to Mr. Samuel J. Vance, 48, “people,who speak well, tend to do better.”
With this belief, Vance has created his ownformula for success. On his website, TalkingGreen.com, hestates his mission: “To be an advocate for the acceptance ofwhatever tools are necessary so that Black Americans may obtain andmaintain the good life.” Vance has created tapes thatone can listen to and learn how to pronounce key words that areoften mispronounced. Vance says his product is designed for,”any one that reads, anyone that speaks, all Blacks. Ido not have a target market other than Black America.”
Vance first introduced the concept of”Talking Green” in his publication, Street Life, StreetHope. “For years some black people have told otherblack people that they were trying to excel verbally and that theywere talking ‘white,'” said Vance, “They were nottalking ‘white,’ they were talking in a way to get paidand the color of money is green.”
Vance believes that being able to “talkgreen” helps create a sense of equality. “When Icall about a job and they say that the job isn’t open, itreally isn’t,” Vance says of his own experiences of”talking green.”
“If I call about an apartment and theysay the apartment isn’t available, it reallyisn’t. If I call for reservations at a restaurant andthey say they have run out of tables, they really have. Onthe telephone, I have true equality because I ‘talkgreen.”
Vance has been researching his theory sincethe early 1990s and created his website last year. “What inspires me is as black people, we are the dominantminority in the United States,” said Vance. “Wehave unique distinction world wide because no other industrialnation has a racial minority with the resources that we have; weare very unique in that and I want to see Blacks utilize that totheir full extent.”
Vance feels that African Americans have cometo a point where they can exceed the expectations and breakbarriers if they know how to speak in a universal way.
“Black America is at a crossroads rightnow. We have an economy of $631 billion. We can get tothe trillion dollar mark,” he said. “Right now wehave a situation where Blacks can go to college and achieve ahigher level of education than ever before. It is importantto be able to get the education we need to be able to utilizeit.”
Part of blacks achieving a higher education,he feels is being able to speak properly. “My plans areto identify various other parts of strength that black America canutilize to get to the trillion.”
Vance believes strongly in his motto.
“The struggle is neverover. The movie never really finishes. There is onlyintermission.”
Vance feels that people assumethe Civil Rights struggle is over when in actuality
it has not.Vance was born inBoston, Massachusetts and attained an A.A. in Sociology and an A.A.in Liberal Arts from Rust College on Holly Springs,Mississippi. He also studied at the Kenyan ScienceTeacher’s College in Kenya, Africa. He now resides inOrange County, California with his wife and two children.