Differences in communication and interaction styles of groups defined as literate and those defined as oral are discussed. (RM)

This paper is one of a series examining language and interactional patterns of white and black Americans manifested in cultural contexts. It considers the relative impact of the power or status differential on selective perceptions, attitudes and speech behavior where power difference is crucial to the communicative process. (CHK)

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

People fail to communicate because they fail to read accurately the cultural signs that each person is sending. This consistently produces bewilderment, and often feelings of anger, frustration, and pain. Communication becomes virtually impossible when people not only operate from different cultural codes, but are unaware that different codes are…