ABSTRACT
While there are many African-American terms which describe various forms of social face, perhaps the most widespread cultural concept which both critiques and symbolizes its construction is the notion of being cool (current and trend
setting, calm, detached, yet in control} in any situation (cf. Major 1994; Smitherman 1994). Gwaltney (1981: 143) pays tribute to the cultural value of this social stance in his description of one of his community contributors, Nancy White: "She is the exemplar par excellence of the highest status that core black culture can accord - that of the cool, dealing individual." Rapper Kool Moe Dee, in his 1991 hit "How kool can one black man be?", also provides insight into this cultural concept:
But cool ain't a mood/ It's an attitude dude/ It's a tone/ It's a tempo/ A mind set/ A rhythm/ Lifestyle/ Religion! It's just how ya' livin'/ I'm righteously cool! While here and hereafter/ I'm so cool! That I have to ask ya'/ How cooH/ How cooH/ How cool can one black man bell
(Dewese 1991)
In a cultural sense, a cool face is the ability to act on symbolic incidents and subtle varieties of cultural practice with eloquence, skill, wit, patience, and precise timing. Though some scholars and artists have tied African Americans' reverence of a cool social face to racism and/or male coping skills (Abrahams 1962; Grier & Cobbs 1968; Horton 1972; Kunjufu 1986; George 1992; Majors and Billson 1992), it is clear that coolness is mainly a cultural practice (cf. Smitherman 1977; Gwaltney 1981) used by both men and women and having counterparts in all parts of the African Diaspora and Africa (Alleyne 1980, 1989; Yankah 1995).2 It exists in contrast to fools or acting a fool, a cultural insult which both denigrates and dismisses a person as a cultural member. Mabel Lincoln describes this type of outcast:
To black people like me, a fool is funny - you know, people who love to break bad, people you can't tell anything to, folks that will take a shotgun to a roach. ( ... ) But most of us try to be cool. That is what we respect the most in ourselves and look for in other people. That means being a person of sober, quiet judgement.
