Quotes

This blog entry from Mary Mitchell of the Sun Times is pretty interesting. She bemoans the literal quote attributed to a woman (presumably of color) who was quoted as saying:

"I am on my way. I am fittin' to move," said Wasp, who grew up in Altgeld and is raising a 10-year-old son there. "To me it's like the devil's playground. It's where everybody come and do they dirt. I want to get my son out of here."

Now, the comments in response to her post are more militant about this, but she's a little upset over this type of quote. She would rather have reporters "clean up" the English to not negatively portray the person.

It's the idea of the story being more important than the characters in it, especially such a "trivial" thing as what this person talks like.

Personally, I could care less about this. But it brings me back to the issue of quoting or translating things that athletes say in the paper. Sammy Sosa was quoted literally and there was an outcry because it made him sound dumb. He isn't, but that's what we think of when we hear someone say stuff like "fittin' to," even if they aren't.

Which is on us, not the reporters quoting the source.