Is Everything All Right?

Dear Readers,

According to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, the idiomatic expression "all right" is used in familiar speech as a detached phrase.  It means "Agreed?" or "Go ahead," or "O.K."
 It is properly written as two words.  Lately I have heard this expression broken down to
 "a'  'ight?"  Have you?

Example:  On the TV show "Army Wives,"  psychologist Dr. Roland Burton's adopted son's birth father needs to leave the area and return to Chicago.  This man says to his son, "When I get back, we'll do things right.  A'  'ight?" 

Example:  Dr. Burton himself says, "He'll be a'  'ight."

Example:  New York Hawks football player T.K. on the show "Necessary Roughness" said,
"You'll be a'  'ight."

Example:  In the episode "Old Wounds" of the TV show "Blue Bloods," Police Commissioner Frank Reagan is talking with Jordan, the young black man who won the Commissioner for a Day contest.  Jordan is upset because his mother's murder case has never been closed.  He wonders aloud how fast the case would be closed if it were the Commissioner's wife.  Reagan tells him, "It got closed pretty quick.  She died of cancer."  Jordan responds, "A'  'ight.  Sorry."

Example:  Young singer/songwriter Avery Barkley on TV's "Nashville" meets with record producer Dominic Wells who wants to promote him.  Wells suggests that Avery come to Atlanta to work together and Avery agrees.  Wells says, "A' 'ight, that's my man."

Example:  Every time that Steve Harvey's TV talk show is aired, one will undoubtedly hear him say, "A' 'ight." at least once.

My first thought was that this must be a black colloquial phrase until I noticed many different types of characters using it.

Example:  In the 2000 film "Gone in 60 Seconds,"  Nicholas Cage plays car thief Memphis Raines.
Memphis and his brother Kip have ducked into an eatery where a police car is parked outside.  Memphis calls out, "Look!  Cop car.  Un hunh.  Long as I'm in here, you're just gonna sit out there, aren't ya?  A' 'ight?"

Example:  Vince Masuka, one of Miami Dade's forensics lab geeks on TV's "Dexter," says to one of the detectives, "If I'm getting shit-handed and you know something about it, just give me
a heads up, a' 'ight?"

Example:  On "Law and Order:  SVU,"  New York detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson are eating Chinese food at the precinct one night while they do some research.  As Elliot leaves, he tells her, "I'm taking the egg roll."  She responds, "A' 'ight."

For the next three examples, it's Matthew McConaughey who says this expression as three different characters in three different movies.  It made me wonder if it's just a Matthew McConaughey colloquialism or did all three writers include this for his characters. 

Example:  In "The Lincoln Lawyer," released in 2011, Matthew plays attorney Michael Haller.
As he is being chauffeured in his Lincoln Town car, they are surrounded by a gang of bikers.  His chauffeur asks him what to do.  Haller says, "A' 'ight, pull over up here."

Example:  "Dallas Buyers Club" is a true story that takes place circa 1985.  Matthew's character Ron Woodruff says several times throughout the movie, "A' 'ight."

Example:  Matthew plays Willis Newton who, with his brothers, robs banks in the early 1920s in the film "The Newton Boys" (released 1998).  They are about to rob two banks at once when Willis gives these orders:  "Jess, you go with Glass, Dock, you come on with me, and Joe, you're soldiering the whole damn street.  A' 'ight?"  *What I found interesting is that after he asks them, "What do you say?"  Dock says, "O.K." and Jess says, "All right."  I think it really is a Matthew McConaughey thing.

In conclusion, I must ask, Is it a' 'ight to use this expression when you mean to say "all right?"
I think I will continue to use the latter term, if it's all right with you.