Analysis Of Incident By Countee Cullen

Cullen is hopeful to get to a place where people of different races will be able to look at others without prejudice and discrimination. However, the poem “Incident” is of a less positive tone. She expresses her experience in a shocked manner, saying, a boy stuck his “tongue out and, called, [her] ‘Nigger’,” (Cullen 8). She was so shocked that “From May until December; .../… of all the things that happened... /… that’s all [she could remember” in Baltimore (Cullen 10-12). At the young age that she was at, it is surprising and upsetting to her to be discriminated against for no reason.

English is the standard language of America. In the essay “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future Life of Willie Jordan” by June Jordan, Jordan demonstrates and confirms that Black English represents African Americans’ identity, and how the language should be taught. June Jordan, examines the black dialect in United States and evaluates the pros and cons that normal language can have on those who speak black english. Jordan believes if that a specific language of a race is not recognized, then the race, identity and authority as a one are ignored. June Jordan begins the essay by introducing a course she had taught “In Search of the Invisible Black Woman.” She commits most of the essay to describing her personal experience in this college course as well as a different one, “The Art of Black English.”

With a background affected tremendously by the dark history of African Americans, language has become a significant problem to what the term Black English really means to different people. In If Black Language Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is, James Baldwin attempts to analyze what a language really means and how Black English evolved to fulfill an important role for Americans. Black English sounds proper to blacks, but to whites it may not be a proper use of language. Throughout this essay, Baldwin uses a specific tone and relates to his audience by opening his mind to both emotion and logic while still upholding his credibility. Baldwin tries to persuade the audience to respect the language of Black English using his personal experience. The history of different languages mentioned in the essay is used to help convince the audience of thinking about the term language from a new perspective. Whites and Blacks both may speak the same language, but that does not mean that they understand each other because the language can be spoken in different matters. As Baldwin states, “The white man could not possibly understand, and that, indeed, he cannot understand, until today”. A white man or black man had to be careful about the words they used in front of each other because some words would be considered offensive for one another. Baldwin uses African American language and culture to reveal the impact that the English language Americans use has created.

Analysis: By utilizing a rhetorical question, the author brings attention to the complicated issue of race and causes the reader to stop and think for a moment about

Throughout the poem Incident by Countee Cullen, the author uses the change of tone to reflect the ideas and purpose of the Harlem Renaissance. Throughout the poem, the tone changes from the young child being thrilled about arriving to a heartbreaking memory. In the poem, cullen writes “Once riding in old Baltimore? Heart-filled, head filled with glee/ I saw a Baltimorean/ Keep looking straight at me/ Now I was eight and very small,/ And he was no whit bigger,” (lines 1-6). In this part of the poem, the child had just recently arrived in Baltimore and is more than excited to be in a different place other than in the plantations. He’s very optimistic about meeting someone whom he thought would be his friend. The tone explains how during the Harlem

Speech is often associate with race because some individuals believe that if the person does not sound “educated” enough the person comes from a lower class and was brought up in the so called “ghettos” and this association is often made towards someone that forms part of a minority group. The author illustrates that race is tight up with speech

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

As a young child, I lived life colorblind, unable to grasp the concept of race or skin color. Growing up in Florida as the only Asian in my elementary school and never being bullied for being different, I assumed everyone was white, including me. But then came that earth-shattering epiphany: I realized I wasn’t white. I started to notice that not every supermarket sold Pocky or bubble tea and that it’s not common to get money in shiny, red envelopes on New Year’s. I realized that not everyone knew how to use chopsticks, that not everyone ate rice with every meal, and that when some people spoke slowly to me, it’s not because they were trying to articulate, but because they thought I didn’t understand English.

In the civilized society that everyone lives in today, all languages and culture should be equal. That is the main idea in both Gloria Anzaldua’s essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, as well as James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”. The authors in both these texts support their argument in various ways, and in doing so, manages to effectively persuade their audience. The ways that each author approaches their argument is different in their appeals, evidence, and styles. Similarities also exist between the texts of the two authors. The rhetorical strategies that Anzaldua uses makes her argument much stronger than Baldwin’s argument.

The first virtue of racial recognition asserts that a virtuous agent shouldn’t be blind to race. For many their racial identity is an integral part of their identity and should be valued. This doesn’t mean that we should recognize a person’s race as their central and defining feature, but that we should acknowledge and appreciate it in appropriate ways (i.e. their cultural background can offer new perspectives and diversity).

Allport, Gordon. “The Language of Prejudice.” Language Awareness. Ed. Paul Eschholz. Alfred Rosa. Virginia Clark. Boston: Bedford St. Martin, 2013. 324-333. Print.

Richard Wright uses language in his novel, Black Boy, as a source to convey his opinions and ideas. His novel both challenges and defends the claim that language can represent a person and become a peephole into their life and surroundings. Richard Wright uses several rhetorical techniques to convey his own ideas about the uses of language.

Tom discovers his real identity which changes his life drastically. He is finally aware of the fact that he is not white and it become noticeable in various ways. “It was the ‘nigger’ in him asserting its humility, and he blushed and was abashed. And the ‘nigger’ in him was surprised when the white friend put out his hand for a shake with him” P.56 Tom’s behavior is innate and raises the question of nature and nurture, and racial heritage.

Furthermore, the researchers divide white racial consciousness into two: achieved and unachieved. A person who has achieved white racial consciousness has explored and developed some sort of belief system when it comes to racial issues. Conversely, those with unachieved white racial consciousness have not grasped their own racial identity and its link to other minority groups, which may stem from either intentionally avoiding dialogue surrounding race or depending on family members to form an ideology. In his book Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Bell argues that this relatively loose grasp of white racial identity creates an environment that serves a significant detriment to advancing racial progress in the country, as “few white people are able to identify with blacks as a group –the essential prerequisite for feeling empathy with, rather than aversion from, blacks’ self-inflicted suffering” (Bell, 4).

Another example of how home language or race has impacted children and families is in a classroom that shows in group bias. In group bias towards the groups in which people are members (Patterson & Bigler, 2006). What could happen in an instance such as this is as the children become more aware of societal norms that favor certain groups over others, they will often show a bias toward the socially privileged group (Winkler, 2009). A study showed that children of color as young as five years old show evidence of being aware of, and negatively impact by sterotypes about their racial group (Hirschfeld, 2008). This is evident in a classroom where the children start taking on the bias role of the teacher. In a classroom, children are questioning the skin color of another child. Instead of the teacher stopping to talk about how we are all the same, just different colors, the teacher ignores it. This silence will force children to come up with their own biases, prejudices and assumptions about races other than their own.