Comparison Of Yorkville Crossing : White Teens, Hip Hop, And African American English Written By Cecilia Cutler

The struggles of being an African American is not very well understood by the majority of the population. For hundreds of years, there every day challenges – that privilege people would not bad – have become their own normal. Many authors have taken it upon themselves to write about their experiences and to educate the public. They use different types of literary devices to reflect their true intentions. In James Baldwin‘s “Notes of a Native Son” and Brent Staples’ “Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Spaces,” the authors use language and punctuation to show their true emotion behind their words. The combination of syntax and diction allows Baldwin to develop his angry and bitter tone, in addition to Staples’ contrasting light-hearted tone.

The identity of the black man is the most crucial element attacked by black masculinity. Stemming from a limited variety of acceptable self expression, black masculinity emphasizes the need for an overly tough outer appearance while internally suppressing emotions of fear and sadness. These notions are particularly vivid in mainstream hip hop culture. In Byron Hurt’s Hip hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Hurt sits down with some of the industries most respected artist who attest that “anything nonhood will dilute [their] toughness.” Nonhood suggesting outwardly signs of affection, comfortability in the uprise of woman, and the dialogue and communication between Black brothers both verbal and nonverbal. These

From discussing his argument with a group of white people after they had attacked Samori to discussing his personal ideas of African-American education at his own high school, Coates uses personal experiences in order to make the reader empathize with him. He lacks, however, statistics, analogies, or many other forms of logos appeal in his argument. Furthermore, after his last reflection of the time when Samori was attacked, Coates expresses that he “came home shook” ( 23). While his use of modern slang may make him seem more relatable to teenagers, his intended audience consists mainly of parents who are far less likely to use slang themselves and who may see his use of it as seemingly unprofessional in comparison to his otherwise well-written letter, detracting from his ethos

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.”

In Richard Wright’s novel, Black Boy, Richard is struggling to survive in a racist environment in the South. In his youth, Richard is vaguely aware of the differences between blacks and whites. He scarcely notices if a person is black or white, and views all people equally. As Richard grows older, he becomes more and more aware of how whites treat blacks, the social differences between the races, and how he is expected to act when in the presence of white people. Richard, with a rebellious nature, finds that he is torn between his need to be treated respectfully, with dignity and as an individual with value and his need to conform to the white rules of society for survival and acceptance.

Henry is a model American teenager—and the prototypical consumer at which the hip-hop industry is squarely aimed, which has his parents sitting up in their seats. The music that was once the purview of black America has gone white and gone commercial all at once. A sea of white faces now rises up to greet rap groups as they perform, many of the teenagers like Henry, a NASCAR fanatic and self-described redneck (468)

In the essay, McBride’s logical appeals are used to help his purpose by using facts and examples to describe the rise of hip hop culture, and explain its significance based on more than just opinion. A particular instance of McBride making a logical appeal would be “In the mid-1970s, New York City

Many tragic events happen in this short story that allows the reader to create an assumption for an underlying theme of racism. John Baldwin has a way of telling the story of Sonny’s drug problem as a tragic reality of the African American experience. The reader has to depict textual evidence to prove how the lifestyle and Harlem has affected almost everything. The narrator describes Harlem as “... some place I didn’t want to go. I certainly didn’t want to know how it felt. It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality” (Baldwin 60). Another key part in this story is when the narrator and Sonny’s mother is telling the story of a deceased uncle. The mother explains how dad’s brother was drunk crossing the road and got hit by a car full of drunk white men. Baldwin specifically puts emphasis on the word “white” to describe the men for a comparison to the culture of dad and his brother.

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.

Why was Crane apparently so committed to replicating the dialect and discussing the abysmal family life of working-class immigrants in the Bowery in 1880s/1890s NYC?

The decade of hip-hop is what some may call it. Tupac, Naz, Biggie Smalls, as well as other artists, were major contributions. Not only for the people who are trying to find their footing, but Buck as well. Throughout the book various lyrics were embedded in order to create a better understanding for its readers. In addition, this book is based upon a 90s lifestyle within Philadelphia, which included drugs, gang activity, crime, hip-hop, and havoc. Malo was directly in the center of everything, the girls, the fights, the guns. His experiences shed light towards what it’s like to as an African American individual living in or near the hood. Not everyone realizes what people go through while living there, but now it gives some readers an image of what goes on. Though times have changed, not all previous feelings

“Education in our country is the social service equivalent of Katrina. Part of the challenge that we face in this nation is that we have to confront the fact that we have systems that are designed essentially to fail kids,” states Geoffrey Canada in his address at the Social Justice Leadership Conference (Newport, 2011). Canada has an innate ability to blatantly state the problems facing communities in this country. However he is not just talking; he is doing something about it.

Nella Larsen was one of the few female American writers that were part of the Harlem Renaissance. Due to her success in both her novels Quicksand and Passing she was the first African American woman to receive the Guggenheim award in 1930. The novels took place in the late 1920’s; it focuses on the lives of African American women and their struggle of acceptance in society. In finding their own identity through race, class, and gender these two novels Quicksand and Passing show the struggles and misguiding of how African American women faced during the Harlem Renaissance.

     Richard Wright's novel Black Boy is not only a story about one man's struggle to find freedom and intellectual happiness, it is a story about his discovery of language's inherent strengths and weaknesses. And the ways in which its power can separate one soul from another and one class from another. Throughout the novel, he moves from fear to respect, to abuse, to fear of language in a cycle of education which might be likened to a tumultuous love affair.

The term ‘hip-hop’ refers to a complex culture compromising of four elements: deejaying, rapping, rhyming, graffiti painting, and b-boying. These elements incorporate hip-hop dance, style, and attitude. “Hip-hop originated in the primarily African American economically depressed South Bronx section of New York City in the late 1970s” (Tate, pg.1). Hip-hop is a culture of fashion, language, music, movement, visual art and expression. The genre of hip-hop comes with a very significant history and evolution with its own heroes, legends, triumphs and downfalls. “Real” hip-hop is often stressed in the 21st century due to what is being passed off as hip hop, and it is often made clear that just because one takes a hip hop class, or listens to hip-hop music, does not mean they conform to the true immersion of hip-hop culture. Therefore, “real” hip-hop encapsulates the true essence of hip-hop culture, untarnished by impurities such as rapacious record labels, and vapid, materialistic subject matter. Due to the background of how and where hip-hop first emerged, the African American culture often feel responsible to protect what is for them, and to protect the culture of hip-hop entirely. Boyd states that even though hip-hop as a culture was created as a social movement, the “commercializaiton” of hip-hop demonstrated in film and media construes it to another form of urbanization and popularity”(Boyd, 79). However, in the two movies being examined in this essay (Save the Last Dance