Why I Taught Proper Nouns Should Be Capitalized

One of the points Raspberry makes in his essay that the definition of being black is limited. Raspberry uses basketball for his first example. He writes, “If a basketball fan says that the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird (3-time NBA MVP and 12-time NBA all star) plays ‘black,’ the fan intends it—and Bird probably accepts it—as a compliment.” Raspberry (485). The author uses mild sarcasm in this passage to compare how people consume the word “black.” He continues, “But name one pursuit, aside from athletics, entertainment, or sexual performance in which a white practitioner will feel complimented to be told he does it ‘black.’ Tell a white broadcaster he talks black and he’ll sign up for diction lessons.” Raspberry (485). Raspberry compares these two situations to show the limitations. Yes, us blacks can bring

Johnson uses words like “disdainful”, “magnificent”, “pompous”, “incompetent”, “imitate”, “supercilious”, “arrogant,” “meed,” and bold to describe the Negro in Harlem and to show their ‘supercilious’ nature towards other cultures.

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.

The use of the term nigger can be used as a amicable greeting between two blacks, or as a “hideous pejorative” (Marriott 94) towards blacks. Marriott notes that the use of nigger is usually condoned and used by younger blacks as a “term of endearment” (98), in hopes to gradually alter the meaning of the word. Their goal is to normalize the usage of nigger between blacks to “dull its edge whenever whites use it” (Marriott 95). This has been proved somewhat efficient, as most whites dread the word and express feelings of disgust whenever it is heard from the mouth of whites. Many younger blacks believe their efforts are stimulating a progression in society, but older blacks and the majority of whites assert just the opposite- it illustrates “anything

¨Wait...Just wait¨; For years the only thing negros heard when segregation laws were brought up is to just wait. Martin Luther King Jr. was one who was constantly told to wait, that things were changing, that people were doing everything they could to make changes, and that they didn’t need him meddling in their business. In response to all of these claims King wrote “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” In this letter King addresses many of the issues related to the pace at which segregation laws are changing and how he can no longer just sit by idly and watch. In the text King uses a number of different rhetorical strategies to get his points and ideas across. King uses pathos to appeal to his audiences emotion to get them to see things from the negro point of view, ethos that really build his credibility and get his audience to really listen to him, and logos to appeal to people's logic and compare what is happening with the progression of segregation laws in other countries compared to the United States. Although King is in the minority and has far less people on his side he deploys the use of all of these strategies so beautifully and with so much character that it is almost impossible to not side with him.

In the midst of a long passage on black people in his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson (who sniffed that [Phyllis] Wheatley’s poetry was “below the dignity of criticism”) proposed that black inferiority- “in the endowment of both body and mind”- might be an unchangeable law of nature. (181)

Martin Luther King Jr. had written the Letter from the Birmingham Jail in 1963. King was a well-known minister-- particularly throughout the southern region, and a great advocate who fought non-violently for justice and equality for the Negro. The use of the word “Negro” sets the timeline. King used every approach from the Aristotelian appeal in order to seize the moment while writing this letter. Immediately, the use of the rhetorical tools of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos carried the words in his letter and credibly formed a discourse of morality, knowledge, and purpose. A valid, and credible argument was designed by using ethos-- for the most part in maintaining an assertive and persuasive tone, while simultaneously refuting the ideals of the opposing views and criticisms from the authority and his fellow white clergymen who also supposedly shared religious ideologies as Martin Luther King Jr.

The woman who raised and loved him did not know him any longer. This is one of many instances that illustrates the white society’s “lack of mercy and compassion” (22). Malcolm X blames whites for robbing his mother’s dignity, for separating his siblings, and for “disintegrating” his home and unity. Therefore, Malcolm X states he has no compassion for “a white society that will crush people” (22). The word “crushed” imparts the same horror he feels on the audience to illuminate the extremity of racism so that the audience can sympathize with his reasoned anger. Being called the ‘n-word’ in his life is another factor in Malcolm X’s belief that white society is demeaning to blacks. When Malcolm X told his English teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer, she replied, “That’s no realistic goal for a n-word” (118). The teacher’s statement is a clear portrayal of the widely accepted sentiment in that time period that African Americans are too incompetent to have good jobs and have ambitions. As a result, this incident deeply affected Malcolm X and has contributed to his disapproval of blacks being servile in a white society. Malcolm X appeals to the audience 's sense of horror and hatred by sharing his experiences in order for paint a more illuminated picture of racism.

Throughout the letter, King illustrates the struggles systematic racism have on the psyches on black people within the nation and how it propagates socioeconomic imbalances, “twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society,” (King #15) by the usage of vivid imagery King invites audiences, primarily white America to glimpse at the reality of black struggle insteading of purposefully veiling themselves in ignorance. Capturing emotional responses through short narratives involving his own children and life experiences to accomplish the set goal of creating a conversation of raw honesty for true change to occur on a judicial level, “see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky.” (King #15) Through wholeheartedly eliudiating segregation impact on the youth of the time King strikes a fundamental cord in audiences -- the impact institutionalized racism has on future generations and in turn the future of

-Old Negro" as "more myth than a man" and the blind acceptance of this "formula" against ideas of "the thinking Negro" and the true diversity of actual human beings

In 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr composed “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” when the African-Americans community was struggling for black and white equality. Readers can perceive this by the diction that Dr. King practices, like “Negro,” which was used around that time and still being used. One can also see through the context of his letter that Dr. King wants equality for the African-American community. Martin Luther King 's intention of writing this letter is trying to convince the clergymen that his “Community” and he demonstrated because it was necessary at that time. Meanwhile, he uses condemnatory and persuasive tone to attempt to influence the reader to agree with him. In this way, his message, in fact, served a three-part purpose:

The “new” negro no longer embodied “old” characteristics that defined a black man. Society had always taught a black man how to act; however, now he was adapting to the world. Locke declared that ‘the Old Negro’ had long become more of a myth than a man” (Locke, 1). A furthered and detailed definition of an “Old Negro” was that he “was a creature of moral debating historical controversy” (Locke, 1). The four

It is theorized that the phrase “angry Black man” is a social construct created during America’s Colonial period. It was supposedly used to negatively describe an African-American men who spoke out against what they considered to be an incongruous and xenophobic society and more specifically the institution of slavery. The phrase’s essence had been intentionally misconstrued. The three words together were said to have been used by whites as a dismissive tool; a method of sabotaging the validity of an outspoken Black man’s claims of an unjust and oppressive system. This was done in an effort to detract from the legitimacy of the outraged Black man’s cries of injustice. Purportedly, Abolitionist and Black male orators of the time were

“The Word “Nigga” Is Only for Slaves and Sambos” was written by Rob Nelson and first published in a university newspaper in North Carolina. Later on, the article was so meaningful that it was re-published in the academic journal, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. In the article “The Word “Nigga” is only for Slaves and Sambos”, Rob Nelson uses ethos, logos, and especially skillful pathos appeals based on the history of slavery and the illustration about the future of African American, to prove why he thinks the “N-word” is not acceptable. By using ethical argument and those clever appeals, Rob Nelson definitely persuades his young African American audience.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and