Black English

In the article, If Black English isn’t a language, then tell me, what is, James Baldwin talks about the use of language. He breaks down the use of language to serve two audiences. He emphasizes that, “language evolves to describe or control a circumstance” (Baldwin, 1979). There may be a common language, but how people dictate the vocabulary is what makes it distinctive between communities. Black English serves the same purpose as any other language. It supports, evolves, and protect community or

which many people are judged. As black students we have a right to speak our language, however, that right is denied when we try to enter mainstream America because our language is not acceptable in the business setting. In some cases, students of color are looked down upon because we speak nonstandard English and we are not capable of speaking standard American English in school or in mainstream America. Because many of us lack the use of standard American English, we become victims of discrimination

With this being stated throughout the studies of Black English, one cannot attain that Black English is flat out racist either. The use of dialect sets a distinguishing setting throughout a story. Without dialect the reader may be lost or confused about where the story may be taking place and what initially is going on at

contributed to the “common” language used today. “Each has paid, and is paying a different price for this “common” language, in which, as it turns out, they are not saying, and cannot be saying, the same thing.” (Baldwin) In the following essays; “If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” and “Learning To Read and Write” mirrors the cultural feelings of education and learning dilemmas,

"Black English" Another Way to Classify Humans "To open your mouth … You have confessed your parents, your youth, your school, your salary, your self-esteem, and alas, your future ". After reading the two essays, "From Outside, In" by Barbara Mellix and "If Black English Isn't a Language Then Tell Me, What Is?" by James Balwin, I came to realize a few things one of them being that the way we speak, is a means of identifying somebody's culture and background. Much in how a license can tell a person

to use black English in this play personally helped me understand the play and the tone of the play a lot better than I would have if he would have decided to not use black English in this play. Black English helped develop the play and the characters’ voices because it showed the struggles of Black Americans and gave them an authentic voice. Wilson’s plays are almost always realistic and have to do with everyday people in everyday situations. The majority of Wilson’s characters are black so their

In the following readings “How homophobia hurts everyone”, Blemenfield W.J, “Black English/ Ebonics: What It be like?” Smitherman G “Asian American Exclusion and Segregation”, Spring J, “, “Ex-slaves and the Rise of Education in the South”, Anderson J and “Bilingual Education Works”, Stephen Krashen they all have a similar theme. The occurring theme that I got from the readings was how the dominant groups of society want to keep their power. The dominant group will go to the extreme to keep their

love because she engages them so thoroughly. The students had broadened their horizons by learning the differing contexts of English; this lead to the conundrum of which dialect should they chose to represent themselves, but words possess the power to sway ones opinions, to initiate a change in how something is viewed. Even though I do not feel the use of the “black English” was a bad idea, I do feel that their choice of words set an extremely negative tone for their statement. For instance, the heading

“If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” (1979), the author insinuates that the argument about language is not the true debate, but how language reveals the speaker. Baldwin presents this argument through examples of countries with similar languages that are completely different as well as correlations between whites and blacks. Baldwin claims that instead of focusing on the “black language”, the root of this language has been at times discarded and used against the blacks. Baldwin’s

Standard English was established so that every person of the English origin could speak on one accord of understanding and comprehensiveness. However, fast forwarding to the modern day world, English varies in many cases. Standard English, Broken English, Black English (known as slang), etc... Speaking in any other English besides Standard English you are known to be grammatically and educationally incorrect. Standard English is taught in the classroom but does not prepare for real life world experiences