James Baldwin, in his essay "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?," wants readers to understand that, even if a language has a different "dialect" from its "common" form, it is still a valid language. The language in dispute here being "Black English". Baldwin presents various arguments to solidify his points. Baldwin touches upon the point how a language "evolves" to form different versions of the same language. He cites the example of how a "Frenchman in Paris" would have an abstruse time comprehending what a man from Marseilles or Quebec is saying.…
In the essay “If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”, James Baldwin argues that languages evolve based on the environments in which they are spoken. Baldwin claims that, “people evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances [...] [People from different regions] are not saying, and cannot be saying, the same things: They each have very different realities to articulate” (1). Essentially, people's environments play a large role in the way they speak their language. The different areas in which a language is spoken all have different environmental and circumstantial factors that need to be described Inhabitants of each of these areas must be able “articulate” what they see and experience in…
To be honest I find It a little offensive and discriminatory to categorize the African-American language as being a language of its own. Why not call it informal language instead of categorizing it as African-American language or Ebonics? I do not hear this language coming only from African-Americans, but I also hear it from Latinos. I do not have a problem with teaching children the standard English, but I think that Ebonics is profiling the African-American culture. The teacher’s technique when working on translating Ebonics into standard English is a good way to teach students how to use standard English; however, it should not be categorized as African-American language. It should be categorized as an incorrect use of English. Of course,…
How would one feel if one were violently taken from home to a backwards place one would never understand? Aminata experienced these events first hand, which she conveys in her memoir. In this story The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, she tells the story of her life. From how she was taken from her village of Bayo in Africa, where she enjoyed freedom, lived with dignity, and shipped across the 'big river’, as a slave, to the thirteen colonies now known as the United States America. Aminata experiences grief and hardship, Anger and joy, and a fiery determination to get back home. In this compelling story, Aminata grows in various ways as she deals with slavery, discrimination, and the loss of her family.…
| Most of the people I know including myself waste so much food. Reading this section of the book made me realize how hard they had it and how hard I was to find food especially if you didn’t have money. I personally feel so ungrateful because I can’t eat fruit if it’s bruised but here are these people eating almost spoiled tomatoes.…
Summary of James Baldwin's article If Black English isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? In his article "If Black English isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?", published in the New York Times on July 29, 1979, James Baldwin challenges the contemporary assumption among speakers of standard American English that the way black people speak is uneducated and therefore black children should be forced to speak "proper English". He argues that rather than labelling Black English as a low register variety of "proper English", people should recognize it as a language of its own and allow black children to continue using it. He claims that the way people talk reveals and forms a major part of their identity.…
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 proves that Black English represents African American's identity, and how the language should be taught in schools.…
Amy Tan’s story “Mother Tongue” starts by the affirmation that she is not a scholar of English or literature. She is just a writer and the person who understand the power of language. From Tan’s observations from her daily life, she realizes that there are different types of English that she uses. The first time Tan notices the difference is when she gives a speech on her book “The Joy Luck Club” using academic English, the one that she never uses to talk with her mother. The second time is when Tan talked using “fractured” English unconsciously with her mother when walking down the street. After that, Tan recalls her memories from her early age: the phone call for her mother to the stockbroker, the meeting with a doctor in the hospital for her mother’s CAT scan result to demonstrate her mother’s realization of “limited” English. Then Tan agrees with the idea that language spoken in…
James Baldwin was an African American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. Born August 2, 1924, in New York City, James soon became one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He created the new literacy ground with his examination of racial and social issues, in many of his writings. Mr. Baldwin was born to Emma Jones at Harlem Hospital. He never knew of his biological father, but he had a stepfather to come into his life at the age of three. Against their strained relationship, James decided to follow in his stepfather’s footsteps and served as the youth minister at the Harlem Pentecostal Church. In those three years Baldwin…
In the beginning Locke tells us about “the tide of Negro migration”. During this time in a movement known as the Great Migration, thousand of African Americans also known as Negros left their homes in the South and moved North toward the beach line of big cities in search of employment and a new beginning. They left the South because of racial violence such as the Ku Klux Klan and economic discrimination not able to obtain work. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves as Locke said best From The New Negro, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many African Americans moved to Harlem, a neighborhood located in Manhattan. Back in the day Harlem became the world’s largest black community; also home to a diverse mix of cultures. Having extraordinary outbreak of inspired movement revealed their unique culture and encouraged them to discover their heritage; and becoming "the New Negro,” Also known as “New Negro Movement,” it was later named the Harlem Renaissance.…
James states in his Autobiographical Notes, “I have not written about being a Negro at such length because I expect that to be my only subject, but only because it was the gate I had unlocked before I could write about anything else”. Baldwin’s interpretation of African American life is very dissimilar from Walker’s. I will compare and contrast Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” to Walker’s “Everyday Use” in order to show each authors unique ways of relating what Baldwin calls “ambiguity and irony of Negro life”. In other words “merely a Negro; or, even merely a Negro writer” (1)…
At the time, it was understood that “cultural deprivation” was causing black New York City children to underperform in English tests at school. However, Labov argued that the children were not limited in grammar and did not have poor verbal skills, he believed that their dialect was different rather than inferior to white middle class English. He suggested that previous research had misrepresented and misunderstood the children, as research normally involved a white middle class male asking the children questions which would appear “strange” to them. In Labov’s study, effort was taken to make the participants feel relaxed. Furthermore, interviews were carried out by a black male researcher who knew the children’s area well and had some knowledge about the children’s interests.…
I decided to write about how the English language is used in African American literature. Most of the stories that we read out of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature had Ebonics. When you look up African American literature the term Ebonics automatically comes up with it. They defined it to be English for African Americans, Black English, or what they call “black speech” (a blend of the words ebony “black” and phonics “sounds”). I will be explaining what African American Language is, who created it, and also how it is used differently now than it was when it first originated.…
The separation of African American dialect, written by Paul Dunbar, created a common language for the black community and a message to decode for the white community. Paul Dunbar comprised about half of his poems using dialect of his ethnicity, which resembled a strength of his. “The Old-Front Gate” began with “wh’n daih’s chillun in de house/dey keep on a-gettin’ tall” (1-2). A first time reader would find the language extremely confusing based upon the choppy grammar; however, to an African American it would indicate a sense of comfort. “A Back-Log Song” expressed “den dey tuk hit to de big house an’ dey piled de wood erroun’/in de fiah-place f’om ash-flo’ to de flue” (5-6).…
In 1979, an African-American writer by the name of James Baldwin wrote that “language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity.” Baldwin claims that language is a crucial component in the attainment of power. It is also what identifies a person in regards to character and placement in society. This view on how language affects humanity is just.…